Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-11-26
THE LESSON OF OHIO.
The Importance of National Issues in State
Campaigns.

The Importance of National Issues in State
Campaigns.
The New York Tribune, IN discussing
the recent election IN Ohio, and urging the
Importance of throwing national issues IN
a state campaign, says:
1.-The man who protests against existing
customs is always in the minority. But 1t
is the genius of the republican party to
seek better and ever better government in
every state, and therefore to protest against
all sorts Of abuses and evils, wherever they
appear. Its members are not always wise,
as the world goes. and do not always con-
fine their demands to those which the peo-
pie in the different states are ready to sup
port. Indeed, it is the nature of reformers
to be ahead of the majority. So it comes
to pass that on local issues the republicans
are apt to be defeated, because they almost
always expect from the people more intelli-
gence and more ardent DIES re for the pub
lie welfare than the voters are at the time
ready to show. On national issues the
party runs the same risk, but has the
restraint of different opinions in the diff
ferent states. It's demands for a better
and more fully protective tariff were met
by the republicans in congress-, under the
leadership of Major Mckinley, with the
bravest and best tariff bill ever framed.
The same state which elected Governor
Campbell by large plurality now elects
over him Major Mckinley by plurality
quite unusual in year when no president
is elected.
''These facts ought to sink deep into the
understanding of republicans everywhere.
They show that it is not wise to ignore
national issues on which the party wins
| - &C 30 90 Il
that no evasion or lodging of those issues
that the people would not hesitate to con-
DDS. Yet the result has proved that the
people of this state were not as anxious to
secure good state government as many re-
pubIicans suppose. Thousands of republi-
can voters failed to cast their ballots, and
many thousand more failed to register, so
that in the country districts the republican
vote fell short by many thousands of a fair
vote even for a state election. The contest
between Tammany hall, with all its cor
ruption and its debasing methods, did not
move the voters of this state as powerfully
as the plain issue between republican and
democratic national politics influenced fine
people of Ohio.
The leaders of the republican party
have occasion to consider this state of
| facts somewhat more seriously than they
have done hitherto Their strength lies
in the national policy of their party. They
cannot afford to dodge or ignore it on any
pretext whatever. Whenever and wherever
they do so, they are likely to be defeated,
and their divergence to local issues on any
pretext whatever is likely to lead them into
disaster On the other hand, the strength
of the party on national issues has never
been more fully illustrated than in the re-
cent election, and there is every reason to
believe, Judging from results Of these
elections, that in the national contest
which is coming next year the republican
party will be found stronger in New York,
as IL many other states, than it has been
found this year.