Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-09-22
Blaine and Harrison.

Blaine and Harrison.
Mr.. Blaine is not wholly lost to al
interested and often admiring populace
Blainiest things of his whole career
1t was think so deeply, darkly, beau
tifully Blaine that it lightens up this
dull campaign with a beam of delight
full and eminently malicious humor. /
was on a bright Autumnal afternoon
that he did it, on Tuesday, September
| 9th; and this is the manner of the do
ing of it. On that day, in the morning
Mr.. Benjamin Harrison, President o.
the United States and leader of the
Republican Party, who had overthrow
Mr.. Blaine in the National Convention,
and had won his own denomination in
the very teeth of Mr.. Blaine-on that
day Mr.. Benjamin Harrison put forth
his formal letter of acceptance for the
people of the United States to read.
Long, long had the public waited for
| it; long, long, had Mr.. Harrison lab
ored and toiled to produce it; written
and rewritten; altered and emended
patched and cobbled and filed at it, un-
til at last the day had come when he
was satisfied with it and willing to let
it go before the world to represent his
views and opinions on the political
questions of the hour. And so, forth it
came, bearing date of September Sd.
And so it came forth, six mortal col
umns of it, and a great silence follow
ed it. For it was a poor letter, a very
poor letter; SO poor letter that Re-
publicans had not the front to applaud
it. and Democrats had not the heart to
make fun of it. In the first place, it
w:se dull and uninteresting; and that
was fatal in itself, even if it hadn't had
a number of other things the matter
with it. 1t was loosely constructed
and Unbalanced affair that had neither
beginning, middle nor end. 1t had no
unity to it; it wandered and faltered
and turned this way and that; now en-
larging and celebrating generalities,
and now dropping into scrappy and
passages of fquerulous argu-
ment. In fact it was just the sort OF
letter that you might expect from
man who had been set to write thesis
on subject, or on a group OF subjects,
with which he was not familiar, in
which he was not deeply interested,
and upon which he felt unwilling clear
ly to commit himself, for fear of max
ing some unfortunate misstatement
whereof, his adversaries might take
And that is just exactly the sort of
letter it was; for Mr.. Harrison is to-day
the most conspicuous representative of
the large class of perfectly honest men
who take their opinions ready-made
from the party to which their senti-
ments attach them, and who very much
prefer to have the party do their
thinking for them. Protection is
the policy of the Republican party. and
Mr.. Harrison breaches protection just
as readily as he would preach Homo-
opathy or the Metric System if his par
ty saw fit to take up either one or the
other So far as the letter published
On September 9th gave evidence, Mr.. |
Harrison might never have devoted one
hour of his life to original and indie |
pendent thought upon the tariff ques-
tion-or, indeed, upon any of the var
ous themes which he treated. When |
t was not repeating the regulation
formulas of the party creed, such as
hey grind out on the Tribune compos- |
ng machine, Union-Labor, now,) it
dropped into the sort of talk that you
nav hear nowadays all over the coun-
,ry, in cars and ferry-boats and hotel
obbies; futile little odds and ends OF
IF discussion, illogical deductions from
meaningless facts. and cheap little ac-
,usations of inconsistency. Boil down
Ir. Harrison's original contributions to
hat letter, and you will find the gist
# them singularly like these familiar
tell you, sir, did fifty
,er cent more business this year than
did the first year Cleveland was
lected No Free Trade for mei"-
When my pardner was in St. Louis
asst month he saw with his own eyes a
ar-load of American tin-with his own
yes. sir! And you re going to tell me
here amt a tin plate industry after
hatr-..Do you mean to say there
int any lawlessness in the South?