Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-11-23
FACTORS IN THE FIGHT.
The Tariff Question Not Affected by the



Tho Tariff Question Not Affected by the
Late Elections.
With is splendid record Of achieve
ment in the last presidential election
the party can well afford to be mag
unanimous in permitting its opponents
to exult at their own sweet will over
the ''off year" victories at the recent
election. If experience furnishes any
guide they will probably achieve still
more victories next year; for it has al
most invariably happened that the
elections of the second year of presiden-
tia1 administration have proven more
or less disastrous to the administra-
ton.
At the same time the republican
party and its organs should not be per-
mitted unchecked to draw from the
elections conclusions which they will
not bear. Especially should they not
be permitted to assert unchallenged
that the results are in any sense indie
alive Of changed attitude on the
part of the American people toward
tariff reform. Such is not the fact
The republican successes were
achieved in New York. Ohio, Massachu-
sets and Iowa. In only one of these
was the tariff at all in issue or the re-
suit to be in any way attributed to
change in the ointment of the country
on that issue. In the state of Ohio the
contest was unquestionably fought on
the national issue. 1t could hardly be
otherwise with one Of the candidates
the embodiment of that issue as it pre-
sents itself to the people to-day. Gov.
Mckinley undoubtedly owed his NOM
ination largely to the fact of his prom
inence as an exponent of the doctrine
of high protection, and good many
perhaps the majority-of the votes he
received can be credited to the belief of
his party in the state in that doctrine.
A good many of them were due, how
ever, to the desire of the republican
party in the Buckeye state to furnish
the candidate for the next republican
convention, and belief on their part
that the election of Mckinley at this
time would be long step in that direc-
ton. 1t should be borne in mind, how
ever, that, large as the victory in Ohio
was, it does not indicate any real
change in the sentiments of the state in
respect to the tariff. Mckinley carried
the state on the same issue in 1891 and
Harrison by smaller plurality in 1892.
Ohio stands to-day just where it has fer
the past two years on the tariff ques-
ton.
In neither of the other states was the
tariff issue raised, either directly or in
directly. In New York the battle was
against q nomination which the best
elements of the state-including demo-
Gratis merable--regarded as grossly
improper and wrong. The rebuke adj
ministered to Tammany and Maynard
cannot be looked upon as the express
sion of even an opinion on the tariff
In Iowa the really important question
was that Of prohibition. The tariff
played no part Even if it had a repub-
lican victory could not well be called a
gain for the tariff, in view of the fact
that Harrison carried the state last fall
by more than 23, OOO In Massachusetts
the state of affairs was substantially
the same, barring the prohibition fac
tor The tariff was in no sense an is
sue; and if it had been a vote against
tariff reform would have indicated no
change in the sentiment of the state
On the last occasion. when the tariff
was in issue, the state gave the protec-
ZIONIST candidate plurality of $4,000
and upwards, though the democratic
candidate for governor was at the same
time elected on state issues by a plural
ity of II, 200.
Republicans will seek in vain the re-
turns for any evidence of a change in
popular sentiment with respect to the
need there is of tariff reform. They
will undoubtedly use their best en-
deavors to persuade the public-and
especially the democracy-thatt there is
such evidence, in the hope that they
may thereby secure for their monopo-
listic members some postr onemento of
the reform or its partial abandonment
They have already begun work on this
line and are calling attention to an
alleged .change of heart in democratic
tariff reformers caused by the lesson of
the elections. It is case. however,
where 1.-The wish is father to the
thought" Outside of their anxious and
picturesque Imagination there is no
such change. There is no occasion for
any, either in the recent elections or
elsewhere. The demand for the reform
and revision of the tariff is as strong
as it was when the people of the coun-
try made it at the ballot box in Novem-
Der, 1892: and there is no more excuse
now than there was then for any fail
ure on the part of the democracy to
heed the voice of the people.-Detroit
Free Press.