The Indianapolis journal., 1884-06-04
oH1oAao,s sLANpERoUs PRESS.


Stating the case as mildly as the character
of the offense warrants, it must be said that
the conduct of the Chicago Republican press
has been very reprehensible; nor has it i'm
proved since the delegates to the convention
have begun to arrive. Each has seemingly
started out with the one idea of bullying its
candidate through at any expense of honor
and honorable conduct. No innuendoes have
been. too scandalous to be used against any
and all candidates opposed to their own, and
the most shameless slanders have been taken
up and repeated by the Republican press of
Chicago, in order to prejudice delegates against
men for whom they expect to vote. Harm,
and harm only, must result from all this tide
of billingsgate and abuse that has flooded
Chicago and that has yet shown
no sign of abating. The shame
of humiliation and defeat must
come to some Of them, and the hard work of
rghting these intensified insults and wrongs
must soon be undertaken. 1t is shame upon
the party and menace to its continued sue
cess that the worst things said against leading
Republicans have come from Republican pa
pers. The party can not afford to slander and
vilify its leaders, acknowledged as such by
any considerable followingof loyal Republican
voters The respective admirers of Arthur,
and Blaine, and Logan, and Edmunds expect
to make a strong partisan fight before the con-
vention, and having done this, to at once turn
every gun upon the enemy the moment the
commander-i in chief is named Republican
newspapers at Chicago as elsewhere, must
realize that there is more in Republicanism
than the mere naming and election of
national candidates The worst prominent
man in the Republican party, backed by the
influence and the traditions of that organiza-
ton, would prove an incomparably better ex-
ecutive than the best that the opposition could
offer. The danger that threatens the country
is not poor or indifferent Republican admin
istration, but some kind of Democratic con-
troll the significance of which has always had
an evil effect upon the commercial and indus
trial interests of the entire nation. The Re
publican press as exponents of Republican
opinion, and as leaders in the fight about to
be made should so conduct their campaigns as
to leave them free from any impedimenta in
the shape of disloyal utterances that can but
weaken their influence and materially strength
en- the enemy.
The mistake of the Chicago papers has been
to forget that the great body of Republican
voters live outside of that city, and even be-
yond the personal influence of the papers of
that city. Blinded to everything ex-
cept the desire to get this or
that man named, they have berated and
blackguarded each other and slandered all fa-
vorites but their own to that degree that an
uninformed spectator might reasonably be
excused for believing that no honorable man
has been suggested for the place. They have
fought and wrangled and snarled over this
thing as though it were simply ward caucus,
in which nobody but citizens of Chicago had
even the remotest interest. The Republican
party is losing patience with this kind of bust
ness, and is tired of having first to cure
mutiny before turning attention to the enemy.
If success were assured from the start and a
nomination was certain of confirmation in
November next, these offenses might be over
looked. But success is not beyond doubt,
and the rank and file of the party, the men
very tired of having Republican newspapers
at Chicago and elsewhere furnish the Demo
cratic press with most effective arguments
why Republican should not be elected.
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