The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-10-23
EVOLUTION or A GREAT ISSUE.

Tho ExigencIes Of the Republican Situa-
tion Demand That Somebody Should Re
Skinned.
The status of the great hide-tanning
issue, upon which his cxcellency Gov
ernor j. b. Foraker appears to have
staked the fortunes of the Republican
party in this State, may now be defined
with more or less accuracy. As the
question whether or not the cutcle of a
dofunct convict was put to utilitarian
purpose in the way Of establishing a
new branch of the tanning industry
may affect the destinies of the common
wealth for veal or woe, 1t is important
to have the voters understand how this
Is. We may, therefore, proceed to con-
slider Mr.. Foraker's momentous issue in
its various aspects.
1t first appears in the keynote speech
of Governor Foraker, wherein a crazy
horse thief swears he saw Democratic
officials cut strips of skin from the bodies
of the dead convicts and make canes of
them. Moreover his excellency had
seen one of the canes and 1t smelled un-
pleasantly. The officials accused de-
MED having embarked in this new in
dustry and the officials of the medical
colleges who received the mortal re-
mains OF the convicts in question made
affidavit that they got them with their
hides intact. At this stage of the pro-
lceedings it appears therefore that no.
body was skinned unless in a certain
imetaphorical sense it was Governor
FORAKER himself.
The exigencies of the Republican sit
Mation, however, demanded that some-
body should be skinned. The perpetuity
,of the Republican party was made to
lrest upon the proposition that Demo-
Icrats skin convicts. The Republican
party must be preserved. Therefore
Governor Foraker and his agents set to
work to demonstrate again that q con-
'vict was skinned and that Democrat
skinned him. If he was skinned a
Democrat must have skinned him. The
convict was skinned. He had to be. or
the Republican party could not get on.
Therefore a Democrat skinned him.
Therefore the Democratic party is in ia
vOr of skinning convicts. Therefore
the Republican party must prevail. OF
course, no intelligent voter can stand
out against this admirable logic.
As either no more convicts could be
induced to relate any more hide-tanning
stories, or, what is more probable than
that the author Of this great issue per-
ceived some reprehensible disposition
in the pubic mind to scoff at the testi-
mony of crazy convicts, an individual
outside the walls was induced to con-
tribute to the development of the hide
tanning argument. This person was a
tanner. He made affidavit that some
body came to him and said he wanted a
human hide tanned. He never tanned
the hide, never saw the hide and didn't
know who the man was who wanted it
tanned. The man said the hide was
that of Hartnett, the Cincinnati MUIR
derer, who was hanged.
Now it is worth while to pause here
and observe how admirably the hide
tanning issue has been brought to this
stage. At the first 1t appeared that two
convicts were partly skinned and then
essary for the good of the Republican
party to have somebody skinned man
is found who says that man told him
that Hartnett, the Cincinnati murderer,
was skinned, and that he had the hide.
Whereas in the beginning the skinning
process was only partial, now the whole
hide is off. To be sure nobody saw the
hide, nobody tanned it, but obviously
the man who said he had it must have
been Democratic official, and if he was
a Democratic official he must have
skinned Hartnett, because the Republi-
can theory is that Democrats skin con-
victs and the Democratic party is in
favor of encouraging the human hide
tanning industry. A man said he had a
human hide and that it was Hartnett's
hide. Necessarily this man was DEM
ocratic official. and consequently must
have skinned Hartnett, and dconclusively,
therefore, the Republican party must be
glorified.
But now come the medical college
officials making oath that they received
Hartnett's body with the whole hide on
it. Is not this fact, some unreasonable
person may ask. fatal to Governor For
aker's great issueP Does not this state
ment knock the bottom out of it, so to
speak?
Not at all. If Hartnett was not
skinned somebody else must have been.
Some convict was skinned, because he
had to be for the good of the Republi-
can party. Therefore he was skinned.
Therefore the Democratic officials
skinned him. Therefore the Democratic
party is respon sible for the skinning of
,convicts. "Facts" indeed! How can
this admirable syllogism be affected by
facts? 1t is quite Independent of all
facts whatsoever. What are facts. any,
how, when the Republican party has to
have an issue? Shall the commonwealth
go to everlasting smash while unrea-
sonable people assail the great Repub-
'lican hide-tanning issue, which alone
lcan save it, with vulgar bubbles about
facts?
No. Governor Foraker and his asso-
.ciates who have sprung this great issue
upon a patient and much-enduring peo-
'ple can afford to look with disdain upon
all that sort of thing. They are not
troubled about facts. They are not dis
mayed by denial or perplexed by in
consistency. Though nobody was
skinned, it must nevertheless be true
that they were Democratic officials
who skinned him. Though the dead
convict went into the pickle vat of the
medical college with his hide on it is
still evident that the Democrats must
have tanned it. All this must be be-
cause the great hide-tanning issue upon
which the Republican party proposes to
save the State from rum requires it to
be. In this proud position, and forti-
fled by such Incompatible logic, Gov
ernor Foraker and his associates are