New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-08-01
STARTED TOO EARLY.


city and country, who are working the new
Democratic war-cry for all it is worth and per-
haps more, and are daily delIghtiug their
readers with the refrain "The Republican
party must CO." hope by constant iteration
and hammering to accomplish something.
There being nothing else for them to say or
do, it is perhaps as well that they should work
of their nervous energy in that way as any
other. Ii we understand the matter rightly,
however this cry is intended to last over until
the next Presidential election, when 1t is to
sweep the country, and the People rising i'll
their majesty will carry into effect tae twin
howl @Turn the rascsls OUT And il seems to
us as spectators without prejudice at least. If
not disinterested, that the cry has been started
q trfe too early. There arc more than fifteen
months to the next Presidential election, and
though we do not doubt that the breath of the
howlers will hold out for that length OF time,
We question somewhat if the cry will not by
that time have lost good deal OF its force
However stirring it may be-, 1t seems from our
point of view a far cry. Fifteen months of it
will be inst little monotonous The average
voter may get tired of it in that time. To-day
of course, having heard the able editors say
only four or five hundred times in very posi-
tive way that the Republican party must co."
the American citizen is ready 70 rise up and
dismiss that party into the limbo. But the
trouble is he has no opportunity to rise up.
The polls are not open. There are no elections
pending. And by the time the citizen gets
good chance to " turn the rascals cut" he will
have heard these able editors repeat the asser-
ton several hundred thousand times that the
II. Dxyf hot fiDoa ha IL
liable to be more tired of the able editors than
he ever can be of the Republican party.
We throw out this suggestion to the shOuters
because we hate to see breath wasted and II
good thrilling campaign cry fo0lishy thrown
away on an off year aud a silly season. Why
might not this be saved up until about this time
say next year, when it could be sprung sud-
denly on the country in handbills, posters cir
culars, ETC.; newspapers could spatter their
pages with 1t in conspicuous type-that always
seemed to us an uncommonly talented method
of political campaigning-sDd idiots of all ages
could chalk it on sidewalks and dead walls.
The effective Democratic argument is iteration
the ding-dOng misunderstanding it over and
over and over but il is not wise to begin it
too early. for there's a possibility of overriding
it. In 1850, for instance, the same great
strategist, we presume, to whose fertile brain
we are indebted for the present cry, conceived
that mastery stroke of genius known as the
1929" outbreak. 1t was simple but very
powerful. All at once, it will be remembered,
Democratic editors began peppering their pages
with "329"; sidewalks broke out and dead
walls famed with it; it was painted on fences
and chalked on church doors; the face of
nature had an eruption of it; and the entire
Democratic party broke into wild outlaw
over it. The Democracy had not had so much
fun since Lee invaded Pennsylvania. But
they overdid it, Men began to inquire what
was meant by 1921 And they learned TINT
the Democratic party meant thereby to charge
that General Garfield was bride taker"
"peourer" and thief" and that his price was
1929. They looked over the men who were
chalking and the men who were chuckling,
considered of what sort they were-then went
and voted for Garfield. Very brilliant thing
but out of season-begun too esrly-oyerdone
We apprehend the same or something SIM
liar may happen to the present attempt TO
arouse popular Indignation against the Repub-
lican party. After the ding dong has been
going on five or six months, and every man,
woman and child in the land has been told sew
eral hundred thousand times in every variety
Of type and as the tail-piece of all sorts of
moral, religious and political essays that " the
Republican party must CO." there is liable to
be general inquiry, "What for 2" and "Who
says ~ And when it comes to that, the
effect will be very much as it was in 1880,
when men asked what was meant by 1929"
and then looked IN ,ment at the faces of the
men who we're chalking it up and down. It's
good cry ingenious, statesmanlike, brilliant;
and it has the merit of containing in a sentence
the whole Democratic argument-but it ia