River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-11-13
WHY2

III SutuIDlDp up lilc lCouiIS VI LILO
recent November election Republicans
find little vi consolatory nature.
direct way. entered into the elements
which contributed to the defeat of
the Republican party in its appeal to
the people for their approval of its
stewardship during the past two years.
An exhaustive analysis of these fac
tors would require greater amount
of space than we at present have to
devote to the subject, but few OBJ
servations thereon would seem peril
the principal causes by which the
lower house OF Congress has been lost
to the Republicans will be found in
the gross and shameful misrepresenta-
tions of the Mckinley tariff law by
Democratic speakers aud writers.
These Misrepresentation were con-
menced upon the first introduction Of
the bill and most industriously con-
tinued until the night of election. Inc
law was one of recent enactment and
sufficient time had not elapsed since
its passage TO give its provisions fair
and legitimate trial. Though the
JOURNAL offers no apology for being
Republican paper, it is not so blinded
by partisan prejudice that it fails to
recognize an unfortunate condition OF
affairs Tor which the Republican party
seems to have been held responsible.
Whether or not this responsibility has
been justly fixed cuts no figure in
counting from the ballot-b0x the cold
slips of paper which record the ver-
dict of the people for change. 1t is
simply a record of fact from which no
appeal can be taken until the next
Presidential election. Silver-tongued
orators who emerge from luxuriously
furnished homes paid for from fat
government salaries or from the sale
of protected articles of manufacture,
and metropolitan newspaper writers
who sit in elegantly upholstered chairs
and draw big pay for penning learned
editorials upon the prosperous condi-
ton of the country, do not realize the
hardships of the toiling masses. The
farmers who since the last Presiden-
tial election have sold much produce
for less than the actual cost of produc-
ton, and who are unable to pay the
interest upon their indebtedness to
say nothing of reducing the principal,
while the manufacturer steadily adds
TO his fund in bank, do not realize
that degree of prosperity alleged to
have an existence throughout the
country and fail to enthuse over the
glowing pictures painted by those who
know no financial embarrassment.
The farmers to whom we refer have
been reinforced by thousands of labor
ers who have become FESTIVE under
what they denounce as the oppression
of capital, and hand in hand these two
disconnected elements have voted for
a change. whether wisely or not re-
mains to DO seen.
The defeat of the Republican State
ticket and the election of Demo-
cratic legislature are sources of sim
cere regret because of the grave i'm
portance of the issue involved. 1t is
an expression of the popular will
against compulsory education and
should the victors insist upon the full
fruits of their victory blow against
our public school system. AT no time
previous to the election did it seem
possible that upon this question could
such verdict be rendered. We seri-
ously question the purpose of the
Democratic party to redeem its i'm
piled pledges to those whose votes
have restored it to power in Wiscon-
sin. More conservative counsels will
prevail in the hope of REFRESHING that
righteous Indignation which would be
aroused by any attempt to seriously
cripple the common schools.