Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-11
REPUBLICAN DEFEAT.
The Australian Ballot and the Supervisor.
at the Polls Said Co Have Helped.

The Australian Ballot and the Supervisors
at the Polls Said 60 Have Helped.
Correspondence Of The Evening Sta
New YORK. November n. 1892.
Now that IL is all over, people are beginning
to ask what the reason Of il. Ii Is easier 20
ask such = question than TO answer
it, The general trend Of opinion,
however. is that foreiold in this
correspondence weeks ago that lnnocen,-looking
instrument the Australian ballot had a pretty
considerable share in bringing about this re-
suit Readers Of The STAR will remember
that long ago as the early part Of
August the prediction was made in this CORE
spondence that the Australian ballot would cost
the republicans good many votes aud might
be an important factor In their defeat. And
the more the result is studied the more reason
there Is TO believe that il was one q
the factors which brought about the remark
able change in the voting among the masse-
Ii Is not meant by this that the Australian
ballot changed the sentiment of the voters but
that II led them 10 vote differently from what
they would have done IL there had
been no Australian ballot. Right or wrong.
there can be no doubt that the average en-
ployer has IN the past largely influenced the
vote of his employees And there can be no
doubt that the employers generally favored
protection. Hence their support of the rcpub-
hean ticket and the vote of their employees for
republican candidates.
FREED FROM RESTRAINT.
For years the employed class have felt them
selves under greater or less restraint in the
matter OF their voting, aud when they we're
free to vote unobserved aud without fear
Of their course being known and COM
planned OF by their EMPLOYERS they,
many of them. went as far in the other
direction. That peculiar quality Of human ma.
ture which resents dictation when an oppor-
tunity occurs for doing with safety uudoubt-
edly led thousands Of workingmen who
had voted in the past 10 please their
employers TO go just as far in the
could do so. In every state where these sur
prises have come the secret ballot
is in operation for the first
time in presidential election. En-
ployes who felt that they under restraint
formerly and have had petty grudges ~ various
portunity to take it out in quiet way and
have done so.
II is not assumed that the secret ballot has
made change of sentiment in the minds Of
the cause of the change in the
vote. There can be no doubt that
the masses have been largely Influenced by
the claim Of the democracy that the republican
party Is party of capitalists. corporations aud
the ''aristocracy." II is not meant by this to
hrStTI luhi btilcl II n one.
but it has been hammered into the
minds of these people long that many
of them doubtless believe il. And this fact
had undoubtedly much TO do with their util-
iZation of the secret ballot a means Of
putting the other party in control of the
government. Doubtless thousands Of them
also believed that lower tariff would give them
lower prices on good many of the articles
which they have occasion to buy. Clothing
and food are the chief articles for which your
average employed man or woman spends
his or her money. and thousands Of them
argue to themselves that the tariff does not
make their TODD any cheaper. and that a reduc-
ton of the tariff would make their clothing
cheaper. Only a small proportion Of the voters
of the country are employed by the manufac-
tories and a result only a small proportion
could see any direct results beneficial 10 them
in the matter of increased wages.
THE SUPERVISORS AND THE FORCE BILL
Another feature of the campaign. which il n
believed cost the republicans a great many
votes the force bill cry. supplemented by
the activity of the Department of JUS
tice and lite supervisors of elections
and deputy marshals at the polls. The
public mind had been put in condition to be
readily affected by the presence of officers Of
the government at the polls, and the i'm
mense amount Of talk made during the
closing DAYS of the election about
thousands of deputy marshals at the polls
doubtless had a marked effect. 1 was told to-
day of one prominent business man of New
York who had never voted anything but the re-
publican ticket who went to the polls intending
TO vote for Harrison. but Disguised
with the presence and conduct of numerous
toughs and disreputable looking heelers sport
ing badges of temporary deputy marshais and
making themselves generally offensive that he
tore up his republican ticket and voted for
Cleveland.
Most of the Washington correspondents have