The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-11-30
ELECTIONS.
And the Lessons Drawn From
Them.
A NOTED WEST vIRGINIAN
Discusses the Causes OF Democrat,
Victory.

Discusses the Causes OF Democrat
Victory.
The Register recently addresse,
request to prominent West Virgins
Democrats for their views concern
ing the results of the recent elections
and the causes to which those result
are to be attributed. Replies iron
three of the Weet Virginia Congress
sional delegation have been receiv
Below is one of them.
CHARLEsTowN, w. VA. Nov. IT,
SIR:-You ask my opinion as to tn,
meaning of the recent elections. M,
answer is that they mean steady
gravitation of the country to tn,
Democratic party on the policies il
now stands for, and quick contri
button to the conscience fund from
thousands who were last year de
luded into voting for General Harri,
son. The claim that such results
invariably follow Presidential cleo.
ton is overthrow by the contrary
experience of the Democratic party
in 1885; nor will it do to attribute
everything to local causes. do not
question their operation at certain
points, but / am struck by what Mr..
Samuel Weller would call "the won
derful coincidence" that local causes
every where fought on the Democrat.
ic side, and that they have done Sc
not onl V in the recent State elections,
but in prior municipal elections in
Newark, New Jersey, Indianapolis,
Indiana, Streator, Illinois, Norwich,
Connecticut, and many other places.
Granting them as much as may
be Justly due to local irritations,
there must have been some general
cause everywhere at work to account
for our general success, and l feel
justified in saying that the common
string on which all these victories
have been strung is the advancing
line of Tariff reform. The party
platforms in Massachusetts, New
York, Ohio and Iowa, were clear
aggressive and unmistakable on this
great issue. In Massachusetts, Mr.
Russell, who was only defeated by
coalition between the Republican
machines and the Boston saloon
keepers, made his canvas, as he has
heretofore done, chiefly ON that
issue.
THE FARMERS AROUSED.
An examination of the returns
shows that while we have held and
even increased the gains made last
year in the manufacturing centres
the advance guard of the great farm
er's movement, for which we so con-
fidently, but as it proved vainly,
locked in 1888, has at length reached
the Democratic camp, and that if we
but press the contest with unfaging
purpose we shall be steadily strength
ened by the great host. The debates
of the last canvass opened the eyes
of the working man showed him how
false and shallow is the claim that
his wages are upheld by high tar
if; and convinced him that existing
taxation not only throws ON him an
unjust share of the public burdens,
but narrows the field of his employ
ment, makes him more and more de-
pendent upon capital, and by its cen
tralization of wealth into few
hands, closes the road of advance
ment and of personal independence
to his children.
The farmer, East and West, is fast
learning that he too pays more than
his just share of public taxes, and in
addition thereto is held in bondage
by the monopolies that lodge in the
tariff, and through their new tangled
invention, the trust, yearly gather
into their Golfers the chief profits of
his toll, and the main fruits of his
industry and self denial. He is
learning that in promising a home
market protection has been feeding
him with an empty spoon, for the
very States where such a market
ought to exist to-day, rich in it's
profits as the dreams of avarice, are
making a census of their abandoned
farms and appointing commissioners
to urge foreign occupants to take up
the struggle for existence upon them,
that their recent owners have given
up in despair.
IN TILE GREAT WEST.
Nor is the New England farmer,
living within sight of the great mills
and factories alone in distress. The
wheat growers of the great Mississip-
pi Valley, with their deep and easily
titled soil, have just met in oonven-
tion in ST. Louis and unanimously
resolved, that their business is un-
profitable, that in spite of harder
work and more pinching economy
than other classes, they are yearly
sinking more deeply into debt; and
are compelled to see their children
grow up in ignorance and their wives
hurried by toll and drudgery into
premature graves.
Contrast with this widespread
agricultural distress, and the cry of
exhaustion that rises from some of
our manufacturing industries, the
exhibit made by Mr.. Thomas G.
Sherman in the last issue of the
Forum of "The Owners of the United
States" Without attempting more
than partial list, he mentions sew
enty names, whose average wealth
reaches nearly forty million dollars
each, and where separate possessions
range all the way from twenty up to
one hundred and fifty millions. He
shows that two hundred and fifty
thousand persons practically own
this entire country, and the residue
of the sixty millions of people are
becoming more dependent on them
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