Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-09-02
Shall We Vote Away Prosperity !?

whether the horde of INSCRIPTIONS and
hungry office-seekers can so delude or
defraud the people that the majority
shall vote, or seem to vote, for that
which the majority does not want.
The ofice-SeekerS have not the shadow
of decent excuse for demanding "a
change" They are out of Office and
want to get into Office. That is the be-
ginning and the end of it. They say that
there is corruption to be cleared away /,
and yet four years of perpetual Demo-
cratic investigation have only served to
make plain the fact that this is the
cleanest Administration that the country
has seen for fifty years. Their excuse is
shallow. A set of hungry otfice-beg-
gars, inexperienced in public service
and chosen because of political work,
cannot reform a service which is already
far above the average in efficiency and
purity. The oflice-seekerS say, again,
that Democrat ought to be chosen now
because, they assert, another one was
chosen four years ago, but not inaugu-
rated. If the assertion were true, as it
is false, that would be no reason for
making an unwise change to-day. The
people would be Supremely foolish to ex-
pose all their industries to peril now,
because somebody failed four years ago
| 70 ,ro+ ol5 10 ol, ha ol oil : ha4
he was elected.
"A change" would please the office
seekers who are out and want to get in.
But it would not help the producers of
this country, who are prosperous and
want to remainiso; it would not help the
merchants, who have within reach a
safe and healthy business if the finances
can remain undisturbed; nor would 1t
help the workingmen, who now have
ample employment and good wages, and
cannot afford to have everything upset
by new financial experiments. 1t is
| true there are wOrkmen, merchants and
manufacturers who will vote against
their own real interests, either because
of ignorance, or because of thOughtless-
ness, or because of intense party spirit,
which makes them indifferent to their
own good, or because of the tricks of
false politicians. The hungry Office
beggarS will deceive the plain people if
they can. Night and day they are strug-
Cling and plotting to make the people
believe that prosperity has come with
out any Republican aid, and will stay if
the Republicans are deprived of power.
Night and day they are circulating the
most shameless falsehOods, in order to
make people believe that the country is
in danger unless the Republican candi-
dates and party can be defeated. The
question is whether the people, under
the influence of such falSehOods, will
vote away the prosperity which they
enjoy.
1t is wholly unnecessary to array sta
tistics to prove that the policy of the Re-
publican party has made this country
prosperous. 1t is not even necessary to
show that great crops would have been
only curse to lis, if wise govern
ment had not helped to build up home
markets by broad diversitication of
industries, by improvement of our chan
nels of communication, by inviting i'm
migration from abroad, offering land to
the landless and free schools for the
children of the poor. In these and many
other respects, which intelligent voters
DO not overlook, the policy of the Repub-
lican party has laid the foundation
without which the vast superstructure
of commercial and industrial prosperity
shorter and more conclusive method can
be taken. Let any sane man ask HIM
self what would have been the condi-
tion of business and industry to-day if
the Democratic party had been able to
meddle with the tariff, the currency and
the public credit, as it attempted to do
two years ago.
At the end of 1878, out Of 602 iron fur
naces in the country, 427 were out of
blast and idle. More than half of the
iron workers, and, it may be inferred, of
the far greater number of workingmen
who are now engaged in mining and
transporting iron ore and coal used in
the manufacture, and in the various
branches of the iron industry, were
then idle. Suppose that Democratic no
tiOns of the tariff had been applied, just
at that time, when this great industry
was about to revive so grandly. Nearly
all the Democratic members of Congress
tried desperately to overturn the tariff,
even at that most critical and unfavora-
BILE moment. Had it been done, is it not
evident that the vast increase of de-
mand for iron and its products during
the past year would have brought pros
perity to British manufacturers and
workmen, and not to our own? The
time was badly chosen, it may be said.
But it was precisely at that time that
the Democrats began more Jealous eff
fort than they had made before for
eighteen years to overturn the tariff, to
initiate the currency, and to stab the
public credit.
Suppose they had then succeeded in
repeating g-that is to say, repudiating-
the solemn pledge of resumption, and in
causing vast additional issues of paper
money, what would have been the re-
suit? Is there sane business man who
does not know what tremendous disas-
ters would instantly have followed :?
Think of the prostration of banks, saw
;......