The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-01-29
A SOUND SPEECH.
Fair and Honest Convictions of Ohlo's
New Governor.

Fair and Honest Convictions of Ohlo's
New Governor.
Gov. McKinley's inaugural address
TO the legislature of Ohio gives an adj
ditional probationary it hardly was
needed-of the wisdom of the majority
that elected him to the highest Office in
the state. The outcome of the campaign
involved not only the governorship but
the senatorship, and, inasmuch as that
involved national politics, Maj Mckin-
lev dealt largely. indeed chiefly, with
the great issues of tariff and currency
whenever he addressed the citizens of
the commonwealth. But now that the
legislature has done its duty to the
state and to the nation by the reelec-
ton of John Sherman to the senate the
residue of its duties are local to Ohio.
Nothing that any state legislature can
say or do after its senatorial election
can have any effect upon federal legis-
lation. So Gov. Mckinley makes no
allusiou to national affairs in his in
augural address As governor of state
he advises the legislature of the state
concerning the condition of the state,
the continued prosperity of its people.
And yet in at least two passages of
his speech be treats of principles and
practices in the fultillment of which
all the people of this republic are in
tere sted "You will be required" he
says, under the new census to redis-
trict the state for representatives in
congress This will afford you an OPP
portunity to arrange the districts with
fairness to all. Make the districts SO
fair in relation to the political divisions
of our people that they will stand I'M
til a new census be taken" These are
plain and courageous words The vice
of gerrymandering has infected most,
il not all, the legislatures of the states.
Its most virulent form has been OBJ
servable in close states or in republican
states in which the democrats have Oh
tanned an accidental majority, but
scarcely any state has escaped a mild
attack of this epidemic of political dis
honesty. In Ohio the democrats so
gerrymandered the districts that the
republicans, who have a normal ma
jority in fifty-one counties of the
eighty-eight that form the state, have
been able to elect but seven out of the
twenty-one congressman which it
sends to Washington. That is to say
the majority elected one-third and the
minority two-thirds of the COMPRESSION
aldelegates. This evil must be rem
edied, but the governor warns the re-
publican majority of its responsibility
to the people, as well as to the party,
and cautions it against dishonest re-
prisals for a dishonest act of its demo-
cratic predecessor. Deal honestly
with the people and they will deal
generously with you" has been Gov.
McKinley's rule of life, and in his most
statesmanlike message he impresses it
upon the legislature.
1t is local to the state OF Ohio that its
legislature make fit appropriation for
display of its resources at the worlds
Columbian exposition, but the spirited
tone of Gov. McKinley's advice as to
the action of congressman from that
state upon tn, question of additional
aid may have 4 national effect. The
people and their representatives" he
says, should urge upon congress such
action as will make the exposition
worthy Of the great even. that it cele-
brates, and worthy also Of the dignity
| and honor of the nation" This is in
the nature of keynote. Each state IS
interested in making a fine display of
| its own achievements but all the states
are interested in making the exposition
worthy OF the dignity and honor of the
nation.
The governors review of the prog
ress of Ohio during the years between
| the census of 1850 and that of 1890 is
full and satisfactory. The debts of the
state and its municipalities have de-
creased, their revenues have been en-
| larged. their resources multiplied, the
| farmers have passed from gloom into
sunshine. Ohio is more than prosper
| Gus; it stands among the richest COM
monwealths of the world, and, though
the governor does not repeat in his
message what he often said during the
campaign, the vast development of the
wealth of the state and the nation is
more due TO the republican policies OF
protection and honest money than to
any other causes.-Chicago Inter Ocean.