The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-04-11
WELLINGTON, LoRAIN COUNTY, OHIO, APRIL H. 1885,
The Democratic Outlook.

The Democratic Outlook.
1t is an open question whether with
reference to the Presidential campaign
of 1884 the Democrats are better or
worse off for the passage of the Tariff
bill. So far as the Republicans are con-
cerned, there is no doubt that they
stand absolutely better with the people
for having secured the passage of the
bill; though it may always remain q
question whether the leaving the sub
ject open would not have made them
relatively stronger by furnishing their
the opportunity to blunder,
quarrel and go to pieces over it. Inde-
pendently of this consideration, how
ever, it is manifest that the Republican
party stands better with the people to-
day for having passed the bill than it
would had the grand strategy been
adopted, which was favored by some,
of leaving the subject as stumbling
block for the incoming Democratic Con-
gress. For, hard as it is for the average
politician and even the average Con-
gresham to understand, it Is aneverthe-
less trne that the people like manly and
straightforward dealing a great deal
better than sharp practice and subtlety.
They may be cajoled and hoodwinked
for the moment, but they presently see
through it all and in the end reach just
conclusions. Demagogy is sure to be
found out-nothing surer-and when
found out is powerless. What people
know about the tariff legislation of the
last Congress is that the Republicans
went about it in business-like way,
not as though they were laying traps
for an adversary, but as il they
were honestly endeavoring to do
the work they were paid to do.
The Republicans accordingly pass out
of control of the House, as has been
observed heretofore, with record of
which they need not be ashamed. That
they were inconsiderate and reckless
during the first session of the last Con-
gress no one pretends to deny. That
they redeemed the record during the
session just closed we believe to be
equally clear. They cleaned the dock
ct OF, all issues that have been raised
up to the present moment and they can
go to the people with clean hands No
vital question remains open or unset
tied The last Congress, weak and
faulty as it was in many respects, did
the party and the country great service
III ulcDOoln2 VI luc OQ0S 1uQ cA0o Va o1c-
turbing questions in such a way that no
reasonable man can doubt that it was
actuated by a, sincere purpose to do
justice and respond to the wishes of the
people. The Tariff bill just passed is,
of course, in greater or less degree an
experiment, as all such bills must nee
essarily be. 1t was courageous act on
the part of the Republican majority to
NO Go Gov ~, Iofnnr fbox- houa br7ncr
up their work in the market-place for
criticism. 1t is something which none
of the three Democratic Congresses
since 1874 dared do, although they went
around it and pottered over it and made
much ado about it all the time.A A
Democratic Congress will come in next
December. 1t win find new tariff in
operation, the creation of Republican
Congress, and from present appear
ances nothing else upon which it can
undertake to make fight. The cur
rency question has been removed, thank
Heaven, from its mischievous med
ding; the questions arising out of re-
construction are gradually settling
themselves, and if they were not, they
would be very dangerous for Democrat
ic handling; the matter of Civil Service
Reform, about which our Democratic
friends have made so much pother, has
been disposed of by the passage of the
Pendleton bill, and the tariff is the
only thing they can hope to make capi-
tai from.
The great question for the Democrats
in the next Congress is what to do with
the tariff. They have nearly nine
months in which to observe its effect
and find what fault they may with its
operation. They could not ask any
thing fairer. Had they been left to
wrangle over it they would have divided
at the very outset-and it is by no
means certain they will not even now
and all hope of their harmonizing and
uniting upon Presidential candidate
and platform would have been at an
end. The Republicans with Uncommon
iberality have set them up q target.
They may fire at it for the next eight
teen or twenty months and make all
the capital they can out of it for the
Presidential election. The present out
look furnishes them only this prospect.
It is Just the fragment of an issue over
which they have any sort of chance.
And over this fragment there is so much
danger of dissension and division that
we question very much whether, with
all the opportunities that intervene,
they will dare touch it. Not more than
three months have elapsed since they
seemed on the top of tidal wave. One
session of Republican Congress and
that Congress an uncommonly feeble
one, has dropped them from the crest
to pretty near the hollow. The per
formances of the party for the next
twelve months win be an interesting
study. p. Tribune.