Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-11-24
SUNDAY. NOV. "a. 1859.
How n Party Is Being Destroyed.
II is specially fortunate thing for the

II is specially fortunate thing for the
Republican party that the Congressional
elections took place last year instead Of
this. Had the gage Of battle been thrown
down this fall there would have been no
special need of speculating as to whether
Reed or Mckinley was in the lead in the
contest for the Speakership. The pro.
ceedings would have interested either Of
them very little; and Reed, who is
really the best equipped man poll
tically on his side of the House, would
have been allowed to take the real, as he
has been allowed in the past to take the
empty honor of the Republican caucus
nomination for that high position. But
there is q political rhythm Of motion
which can always be relied upon, and
which makes the middle year of any
Presidential term the period Of disaster.
In fact, there is a great deal of loose
talking in connection with the celebrated
"off" year. That year is established by
precedent to be the second year Of
q Presidential incumbent. The fact
that the inheritor of his Grandfather's
Hat has get such an unprecedentedly
rough game at the very opening of his ad-
ministration prefgures the sort of double
banked, duplex elliptic clip he will get in
the Congressional elections of next year.
Then the real Waterloo will be intro
duced, with the blare of trumpets, fan
fare and paraphernalia Of crushing de-
feat. Everything conspires to show that
the traditional "off" year will this time
be genuine sky-scrsper, and that the
Democracy will not only take the rag
from the bush, but the bush with the
rag.
Tariff reform and anti-sumptuary law
agitation are the great popular demands
of the day. In neither of these capital
needs of the hour is the Republican
party capable Of responding to the pop
ular aspirations. In the first place, as
to the tariff, that party has committed
itself in National Convention, and in
platform on which Harrison was nom.
mated and elected, even to the abolition
OF the whole internal revenue duties
rather than connive at the shaving off of
10 much as a thin gold leaf of
the war tariff. Whiskey, accord
ing to the Republican platform
on which Harrison was nominated :,
shall percolste free as water rather
than that the Pennsylvania Iron barons
andtheir remorseless confederates r-,.culd
suffer the dimipution Of duoat of their
expanded and indefsnsible earnings, in
which consideration for the workingman
has 30 often proved to be the vileet
hypocrisy. 1t is striking and horrible
commentary upon the election of Harri-
son that, following Immediately upon its
heels, five to ten thousand workers in
iron were hurled to their death in the
Conemaugh Valley because the wealthy
manufacturer proprietors Of reservoir,
used as fish preserve, disdained to take
the ordinary precautions which would
have saved the lives of their fellow men.
By singular inconsistency, the same
men who profesaed their willingness, in
the Chicago Convention which nom.
mated Harrison, to take the tax off Of
whiskey rather than that Carnegie ard
his kind should suffer the slightest
diminution of their millionaire gains,
want to regulate what man shall eat
and drink. In Iowa and Kansas they re-
fuse to allow him to import the sacrif-
cial wine in which he commentaries the
most solemn services of the Christian
church. Tothese fanatics, even W hen they
profess Christianity, the action of Christ
at the marriage feast of Cana, must seem
highly uncongenial, to say the least. But
the same party which prevents q man
from securing the essentials of his
Christian belief, when 1t comes to the
menaced interests Of protected Penn
sylvania iron-master-protected beyond
the needs of revenue of government
economically administered-is willing to
let whiskey go untaxed to perpetuate g
war tariff.
The Republican party is going through
it's last fantastic contortions. The era of
tariff reform-a tariff reform which
shall respect the obligations of justice
while sternly abolishing largesses to the
rich-and of personal liberty, is upon us.
That personal liberty will repel with
iron hand any intermeddling of one man
with what his neighbor shall desire to
eat or drink or wear. 1t will also dis
dain to make man pay four dollars for
a blanket when he ought to get it for two,
or eight dollars for a stove when he
ought to get it for four.
Between the fanatics of the Republican
party, who want to make whiskey and
luxuries cheap and stoves and blankets
dear, and the same fanatics, OF the same
party, who wish to deny to the religious
man his sacrifcial wine, and to the
harmless good liver his glass of beer, the
grand old party is in a bad way. 1t
would be hard to discover process OF
rejuvenatiou effectual to restore ite
waning vigor. Even q political DR..
Brown-sequard would be powerless to
rehabilitate the Republican party con
sidering the mess into which it has got
itself.
THE paper. published elsewhere in to-
days issue of the HERALD, from the pen
nf Tohn Shirlov Wopd Far IN pay,Iu f<