Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-08-16
POLITICS IN HooslERDoM.
why Harrison Is Sure to Lose His OwI
State by a Big Majority.

why Harrison Is Sure to Lose His Own
State by a Big Majority.
All eyes here are fixed on Indiana.
In the estimation of the shrewd politi-
clans of both parties the Hoosier State
Is the pivot on which the Presidential
contest will turn The Democratic
managers were never surer of carry
ing the State than they are to-day.
They are not at all afraid of Candidate
Harrison's personal popularity. They
nave met him before on the Indiana
battlefield, when his record was short
er. and consequently less Objectionable
than now, and whipped him in a fair
hight. That was in 1876, when he ran
for Governor, and the Republicans had
Oliver p. Morton for a leader, SPLEEN
did organization and the Federal
Treasury to draw upon. The Repub-
licans have lost ground since they won
their scratch victory by the use of an
overwhelming corruption fund in 1880,
and the Democrats have steadily
gained on them. The young voters of
the State to-day are Democrats and
tariff reformers. For the past eight
years the Democrats have had all the
accretions and the Republicans all the
losses. To form an opinion as to the
outcome of the contest this year one
should go back and analyze the vote of
1884 when both parties polled more
votes than they ever cast before.
Blaine had bigger majorities than Gar
field in sixty-four counties. He polled
in the State 23S. oil votes as against
232, 164 for Garfield. Garfeld's ma
jority in 1880 was 6,642. Blaine, there
fore, should have had over 1876 ma
jority over Cleveland had the Demo-
cratic vote stood where it was in 1880.
But what do the figures show? Why,
that Cleveland had nearly 10000 more
votes in the State than Hancock, or a
total of 245, 042, as against 225, 522 for
the Democratic candidate in 1880.
Cleveland defeated Blaine by 6.531
plurality in the largest vote ever
polled in the State. These are figures
which the Republican managers can
not knock down or overcome. They
show Enthusiastically that the popular
tide is with the Democratic party, and
they can not turn it back.
Do the two parties maintain their
relative strength this year? The Dem
ocratic campaign managers say yes.
They claim that their party was never
SO thoroughly united and harmonious
as now. Indiana is a tariff reform
State. Every Democratic Representa-
tive in Congress for years has went to
Washington pledged to secure re-
vision of the tariff, and has fought and
won his fight before the people of his
district on that issue over and over
again. This is not an experimental
question in Indiana. No Democratic
| Congressman who should cast his vote
| against a measure like the Mills bill
| could hope for denomination at the
hands of his constituents. The drift
of popular sentiment in the State is so
Enthusiastically toward tariff reform that
even the Republicans have become i'm
| pressed with it. The Hoos1er Repub-
licans went to Chicago and made IL
sturdy fight against the high tax and
free whisky platform that the party
adopted. When the conspiracy to
nominate Blaine was developed the
stoutest opponents of the movement
were these same Indiana men-not be-
! cause they were SO devoted to Harri-
son, but because, as they publicly de-
clared, Blaine's high tariff notions
would make Republican defeat in the
| State a foregone conclusion. The In
dianapolis Nes0s, Republican journal
with the largest circulation in the
| State, before the nominations were
made warned the Republicans over and
over again that they would be beaten
in Indiana if the party adopted a high
tariff platform. Party exigencies have
compelled the Nesos to place Harrison's
name at the head of its columns, but
it still repudiates the party platform,
and advocates tariff revision directly
in line with the Democratic platform.
Advices received at the National head
quarter here from every part of the
State show that the people are more
logical than the newspaper, and are
accepting the Democratic platform
and the candidate who can stand upon
it. There is no organized detection
from the Democratic ranks anywhere
fed manufacturer who does not want
to surrender any part of the wealth he
is accomplishing at other peoples ex-
pense has declared his intention to
vote for Harrison, but these are spor-
adic cases, and have no significance
whatever.
On the other hand, there are acces-
'sions to the Democratic party from the
merchants, bankers and lawyers in the
towns, and from the overtaxed farmer
in the rural districts. A very close
canvass of the State shows that at least
2 per cent. of the Republicans who
voted for Blaine will vote this year for
Cleveland on the tariff issue The
Democrats who will vote for Harrison
by reason of State pride or for other
reasons do not number more than one
half of 1 per cent. There may be a
thousand or fifteen hundred such Dem
ocrats. but not more. The free whisky
platform of the Republicans will drive
from two to four thousand temperance
Republicans into the ranks of the Pro
hibitionists. Making due allowance,
therefore, for gains and losses, the
Democratic managers assert with abso-
lutte confidence in the correctness OF
their canvass that Indiana viii give a
larger majority for Cleveland this year
than in 1884. A conservative Con-
| preSSman who has recently returned