Los Angeles herald., 1891-04-09
MORE POLITICAL srRAws-rHE DRIFT.

Any one who cares to pay any atten-
ton to the political signs of the times
would do well to note the fact that the
elections IN Colorado showed strong
Democratic trend. For the first time in
the history of Denver it has Democrat
ic mayor. The elections throughout the
state at large show an equally pro-
nounced Democratic tendency. The
most conspicuous feature of the last ses-
sion OF the senate of the United States
was the affiliation of the Republican
senators from the west with the Demo-
cratic party on such vital questions as
the force and silver bills. Jones, Stew
art, Stanford, Wolcott, and others. stood
in solidly with the Democratic minority,
and prevented legislation which would
have been of incalculable injury to the
country. The sentiment in the western
states could not have been better exem-
plified than by Senator Stanford's plucky
attitude on the force bill prior to his re-
election. He had an interview tele-
graphed out to the Pacific coast, in
which he unhesitatingly avowed his op-
position to such schemes of sectional leg
islation. He was elected, notwithstand-
ing, hands down. The sentiment of the
people of this state could not have been
emphasized more broadly than by the
subsequent election OF Hon. G. N. Eel
ton as Senator Hearst's successor. You
could no more get this liberal minded
Republican to vote for force bill than
you could get him to murder his grand
mother. AS matter of fact, the Hoars,
Lodges and other fanatic members of
the Republican party are becoming
strangers in their own organization.
That Mr. Harrison is responsible for
much of this cannot be doubted. The
country was surprised when it found
how really small man Harrison is.
When he added to his mental and moral
dwarfhood the petty spites and passions
of the feeble forcible element of his
party this surprise was intensified into
disgust. When, supplemental to all
this, he showed himself the plant tool
of Wall street, the western people had
no further use for him or his party.
That there is great change in western
sentiment every straw shows.
Our Republican contemporaries will
of course seek to make the most of a
few trifing gains in Kansas, which on
the surface would seem to indicate that
that state has gone back on its late re-
pudiation of the Republican party. But
the fact must be borne in mind that in
the municipal elections in Kansas
women are permitted to vote, and that,
therefore, the returns of day before
yesterday are no real indication of how
the state would 60 in genuine political
election.
There is certainly no consolation for
the Republican party in the result in
Michigan. The election of Hon. Will
lam F. Villas as United States senator
from Wisconsin would point out that
state as very shaky pillar of the
Republican edifce. The facts that
Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York have
Democratic governors, while Illinois has
Just elected Democratic United States
senator, with the probability that Chi
cago has elected a Democratic mayor,
all are combinations sure as proof of
holy writ that the Republican party is
in a remarkably precarious condition.
Its faculty of recuperation has been
good in the past, but that was in the
days when it had able, virile and indom-
liable leaders. No wonder Senator Ed
munds desires to retire to private life.
He sees the handwriting on the wall,
and has no desire to figure as a sort of
political last rose of summer, left bloom
ing alone.
All the signs of the times indicate that
the Democratic party only needs to show
decent respect to western sentiment to
win the coming presidential election by
an unprecedented majority. There are
Democrats who can carry New York,
Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, In
diana, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jer-
sey, California and the solid south.
That is the kind of statesman who
should be picked out as the Democratic
standard d-besrer. 1t is as easy to select
such a man as it is to pitch on leader
who would carry scarcely any of them.
-
THE Express yesterday INDUCES in a
very lame defence OF the action of the
board of supervisors in attempting to
make Mr.. Aaron Smith the beneficiary
of the sum OF 1882 at the expense of the
taxpayers of Los Angeles. Our contem-
porary thinks that because Pomona,
Riverside and other regions supported
lobby at Sacramento it was incumbent
upon the board of supervisors to squan-
der the nnhlic money. There is a very