The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-06-13
SETTING PRAIRIEs OK FIRE.

Yesterday the Chicago Inter Ocean
spoke of the campaign of 1890 in Ill
ineis and told the republican party
that it would be folly to shut its eyes
to the dangers which beset it and
threatened defeat.
The Inter Ocean has a unique theory
of victory. Turn loose Uncle Dick
Oglesby, says the editorial Moses, and
give them a campaign of republican
eloquence like that of 1854 when the
state was electrified by Oglesby and
Bob Ingersoi. .sNurtured in the
whig school, Governor Oglesby is root
ed andgrounded in protection;" this the
Inter Ocean promises, will convert all
the farmers to the Mckinley bill and
kindle the praires with enthusiasm.
'The great heart of the Republican
party, from Cairo to Chicago, would
beat with joy and confidence if it were
announced that Uncle Dick would take
off his coat and make good old fash
ioned canvass of the state.
Your Uncle Richard is a talker of
fluent oiliness and undeniable staying
powers. But there is difference be-
tween 1854 and 1890. Eloquence has
to be divided between audience and
speaker. When the audience thinks
one thing and the speaker is feverent
about another joy and confidence do
not grow like corn in June. Uncle
Dick might talk in his most buttery
fashion and ride his figures of speech
around the ring in his best old fashion
ed way, but he could not convince the
Illinois farmers of to-day that con-
tracted currency and 100 per cent
tariffs are blessings. The whig school
bred Governor Ogelsby, but it did not
breed many of the farmers who will
vote this year. If it had bred them
and they remembered it's teachings
they would go back to Henry Clay's
speeches and find out that the father
of the whig school believed in temper
airy protection for the establishment of
industries, and promised that long be-
fore 1890 very small protective duties
would alone be left. They could not
remember any whig lessons which
taught that duties should be higher
and higher to the end of time. Nor
did any whig ever advocate demoneti-
zation of silver.
Uncle Dicks coat might come off
in the intensity of his eloquence. He
might discard his boiled shirt and
make his old fashioned canvas in fan
mel duties raised by the Mckinley billy
and find still that the farmers were in
credulous, unsympathetic and often
able to scatter his ancient arguments
with few modern truths.
Dangers beset the Republicans in all
the states and they can not be repuls-
ed with an eldar stick popgun volley
of coatless Ogelsby eloquence. The
people are ready for facts and for
proofs. They are very good judges
of finance and tariffs as we'll as old
fashioned eloquence and when wheat
corn and cattle get below profitable
prices they will dispense with much of
the eloquence in order to get clear
light ON the causes of depression.
Illinois people read. When their
business is depressed they read what
is said about the matter. The Chicago
Tribune has told them more than the
Inter Ocean and Governor Ogelsby to-
gether about the tariff. Congressman
Payson of their state has told them
through the newspapers that his party
caucus has betrayed the interests of
the country in its silver bill. From
such Republican sources they are in
formed that the Inter Ocean and Uncle
Dick have got on the wrong side of the
wing line.
This campaign of 1890 is not one
where fancy oratOry counts. What is
being done with the peoples money
and their business is the question of
the hour, and the speakers must come
down to bedrock.