Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-08-28
COMMENTS ON RL.

| COMMENTS ON BLAINE'S SPEECH.
| The most important features of the
speech is to stay the progress Of the Pro-
/ hibitiOn party in his State. 1t is plain
/ that Mr. Blaine is apprehcnSrvc about 4
| third party. and he labOrS with all the
arguments and logic at his command to
prove that the Republican party OF Maine
| is to-day and h;ls always been a consistent
| friend ofPruhibitiOn. His fight in Maine
is 10 hold the Prohibition voters in the
republican ranks this year, for the Neal
Dow detection promises to reduce the Re
publican majority next month, and this to
Mr. Blaine means a great deal just now
Ncw York IIOrid.
But the one thing that is troubling Mr..
Blaine more than any other is the attitude
of the third party. Neal Dow and his pro
hibitionists have threatened to drive the
Republican party out. They have begun
work right i'm Maine, and are threatening
PENNSYLVANIA, New Jersey and other
States. Mr.. Blaine scents the danger in
the air, not only 10 his State party but 10
his national party rs well. The third par
ty must be stamped out before it grows in
strength and power. and it is to this work
he addresses himself The short campaign
before the election in September will be
watched with interest, for unless Mr. Blaine
can swing his State Solidly into the Re
publican party his hopes for lHSS must
vanish The three cornered fight is OF
more than ordinary Importance, and that
his heart is in the contest his personal ei-
forts attest. 1t is life or death. IAikuIti-
phid Times.
Read elsewhere Mr.. Rlainc's other re-
marks upon prohibition. and contrast them
with the denmciatiOnS that were hCaped
upon ParSon Burchard for merely coming
the phrase Rum, Romanism, and Rebel
~liOn," and you will perceive how fur MIR.
Blainc has got from his base" Of lS~i.
This speech will produce II sensation in
OhiO-indeed, wherever the Germans con-
stitute large element of the Republican
party. Mr.. Blaine appears to have pitched
them overheard We shall hear from
Halstead soon. Richmond DiSpdtch.
Mr.. Blaine's claim of sympathy for what
he calls American fishermen is a bald pre-
tence. They are no more American fish
ermen" than the Portland hcrringS are
sardineS, and Mr.. Blaine knows it, In
the time OF Daniel Webster and Edward
Everett, the crews who manned the New
England fishing fleets and whose rights
these illustriOuS Massachusetts statesmen
so warmly and ably champiOned, were, in
deed, composed of hardy American fish
ermen;" but not now The Massachusetts
fishing masters no longer employ Amer
leans. They demand too high wages.
The fishing masters have in the last
twenty years weeded out American Seamen
from their fleets and employed cheap for
eigneIs, chiefly Nova ScotianS, in their
places; and this un-American work has
been so thoroughly done, that not more
than one in five of the crew ola Gloucester
fishing vessel is Yankee; the other four
are Canadians. In fact, it is notorious that
the protected fishing capitalists of Massa-
chusettS have been ~ successful In SubSti
tuting cheap Canadian fishermen for Amer
cans in the fishing business rs the protected
manufacturers of the same State have been
in replacing natiye-bOrn New England
operatives with cheap Canadian French in
their cotton millS.-S. Louis Republican,.
The speech delivered by Mr. Blaine yes
terday at Sebago Lake does not fully
answer the question that has been upper
most in speculative minds. Put into Ian
guage rs free from euphemiSm as the
thought itself, the question is this: Has
the Republican leader decided that the
PrOhibitiOnist vote will be worth more to
him in ISIS, if he runs again for PreSi
dent, than the German vote and the sup
port of the distillers' and brewers inter
eSts.
We do not mean to say that the alterna-
tive presents itSelfwith such brutal direct
ness to Mr.. Blaine's own intellect, even in
his moments of most private and candid
Self-eommuniOn. But there il Is, never
theleSS; and Mr.. Blaine is politician, in
the largest sense of the word. There is
hardly any doubt that if either OF the great
parties should take up prohibition As a
national issue, declaring itself unreserved-
ly in favor of prOhibitOry amendment to