Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-11-14
LAST WEEKS ELECTIONS.

tEOih touNtihpidtiOh VI iaSt NVCh y
election returns, but it is frank to adj
NIT that it cannot. In every one of
the 13 States in which elections were
held, except Virginia aud Kentucky,
the Republican party either won a
signed victory or made encouraging
gains. 1t cannot be correctly claimed
that Republican success was due to To-
cal issues and conditions peculiar to
each State, such as a revulsion against
machine rule in New York, etc. for
varying local issues and conditions
such as would naturally be presented
in so many different States would new
er have produced results so uniformly
in favor of one and the same political
party. The success which has crown
ed the Republican standard and inspir-
ed that party with fresh courage and
hope is due. as we view it. to three pal
pable causes:
|. The failure of the Democratic par
ty to promptly deal with the tariff and
financial questions in accordance with
its platform and campaign pledges.
>. Mr.. Cleveland's Wall street finan
cial policy, by which he divided his
party.
3. 4 wide spread loss of confidence
in the honesty and ability of the Dem
ocratic party, as evidenced by the start
it has made, to carry out any policy OF
reform that would result in general
good to the people.
These are the surface causes of Tues
days Republican landslide. The real
cause lies underneath all these. In the
North and West there is a large ele
ment of foreign born voters and the
immediate defendants of foreigners
who are neither Republicans nor Dem
ocrats on principle. They are not
swayed by the prejudices or tradi
tons of either of the old parties. They
know nothing about the war and its is
sues and care less Their politics are
of the bread and butter hue. They
live in the great NOW, and they vote fol-
what is in sight, or what they think is
in sight, and not according to
the principles, traditions or old sec
tional prejudlces of their forefathers.
A year ago they were persuaded by nu-
merous object lessons and Democratic
teaching to believe that the Republi-
can party had brought the country to
the verge of ruin and that if that par
ty were turned out and the Democrats
put in, general prosperity would soon
be restored. They voted to turn the
out. No sooner had the
new Democratic Administration been
installed than it began to play into the
hands of the National banks and gold
bugs to create a financial panic to Sc
cure the decentralization of silver and
issue of more bonds. This was encour-
aged by the protected industries and
their organs, who made haste to pro
claim that the panic was due to fear of
Democratic tampering with the tariff.
AS result of it all, instead of the
great prosperity promised by the Dem
ocrats,the whole country was plunged
into the worst financial distress known
in years The unsentimental class of
voters we have described then conclud-
ed they had been basely deceived into
swapping the devil for the witch. and
so last Thursday, i'll spirit of disap-
pointment and revenge, they went back
to the Republican party.
OF course these voters who have
caused Democratic defeat have only
jumped out of the frying pan into the
fire. The Republican party, making
due allowance for the assistance it has
received from Democrats, is chiefly re-
sponsible for the legislation which has
precipitated upon the country present
conditions. The really discOuragine
aspect of it all is that any element OF
voters, sufficiently large to easily holC
the balance of power between the two
old parties, should be so capricious anC
have 50 little discernment as to be
swinging like the pendulum of clock
from one to the other, with no pros
pect of accomplishing any substantial
good, instead of striking straight for /
new party that means something. Il
is folly to look to the Democratic par
ty for any substantial reform. 1t is
madness gone to seed to place the Re
publicans in power again with any such
hope. But it looks after all that there
will have to be still greater distress
among the masses than there has yet
been, possibly revolution itself, before
a majority of the American people will
be brought to realization of this fact
THE WHITE CAP CASES.
There is general feeling of relief
that the White Cap cases in this coun-
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