New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-04
WHERE TOTES COUNT MOST:

| Being practical people, who not only want
| to govern themselves but know how, Amer-
cans may be expected this year to put their
votes where they will count most. Let 1t be
understood at the start, therefore, that voter
lacks American common sense who wants
protectionist in Congress but votes for Cleve-
lands election In the close States especially
the man who so votes whether he calls himself
a Republican or Democrat, writes himself
down an ass of the genuine Dogberry variety
Mr.. Cleveland may be beaten, as he would
have been in 1884, by change OF less than
600 votes in Newly ork. In any except the
closest of Congressional districts these votes
would not change a single vote in Congress,
and yet they might settle the tariff question
for four years to come.
The power of a President in making laws
is partly measurable and partly not meas
urable. + His veto power can be meas
ured. His power to influence the votes of
Senators and Representatives by his public
messages, by his private appeals, by the use or
refusal of patronage, by signing or vetoing
bills upon which the reelection Of Senators
or members may depend, cannot be measured.
Mr.. Cleveland has been demonstrating the
latter power for the instruction of Democrats
who believe in protection. These persons took
care to elect in 1886 over thirty Democratic
members of the House who publicly avowed
their agreement with Mr.. Randall. Mr.. Clcve-
land has been putting on the screws, and has
turned some by personal appeals or by the use
Of patronage; others he has changed by threat
ening to veto their pet bills. 1t is now the
boast of Mr.. Mills that almost every Demo
cratic vote in the House, with the possible ex-
ception of Mr.. Randall's, will be given for the
pending Frcc-Trade bill. Here the 600 votes
foolishly cast for Mr. Cleveland for President
have defeated and killed many thousand votes
cast for Representatives of Mr. Randalls sort.
The veto power is measurable. In the House
1913 members can pass bill, and in the SEN
Gtc 80; but it takes 217 votes in the House
and 81 in the Senate to pass bill over the
Presidents veto. The President, therefore, has
a power equivalent to that of 81 Representa-
tives and IL Senators-a power as great in the
House as the entire vote of New-Y ork, New
Jersey and Indiana, and in the Senate twice
as great as these three States combined possess.
There were about / 1928 600 voters in these
three States in 1884, and if every one of these
voters had united to defend American industry
and American wages by the election of Con-
gressmen, the entire power of nearly = 100000
voters would have been no greater in the
House, and only half as great in the Senate,
as that which 600 befooled New York work
ngmen eXerted, who imagined that MIR. Cleve-
land was a protectonst, believed the false
hoods which were told them during the last
Presidential campaign and so elected him Pres
dGnt.
Let not that blunder be repeated this year.
If the voters in close States mean to defend
their industries and their wages, let them re-
member that a vote for President may count
more than several thousand votes for Congress
men. Put the ballot where it will count most.
II is not given to free citizens TO be wasted,
but to be used with practical shrewdneSs and
sense. The ballot Of one man in Newly ork
New-Jersey or Connecticut may this year turn
the scale in either State. The electoral vote
of either Of these States will probably defeat
Mr. Cleveland and free trade. Thus it hap
pens that single vote in either of these States
this year may count for more than all the
votes cast for 81 Representatives and II
SenatorS-for more than the votes of 2, 100000
citizens in other States or in the same States
if cast for Representatives. II may count for
more, because, in addition to his veto power
which can be measured, the President has the
unmeasurcd power Of influence upon public
opinion and party action by his messages and
upon the action of Representatives and SEN
atOrs by his use Of patronage.
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