Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-09-19
OUR TICKET.
The Issues Involved.

For the first time since tue wal
in a national campaign, the people
of Virginia are enabled to consider
the practical issues of American
politics, without the least surren-
der ofattachment to old traditions.
We are so far removed from the
war and it's associations and have
passed through the attritiOn OF
discussion of topics vital in the
affairs of our own times and un-
connected with the events of twen-
~ years ago, duriDg a sufficient
period to enable us to think here
after rather than to feel as we have
been accustomed to do.
The tariff is the issue of the tu-
ture and of the present also. In
these columns we are seeking to
give it prominence as much as the
Bourbon press seeks to submerge
and ignore it. Unable equally to
meet the candid arguments and
irrefutable statements which COM
mend the American system of Pro
lection that has so enriched cities
and counties and States in this
Union our opponents seek to direct
the public mind with the old
stereotyped appeals of past cam
paigns planned in selfshness and
cunning, and powerful only in
their influence upon the thought
lessness, the passion, and the fero-
city of those to whom they were
and are addressed. The truths of
Protection are Solidly sinking into
the popular mind in Virginia, and
nowhere more cOnspicuOusly than
in this Valley. Vituperation, taw-
DIV rhetoric, and stale poetical
quotations will not satisfy the po-
pular mind when it seeks for ln-
formation upon questions OF deep
II :-TS~I;. 80. ,-.ro4ticel si9nii-
canoe. The tariff is taking excel
lent care Of itself throughout the
Valley, and the "gifted orator. of
Bourbonism seeks to dodge it in
vain. 1t will not "dOwn," and in
the remaining weeks of the can
vass the "oratOrs'' will suffer from
their evident want of acQuaint-
ance with this vital subject as in
other days they suffered from ig-
norance upon the debt question,
when the people were clamOrOus
for information upon that most
practical and far-reaching of pub
lie questions.
To the North and West there ap-
pears to be eager and patient H.
curing into the attitude of the |
parties and their candidates upon
subjects likely to be foremost in the
discussing the immediate future.
Unquestionably the attitude of the
so-called Democratic Party is most |
unfortunate, and must be painfully !
iscouraging to its thoughtful ad
herants. Within a few months it |
has managed to array against itself |
the whole manufacturing and labor
ing interest of the country by its
silly advocacy of the Morrison
Bill-that frank attempt of the
Free Trader to make British and
Anti-American ideas dominant in
this country. Retreating from its
peculiar position on this subject
after it had thoroughly alarmed
the country, it madly nominated
Cleveland without any knowledge
of previous history, aud today it
finds itself supporting a Free
Trader-abOut the only feature in
Mr.. Cleveland's political creed that
seems to be indisputably established
Another potent argument againt
the sO.called Dem Ocracy which at
tracts public attention is the con-
fessiOn involved in the nomination :
Of Cleveland that it dared not trust 6
its recent record to the scrutiny of !
the intelligent, to that "ferce light !
Of inquiry" of which the Juggling T
politician is always and naturally :
afraid. "Cleveland has no record,
md therefore is a good candidate
ror us whose record is so bad," c
said the old wind brOken Bourbon
eaders, forgetting that in running l
away from their natural leaders t
hey were so palpably lodging as t
% insult the intelligence of the Il
people. Poor old dismautled, =
,etifogging Democracy, unfOrtu-
late in all things, and most of all =,
Unfortunate in its stupid belief that :,
he people in this period OF intelli- =
,ence can be cheated into hypocri- q
ical evasions and eOwardly sub !
erfuges. :,