Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1885-10-22
OhiO's Lesson.

The grand victory achieved by the
Republicans of Ohio carries with it
lesson which all parties would do well
to heed. The Commercial Gazette has
been free to conceGe that it is only Incl
dentally and indirectly that the result
touches the National Administration.
President Cleveland has as yet develops
ed no policy, if we except bis question
able attitude on civil service reform and
bis declaration concerning the coinage
of silver. National issues were involved,
however, and the return of large num-
bers of Republicans to the party field
was not only a condemnation of Demo-
cratic ascsndency in the State, but an
evidence of distrust of that party either
in State or National capacity.
The Republican platform pleaded for
pure ballot and an inviolable suffrage,
and its leading representatives in the
campaign, including Senator Sherman
and Judge Foraker, were sharply criti-
cised by some of their professed friends
for having made this issue SO conspicu-
Gus. The result shows that the people
of Ohio have the capacity to distinguish
between so vital question as the sup>
preston of the ballot in the South and
the old sectional issues pertaining to the
war period. The expression of sentiment
on this subject by the Republicans of
Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and
D Massachusetts was not a mistake, as
some tender-footed Republicans have
contended. 1t has been heartily in
dorsed by the people of Ohio at the bal
lot-box, and will be re-echoed by the Re-
publicaDs in other States on the first
favorable opportunity. The return of
that fearless champion of honest suf-
frage, John Sherman, to the United
States Senate, will be the best justifica-
tion of his course on the so called sec
tional ISSUE"
Both parties can now read a little
more clearly the pnblics sentiment with
regard to the liquor traffic. The Repub-
licans declared in favor of taxing the
traffic as the only practicable method of
lessening its evils, while the Democrats
insisted on "a graded license law" in
face of the fact that the Constitution
prohibits license altogether. The sense
of a decided majority of the people is
that the traffic should be taxed, and the
e-enaetment of the Scott law, with the
lien feature omitted so as to meet the
objection of the Supreme Court, will nc
doubt follow.
The Democrats have been taught
very salutary lesson as the result of
their coddliDg the Prohibition party.
They had spent much time and money in
their efforts to delude Republicans into
running after DIR. Leonard, but much of
the increased Prohibition vote was
drawn from the Democratic party, and
thus the club which they had prepared
at so much cost and labor for the heads
of Sherman and Foraker came down
with severe wbacks upon the sconces of
Hoadly and Johnny Mclean.
The most important lesson of all, how
ever, is that conveyed in the stinging
rebuke of the corrupt practices of a
Democratic Legislature. With major
ity of SO on joint ballot, and an Execu-
tive willing to sanction even the most
scandalous of their acts, they had full
swing and in their greed and folly
wrought their own destruction in a sin
gle session. The demand for "a change
is not so urgent now among certain
class as it was year or two ago, except
it be the "change" back from Democratic
to Republican rule. and as that has come
In Ohio even more speedily and effect
lively than was expected. so it will come
in COED time in other States and in the
Nation. This is the lesson taught by
the Republican victory in Ohio.-TPitts.
burgh Comm