Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-09-05
THE ISSUE THE SAME.
Striking Similarity of the Campaign of
1910 and That of 1888.

1910 and That of 1888.
From the Milwaukee Wisconsin.
No wonder that all the venerable gen.
tlemen who voted for "Tippecanoe and
Tyler too in 1910, intend to support
Harrison and Morton at the polls in
November. They will do it because the
issue is practically the same now that it
was forty-eight years ago, and they
have had such bitter experience with
"a tariff for revenue only"-the Clay
Calhoun compromise act of 1833-that
they have no desire to see the country
pass through another such disastrous
ordeal. They remember as men do a
horrid nightmare, the financial crisis
and panic of 1887, and they know what
caused it. These aged men have not OBJ
tanned their knowledge of what benefit
protection is to nation from books that
pretend to be works on political econ
omy; nor need they go to the college
professors who are the disciples of
Adam Smith to ask about the advan-
tages of free trade. They ''have been
through the MILL" and have had a
practical demonstration of the very the
DRY that Grover Cleveland holds upon
the tariff question.
It is because they do not like the
theory that they will vote for the ticket
nominated at Chicago. They remem
Der the hard winters of 1875 when
there was no good paper money In the
country-when there was plenty of
cheap English goods for sale, but the
people had nothing to buy with; when
business of all kinds was depressed;
credit was gone, and men had lost con-
fdence in each other. One of the first
acts passed by the Wing Congress- alter
the election OF William Henry Harrison
was general bankrupt law; and such
was the universal insolvency that no
less than seventy members of Congress
took the benefit of it. And it is proper
here to state the fact-as there Is such
an effort now being made to convert the
farmers to free trade-that no class in
the community suffered more during
this period of hard times than those
depending upon agriculture for living.
1t is mistake for the generation of
men now at the front to suppose that
the campaign of 1910 was one of I'M
reasoning excitement and blind infatu-
ation-it was nothing of the sort. 1t
was really a tremendous uprising en-
masse of an indignant people who
were determined to overthrow the ex
1stlng political dynasty, and establish In
it's stead an administration that would
give the country an American policy in
stead of an English policy. The song
singing, the stump-speaking, the log
cabins, the miles of professions, the
hard cider, the coon skins, and all the
foolish paraphernalia of the campaign
were merely incidental; at the bottom
of all were the hard thinking, the solid
arpumAnt and the inf1exible datermi-
nation of serious and honest men.
Let the young men Of the country
who are to- cast their first vote for Pres
ident In November take counsel of
these wise Old men whose political ex-
perience- covers the period of one-half
of our national existence, and who have
had ample opportunity to practically
test different laws for raising the ma
toms revenues. Let them note the fact,
also, that scarcely one of the old men
will vote for Grover Cleveland.