The record-union., 1892-11-01
NOT APATHETIC, BUT THINKING
CAMPAIGNS.

There is much talk of this being an
spathetic campaign-it is a mistake. 1t
is not hurrah campaign, and we are of
those who believe such are gone to re-
main. The Boston Transcript puts it
well when it says:
There are campaigns that really are national
educational processes, and the present is one
OF them. There is little marching" and less
shouting. The streets of our cities are not
made bright as monday with the glare OF
torches. The brass bands get only a very few
engagements, aud the drum corps have hard
work TO drum up business. Yet, despite the
absence OF these accustomed demonstrations
OF poIltlcal earnestneSs, the campaign is in
earnest. The rallies whenever a man who has
anything to say is billed to speak are crowded.
People talk over what is said on their way to
Ihelr homes, and in their homes.
The truth is this is a newspaper and
magazine-reading age. The press has
taken the place of the banner and the
torch, and reading is substituted for
parade. The press has not wholly elimi-
mated the stump, nor will it ever do so,
but the orator after all finds his largest
audience in the masses who read the re-
ports of his speeches.
Not very many years ago the stump
speaker cared little what the press re-
ported of his speeches; to-day the correct
report is his first care. Were Clay living
to-day he could not afford to despise the
press reports as of old, for he would real
ize, as do the statesmen of the hour. that
for one who reads an official document
with full report Of legislators speeches,
en- thousand read the abridged reports of
le daily and weekly press.
The reviews and magazines also have
come forums of debate, and the growth
hese vehicles of expression testifies to
fact that the people do read the
n debates that take place in them.
\ concise age; the long speech tires
'iences of to-day, whereas fifty
go men took "a half day off"
- the stump orators of campaign
arrived in town, and gave up many
hours to listening to joint debates that
now would not hold an audience more
than two hours. Colfax and Walker
frequently debated an entire afternoon in
the towns of Indiana, and the politicians
of the West were, but thirty years ago,
accustomed to hold audiences for a half
day in political debates. Now, the busy
man, the weary man, listens an hour un-
der protest, and for excuse declares that
he will get the speech he is urged to listen
to in his morning paper with greater
satisfaction.
We doubt if people think upon political
issues any more deeply than they did in
the forties; but this is true, more people
think upon governmental propositions,
and more people, thanks to the press,
are informed upon them. All the more
reason exists then to-day for intelligence
underlying citizenship, and for the edu-
cational test being applied to the voter.
No government can rest firmly upon a
substructure of ignorance. As the hurrah
and parade have declined and reading
has advanced, the illterate class becomes
more dangerous and the reading class
more potential and safer. Let US then
discourage the first by educational
qualifications for the exercise Of the
franchise, and thus stimulate men to be-
come of the latter class.