Huntsville gazette., 1893-10-21
THE NEXT CAMPAIGN.
Foreshadowings OF the Political Struggle
of 1896.

Foreshadowings OF the Political Struggle
of 1896.
About a dozen more or less conspicu-
| GUS republicans, most of whom are in
one or the other branch of congress,
and who represent all sections of the
country, have been giving their views
as to the issues and party prospects OF
1896. The majority of them, of course.
think that the tariff will be at the
front at that time, and many of them
believe that the finance question will
still be of absorbing interest when the
next presidential campaign is entered
upon. The labor question in some OF
its many phases will, as few OF them
think, be more prominent than 1T has
thus far been in national canvass,
while the question of honest elections,
according to others, will take leading
place in the campaign Almost all the
persons taking part in the symposium
take hopeful view Of republican
chances. If the proper candidates be
put up by the republican convention,
and the canvass be conducted with
reasonable degree of vigor and intelli-
gence, they believe that republican
triumph may be looked for with con-
fidence.
Ordinarily estimates of chances in
canvass three years away, even when
made by close and experienced OBJ
servers, are not to be relied on very
implicitly. Personal preference, too, as
in this case, is apt to affect the view to
a certain extent, and to bias the judg-
ment. The factors in the situation are
SO numerous and SO difficult to guage
accurately that forecast at this time
for 1896 will not be very satisfying to
anybody. Yet it is undou btedly safe
to say that the chances of the republic-
ans are about as good as those of the
democrats. Responsibility for govern
ment for the time being is in demo-
cratic hands, and any mistakes which
are made as we'll as any financial or
industrial reverses which the country
may sustain will react harmfully on
that party. In constructive legislation
the democracy is not strong. 1t has
had very little experience in running
the government since before the war,
and as a consequence it is seriously
handicapped at the outset. And at the
present time, when It's majority in both
branches of congress is SO great, the
temptation to blunder is particularly
strong.
1t may be predicted with tolerable
degree of confidence that no party in
the near future will enjoy long pc
riod of uninterrupted power. The days
when one party could dominate the
country for 4 dozen or two dozen years,
battling all the endeavors of the other
organization to gain the ascendant,
have departed, at any rate for the time
being. Federalist blunders, fragrant
and repeated, in the early days OF the
government gave the democracy its
long lease of sway, and democratic fol
lies and crimes long afterward put the
republican party in power and kept it
in nearly quarter of century. But
the conditions now are radically differ
ent from what they were when John
Adams and James buchanan stepped
down from the presidency. Neither the
circumstances of politics nor the tenn
per of party leaders are favorable to
the long-continued ascendancy of any
organization. Active canvasses, in
which each party puts its best men at
the front, and short periods of power,
are likely to be the order of the day for
the immediate future. On the great
questions on which the elections of
the next decade or two are reasonably
sure to turn the people are sep
arated into two approximately equal
divisions, and it is reasonable to look
for a more frequent shifting of power
from one to the other party than was
known in the past. Louis Globe
Democrat,