The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1891-07-31

Z oeslkins Instance ~ uslarnism o. Amer-
lean rolIeleA

To people who are outside Of the re-
publican party, and arc In no danger q
being compromised by the result. IN.
steady extension Of what may be calles
Mckinley worship in that party Is 4
matter Of interesting study not devote
Of . certain irrevercnt amusement
There has been nothing like Il In mod
| ern times except the movement that
| produced the ghost dances OF the past
| winter among the northwestern Sioux.
| Perhaps II is Of some significance that
this peculiar form Of superstition gains
. foothoid among parties and races in
which the intellectual and moral forces
are rudimentary either from arrested
development or from degeneration ow-
ing 20 persistent nonu.e. AT q certain
stage in the upward or downward
course Of the human mind the tendency
70 see In some actual or imaginary per-
son the embodiment OF the qualities
needed to bring about either salvation
rom threatened evils or restoration "a
sost states Of satisfied wants and desires
IS very strong, and when this tendency
manifests itself among large numbers
OF persons OF fairly equal intelligence.
Or unintelligence. of cxcitable temporal
ment, and Of strong and common preju-
dlees, il frequently gives rise to the
most extravagant and grotcsque prac-
tees and 70 the most disproportioned
and unbalanced ideas And II is often
characteristic Of this form Of delusion
that the person clothed with these pro-
foundly trusted and admired attributes
Is in reality very commonplace and
even ridiculous
In the case Of the aborigines whose
conception of an American system
extends not only TO the monopoly Of
he home market in game and scalps.
but TO the exclusion from America and
from human existence Of all whose an
cestors were foreign to this country be-
fore the seventeenth century. it will be
noted that the object Of their worship
Is described as nothing more nor less
than half-idiotic. half-insane red man
with brain just of the proper capacity
TO shut ont any but strictly red Ameri-
can ideas. In the case Of our republic-
an fellow-citizens. the representative
of the politico-messianic notion Is Mr.
fondlv termed by his de-
voted followers "Bill" Mckinley. which
appellation seems to them happily to
link the author TO his work, the McKin-
lev bill Judged by the standards Of
ordinary criticism Of political ability,
Mr.. Mckinley is the last person who
would seem 10 be fitted to excite enthu-
siasm amounting To real or apparent |
His career previous TO the |
Fifty-first congress was. il not entirely I
obscure. certainly not eminent or even |
He worked along in the !
house of representatives with neither
more nor less Of distinction than falls to I
The lot Of a score of country members. \
But in that congress. partly by chance
md partly from lack Of any better ma
erial. Mr. Reed maze him chairman az \
he ways and means committee, and 1t \
became his fortune TO link his name
With the measure that embodied the
modern republican idea OF protection
hat was made the great issue in the
elections Of last year and that was in
lignantly and overwhelmingly con-
lemned by the American people. Not
'nly was his name linked with this mo
nentous measure. but he was in reality |
more responsible for its provisions than
nyone else. The neg citations bv
which the bill was framed to deal out
avors where they would bring the
highest price were naturally not such
) could be trusted 10 many agents
IcKinlcy took charge Of them. and
here was not in the bill when II went
Q the senate a single shady job that
ad not passed through his hands.
II might have been thought that
when this amazing measure had done
$ fatal work and buried the repub-
can majority in the house the party
rould have dropped its author and
urned to some new leader to guide it
ack TO the power from which it had
cen 50 mercilesslv swept But the
hief difficulty in this line was that
here Is nothing in modern republican,
SIN but protection and nothing in mod I.
IN protection but McKinleyism. II Is
in politics. There is no god
ut Protection. and Mckinley IS his
rophet So when the doubly-defeated
-atiCI IcC3stTtQ lIoln us 0m0Zemenf :
the outcome Of his labors, he found /,
le leaders of his party more be- :
ildered than he had been, and he
started the cry that time !;
ould justify him and his policy The :
srty press, sorely at a loss for anv-
hing to say, took up the cry. The :
nzzled readers took il from the press. {
I'd almost before they knew il the
lrty managers found the name Of Nc
inley on everyone's lips and McKin- :
' himself audibly protesting all over /.
e country that he was the Heaven :
lected leader ~ republican,. II is !.
conceivable that the men in the high !
aces Of the party. Mr. Harrison. Mr.. :,
laine. Mr. Reed. Mr.. sherman. and % Z
!, do not understand the absurdity Of !
is curious enthusiasm for Mckinley.
is persistent kailing as a savior the
an who more than anyone else ruined
e party. But they cannot help them :
Ives. They have nothing and nobody = :
tier TO offer They have neither the :
isdom nor the holiness TO change the =
urse Of the party. And so Mckinley Y
averses the country addressing re- J. !,
iblican meetings and clubs. firing the J. |.
arts Of the local chiefs with after y
nner eloquence. and received every =