Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-11-17
How Ii Was Done.

The defeat of Mr.. Morrison in the
Eighteenth district has been hailed bv the
prOteCtionIst organs throughout the coun-
try as a great triumph of moral forces,
and the harbInger of revolution in the
popular sentiment of the west on the tar
if question. 1t has been proclaimed in
the columns of scores of spOliation organs
and from the mouths of divers and sun
dry windy expOsitors of the gospel of re-
ciprocal rapine that the fate which has
overtaken Mr. Morrison is in store for all
politicians who deny the faith preached by
ST. Blaine and ST. Randall. The people
of the west, ii is said. have at least awak
ened to sense of the beauties and bless
ings of the protective system, and then
brought to realize the folly and wicked
ness of the movement for reduction Of
war taxes. They repudiated Mr. Morri-
son, buried Frank Hurd, rebuked Speaker
Carlisle and given Mr.. Springer a plain
warning in the shape of greatly reduc
ed majority. and in thus Furnishing its
most CONSPICUOUS advocates have plainly
shown their aversion for the cause of free
trade.
This is what the organs are repeating
with great gusto from day 10 day, and
what all the high priests of the prOtec-
ton heresy are Dining into the popular
ear through the medium of interviews
and other channels of communication
with the public. 1t is all rubbish. 4
commissioner of the Times has been en-
gagged for the past week in an investiga>
lion into the causes of Morrisons defeat,
and the results of his labors, rs given in
this and previous impressions, show that
there has been nodecline in the anti>tariff
sentiment of the Eighteenth district. Mr.
Morrison's defeat was not the triumph of
moral causes" but of what Mr.. Conk
ling would call forbidden and adheTent
forces" Jehu Baker was elected to serve
the interests of the tariff rings in con-
gress by the lavish use of DOODLE sys>
lematicslly placed where it would do
the most good" by crafty and unsCrupu-
lous agent of the taXeaters' combination
The Times commissioner has traced the
movements of this man from the mo
meDt he entered the district until he left
it, and his revelations throw food Of
light upon the methods by which it is
sought to perpetuate the war tariff for
the benefit OF the overgrOwu but still
greedy mouopolies which it has created
Mr.. John Jarrett, who carried the
doodle" furnished bv the tariff rings for
the use in Mr. Morrisou's district. APP
pears to have done the dirty work which
was assigned him with skill and thor
oughness that would have been no dis
credit to Steve Dorsey or MY Dear Hub
bell' himself. He went about the bust
ness Systematically, in accordance, evil
IDENTIFY, with prearranged plan of oper-
atoms. The scheme was to capture the
''laboring element" By securing the co..
operation of its recognized leaders, the
officials of the local trades unions, and
others known to have great influence
among the workingmen. They were, it
seems, easily persuaded by the appllca-
ton of substantial arguments, to render
their valuable assistance. The rank and
file of their followers were coerced into
the support Of Baker bv the use of the
machinery of the Knights of Labor.
Hundreds of men appear to have voted
against Morrison, contrary TO their frank,
ly-expressed preferences, because they
were ordered to do so by the heads of
that organization in the east-or, at least,
believed themselves 10 have been so or
dered. They were made to believe that
the welfare of their noble order was IN
volved in Mr.. Morrison's defeat. and thus
their mercenary leaders were enabled to
take them to the polls and vote them
like so many sheep" The details of
these outrageous proceedings, substan-
lated by an abundance of direct and Cir
cumstantial evidence, was given ID ex
tense in the reports of the Times commits
siOner, of which the installment printed
this morning is even more ''meaty" than
those which have preceded it.
1t would appear in the face of these
startling revelations, that the less the tar
i'll organs have to say about MIR. Morri>
sons defeat and the agencies that pro-
duced it, the better for them and their
cause. II they regard the debauchment
Of workingmen, impoverished by the sys>
tenn of unjust and oppressive taxation
which they seek to uphold. as an achieve
ment to be proud of, the more shame for
them. The fact of the matter is that the
disgraceful methods resorted to by the
tariff ring to accomplish the defeat of
Messrs. Morrison Carlisle, Hurd and other
CONSPICUOUS antagonists of protection
show the desperate straits to which they
are reduced, and amount to confession
that they dare not trust the issue OF the
tariff to the unbought suffrages of the
psopls. /. IL prs The lses. Of the evil. 81