Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-05
DEMOCRATIC STRENGTH.
The Indecent Elements and Method
Which Keep Democracy Alive.

The Indecent Elements and Methods
Which Keep Democracy Alive.
The disfranchisement of half a mill
ion colored voters at the South is not
the only perilous question in the poll
tics of this country. The sinister vote
of the big cities massed for single
party tends towards danger, and will,
unless cured, become the cause of hope
less disaster. The Democratic party
owes its position to the crime of dis
reimbursement at the South, and to its
predominance through the corruptibili-
ty of ignorance, and through the ten
iency of vice in the slums of the cities
which flock to its support. The coun-
try, the rural population, the masses of
the people who live on the farms, in
the villages, and who work in the facto-
ries Of the country, are Republican by
large majority. Where there are virtue
and intelligence are the Republican
stropgholds. Republican majorities
come from the country vote, and when
the Republicans carry State they do SO
by virtue of the superior numbers of the
country voters over those of the great
ClLleS IN the SJdU6.
New York City is a marked illustra-
ton of this political truth. New York
City gives 10000 or $4,000 Democratic
majority, and this mass of political cor
ruption swamps the honest Republican
majority of $4,000 or 10000 in the in
terror of the State. 1t needs no great
wisdom to describe the Democratic
vote of New York City. 1t is made up
of the worst portion of the population.
The idle, the vicious and the criminal
uniformly vote the Democratic ticket.
The saloons are Democratic and the
number of saloons in New York City is
probably 5000 or 10000, each having a
big or little political following that
votes as the saloon votes. The class ad-
dicted to the less legitimate sports are
Democrats. The gamblers as class
are Democrats. The worse men-the
bunco steerers, the confidence men, the
professional thieves, the owners and
keepers of the solves" are Democrats.
That in the great cities many men of
worth and intelligence are Democrats is,
of course, true. But the Democratic
majorities-the bulk of the Democratic
vote in the great cities-come from
slums and all that is analogous to slum
life. New York State would never go
Democratic on any party question but
for the putrid voting masses in cities
who follow their worst instincts in all
that they attempt or accomplish.
Cincinnati and Cleveland made Ohio
Democratic on Governor and the Legis-
lature at the recent election. Cincin-
natl went Democratic on the saloon
question and the Sabbath question. The
Republican vote in Cleveland was d.
minished on the same issues. The
Democratic majority in Iowa was COM
posed of the saloon vote in the river
cities that is in rebellion against the
anti-liquor legislation of that State.
Chicago is another instance. The Dem
ocratic majorities come from those
wards or those precincts where every
other door opens into a saloon, and
where rum rules on election day. The
fact is patent, and will be accepted with
out evidence.
Education, integrity, morality, de-
cency, humanity are the basis of the Re
publican party, and the foundation upon
which it is built. The Republican party
may do wrong; it may make mistakes;
it may put unfit men in office; it may go
astray through bad leadership. But it
is as near right, generally, as any polit-
ical party can be; and it seldom goes far
astray. 1t would possess permanent
control of most of the States and of the
country at large but for the corrupt and
corruptible vote of the slum population
of the great cities, and but for wholesale
Acknowledgement at the South.-Chicago
Journal