National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-11-09
PUTTRE WORKLNGMEN TO WOI

= Z L LII W OLAAL-l O4ALLN L " W Jim.
Now that the peans and the regrets over
the victories and defeats of last week have
in a measure died away, and that the causes
and influences which operated toward the
one end and the other begin TO be taken
into consideration; that the two great po-
litical parties which have so long divided
the country and promise to divide it for
some years TO come are looking to the fu-
ture, it will be wise in the Republican lead
ers to calmly glance into the immediate
past and if possible seek out and remedy
the evils which have brought the party to
full Of our journals, the more sober and less
enthusiastic of the party leaders on both
sides, unite in the opinion that the hard
times have had more to do with the re-
verses of the Republican party than the
hard knocks it received either in Congress,
in the newspapers or on the stump. When
Congress met last December the country
was staggering under the effects of the
panic of the preceding September. For
nearly two months the PROSTATE industries
Of the country had been anxiously awaiting
Its meeting in the expectation that with it
would come an end 10 the suffering and
distress that were felt upon every hand. If
the reader will go back to the newspapers
Of the day he will find that the President
was urged to call Congress together in ad-
vance of its regular time of meeting; but
he did not do so, and when the hour of
final adjournment came, in the early days
Of the following summer, the sum and sub
stance of its work only showed the wisdom
of the course he saw fit to pursue.
The winter and the spring were all
wasted in idle talk and discussion in the
airing Of all manner of crazy theories by
all manner Of speculative, impractical men,
the majority Of whom ought to have been
sent to the insane asylums. We had COM
mittees and delegations of merchants and
bankers from the North and the South
doctrinnaires by the hundred, and men with
patent financial schemes by the thousand
The result, as we said, was that nothing
was done; that the fall and the campaigns
of October and the present November
came only TO find nearly two hundred of
our railroad companies in default of their
interest the farmers dissatisfied; nearly
half the mills of New England and the
iron furnaces Of Pennsylvania closed, or
running on One-fourth time Mechanics
and wOrkingmen were brought face to face
with the rigid terrors of winter, without
bread for their families, a dollar in their
pockets, or the prospect Of dollar. No
body can deny that such is the actual situa-
ton to-day in every section of the country.
All trade is at "a standstill industry is dead
adversely and poverty confront ninety per
rent. Of the community without the slight
est prospect of relief What wonder that
the elections have gone against the party
In power! No matter whether or not the
party in power is or is not justly response
bic for it. Whenever a similar condition
of affairs has existed in this country, the party
having charge Of the Government has been
held accountable, and all attemptto explain |
it away only tends to aggravate and make
matters worse. Such is the situation in |
which the Republican party is now placed, |
and if it closes its eyes upon the fact and |
gropes around for the reasons Of disaster in |
mere sentiment and side issues, and does not |
remedy the errors that have been made the
revolution which has just taken place will
be followed by another one, and another to
which the present is a mere street brawL.
The Republican party can be made
Stronger before the country by 1876 than
ii has been for years, if it will only see and
seize the opportunity within its grasp dur
ing the next three months. But if it shall
persist in going on as it has been going,
when the next election comes there will be
enough left of it to call a conven-
ton or make nominations 1t will not do,
as some Of our contemporaries and leaders
are whispering and suggesting, to stand
still and give the Opposition, flushed with |
success and victory, rope enough. That is
a frail and slender thread, and the mistake |
may be made once too often. If the Re
publican party would live, it must give the
country some policy besides the old, worn !
and threadbare one of years ago. The |
agriculturists, the mechanics and the labor |
ers Of the republic are idle, or next to idle, |
and they demand relief 1t is for the party |
in power to say how that relief shall come. |
They are tired Of listening to mere plati- |
tudes in Congress about government; they |
want work, and they hear an Opposition |
party, which planned and plotted the de- |
struction of the nation fourteen years ago, |
telling them that the only way they can OBJ
tam that work is by sending it back to the |
control of the Government. Is the Repub- |
lican party ready TO admit this? As but
three months will bring the answer, the
whole end and aim of legislation, from the
time Congress meets in December until it
adjourns in March, without recess or holi.
day amusements, should be to relieve the
industries of the country at whatever risk
Dr. sacrifice. The watchword of the hour
should be, 'Put the Workingmen to
Work.