The Portland daily press., 1884-10-28
PRICE THREE CENTS.
Why Cleveland is Likely to Fail IN
Every Northern State.
m v quu

1t will now be admitJed by every candid
aud close observer that the recent election
in Ohio turned chiefly upon The question Of
protection versus free trade, that issue hay
ing been projected with peculiar emphasis
by the defeat OF Mr.. HuId In district
which is wont to be Overwhelmingly Demo
cratic. No evasion of this primary and
vital point in controversy between the two
great parties will henceforth be possible.
The great manufacturing industries, and the
millions of workingmen who depend on
them for their livelihood, are fully awakened
to the gravity of the impending crisis, and
cannot be cheated into using the ballot
against their interests. But if the great
mass of artisans have set their faces against
changes which would inevitably cause an
abrupt dlslocation of our Industrial system
and distressing fall of wages, it will be i'm
possible for Cleveland to carry a single
Northern State.
Tue Only Northern States in which the
Democratic party, weighed with stolld
gross, and offensive candidate and d'scredit
ed by the aggressive anti-protectionist atti-
Jude of its majority in Congress, has now
any chance at all of winoiDg, are, of course
Indiana, NeE York, New Jersey, and Con-
necticut. Admitting for the sake of argu-
ment that Cleveland will gain the solid
Sou b, he must to be elected, carry the first
TWO or the last three of the four States men
TONED. Now, there is no reason to suppose
that the Instinct of self-prt servation will be
whit lese operative upon the large manu-
featuring Interests of Indiana than it proved
the otter day in Ohio; while in Connecti-
cut, New Jersey and New York that in
stinct must, from the nature of the case, be
more intensely stimulated and more decisive
ly potent. In every one of these three
States the industries that have beeu fostered
aud shielded by the policy OF protection Of
American labor against crushing compeii-
lion by the greedy capital and starvii pio-
letariat Of Europe, stand for a far larger
traction of the productive energies AID re-
sources of the commonwealth. Such a
change of our fiscal policy as the friends of
Mr. Morrison openly favored, though they
did not think It feasible 10 extort compliance
with their full demands from Congress
snch a transformation of our tariff as Mr..
Hurd has been so rudely disciplined by his
constituents for advncauDg-would grevous-
ly disrupt and cripple even States mainly
agricultural like Ohio and Indiana, and
would even dive tens of thousands out of
employment. But in New York where a
much larger proportion of the popula-
tion looks TO factories and workshops for its
daily bread, the effect Of repeal OF the pro-
iective tariff, or OF measures directly tending
to the disavowal of it's principle, would be
vas, y more calamitous, while 1t would blast
and paralyze States distinctively manufacture
ing ike New Jersey and Connecticut
The conviction that the continuance and
price of the work whereby they live are at
stake in this election has naturally become
fast-rooted among the working masses h. our
manufacturing States, since the unwise
course pursued by the majority Of DemOcr at
ic members in the last Congress levelled a
deadly blow at all protected Industries. No
sooner, indeed, was 1t made clear to Con-
necticut artisans that the contest now pend
ing involves not merely preference for one
Candidate over another, but the ineompara-
big more momentoas issue of upholding the
emouments and feguards OF American la
Dor, than the shrewder Democratic mana
gers ceased to count seriously upou the ad-
hesion OF tina, Stale. Their organs have very
little to say about Connecticut We believe
however, that New Jersey, in which they
vince a greater show of confidence, is al
most as certain to disappoint thsm. Even
four years ago--in the last month Of Han
cocks canvass-although UP to that time the
free trade txhortalions OF Frank Hurd had
Ad'leu Ou q OemOCIdLiC CduCue Hko Luo NOlCo
OF one crying in the wilderness, vague fore
ooding seized the workshops of New Jersey,
and the result was that Hancoek's majority
| was cut down to about 1000. How, then,
can any thoughtful man assign thai State 10
| Cleveland, now that the faint misgivngs of
1880 have been SO grimly justified by the
avowed irtentions aud unabashed endeav-
| Ors of Mr. Morrison's coworkers in the
House of Representatives?
1t is equally preposierous to assume that
the mighty manufacturing Industries which
have peopled and enriched so many inland
towns and cities in the great State OF New
York can be for a moment blinded to the
real issue in this canvass. The skilled work
men Of our factories were never so perfectly
alive to their fundamental interests, aud no
body can gull them into committing suicide.
Their votes will never pave the way for for
eign competition. And this means that
Cleveland will come down to Harlem Bridge
buried by men who will brook no tampering
with the earnings and security OF Amerlcsn
labor, under an adverse majority so huge
that no efforts. however desperate, in the
cities OF New York and Brooklyn will avail
to disinter the cOrDse