Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-13
THE THIRD PARTY QUESTION.

TheSummary of results claimed by the
leaders of the Peoples party as the fruit
of their agitation includes one million
votes for the Weaver electors, twenty
three electors, five United States Senators
and ten Congressman, the State govern
ments of Kansas, Colorado and North
Dakota and large gains in several State
Legislatures. To this summary the New
York Sun adds the testimony of its
opinion that "the heavy popular vote for
the Populist electors IN some of the
Southern States serves principally to show
that under the conditions existing in 1892
the solid South would have been broken
and its solid electoral vote lost to the
Democracy had not the Force Bill issue
been put at the front"
This summary with the comment of our
cotemporary designed to magnify the i'm
portance of the putative issue, by virtue
of which it was able to keep itself within
the Democratic ranks, contains food for
reflection on many points. For the De-
mOcracy it presents the claim that they
were enabled to maintain their strong
hold in that anachronistic and sectional
feature of politics, the solid South, only
by parading a spook of an issue, which
had little foundation in fact and which
was diSavowed by the Republicans early
in the campaign. 1t may not appear Sc
rious to the Democrats that they have re-
tanned the South by the cry of "wolf,"
but in the presence of the asseveration
that they would otherwise have lost it
there is the further suggestion that very
wise course is necessary to prevent the
loss of that stronghold in the future by
the decay of sectionalism.
For the Republicans there is in this as
sertion the reflection that the party actions
which gave what little foundation there
was for the Force Bill cry was neither
good legislation nor good politics. This
was the view of THE DISPATCH at the
time the Federal election bill was pend
ing. The bill was pushed to the last gasp
by party interest; but the result indicates
that the political effect was as dangerous
at the breech as at the muzzle.
The scare of the Peoples party in the
late contest is, in its entire ty, the most
fruitful subject for reflection. The result
shows the new party to have gone some
what beyond the high-water mark of the
Greenback agitation. Both of these re-
volts were caused by dissatisfaction with
conditions. Will the Peoples party die
out as the Greenback movement did,
or will it, as its supporters expect, gain
in strength until it reaches controlling
strength? The answer to this win depend
on the action of the other parties and
largely on that of the Peoples party it
self. Reform of corporate abuses and
care for public rather than private inter-
ests may remove the active causes of the
Third party revolt. Failing that, the
Peoples party itself, by abjuring crank
isms and confning its agitation to definite
remedies for well established evils, may
SO commend itself to the confidence of the
pu6liO as to become an active instead
of neutral power in politics.
Certainly the phenomenon of Third
party casting million votes in the na-
tional election is not one to be ignored.
Intelligent craftsmanship will find great
deal Of food for study in it and its posi-
BILE future.
ANYTHING that tends to STIR up genuine