Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-11-23
HOW IT ALL HAPPENED.

Goddess of Reform" thinks the Wilson
bill was fatal in the recent election, be-
cause it was mot a democratic measure,
even before it left the hands of the au-
thor, or after it had been mangled and
distorted by the senate" and that it
disappointed public expectations and
stuffed the party pledge and-opened
the way for towards to dodge and for
traitors to conspire, playing into the
hands of the protectionists, and making
havoc with every democratic interest, in
the mean time" Thus declaring, he
adds that Mr.. Wilson accomplished his
wndefeat by listening to the counsels
of others less courageous than he, and
not daring to stand firmly for the pledges
of his party.' But Professor Wilson af-
firms that the humiliation of the house
bill" did the business, and that "had the
bill which passed the house on the LIST
day OF February, passed the senate as
early as April or May, in substantially
its original shape, the result in Missouri,
and in many other sections of the coun-
try, would have been reversed" The
people, in his opinion, have administered
punishment, because the party did not
carry out with sufficient promptness and
thoroughness, the work they committed
to it, and because they held the whole
party responsible for the action of a few
of it's representatives in thwartlng, de.
laying and manning this great work.
I'm Missouri and in other States where
the democracy is intensely for free
trade, many thousands stayed away
from the polls" says Wilson, "and be-
cause the party had not keptit it's pledges"
He trusts, it is evident, that the pas
sage of further free trade bills will quiet
things. He seems to have overlooked
the fact that thousands of those who
stayed away in Missouri and other states
did so because the party had not enacted
free coinage. The New York Tribune
says that the people have not rejected
tariff reform, because the democratic
loss was as great in states which are
represented by compromise senators and
were favored by them as anywhere else,
But it ignores the fact that those sena-
tors did what they could to emasculate
the bill, because they we'll knew that in
their largely manufacturing states the
measure would turn thousands of demo.
cratic workingmen against the party in
spite of all they could do. If Senators
Smith and Murphy and Brice and Cor
man should speak, they would declare
that the democratic loss would have been
far greater if they had not succeeded in
doctoring the bill.
Thus three distinct democratic fac
tions as to the tariff question alone come
into view. Democrats from manufac-
turing states say the bill is too bad as
it stands, and the Wilson bill would
have been worse. Mr.. Wilson says
mutilation of his bill did the mischief.
and, with the Herald, declares that the
party must go further. But Mr.. Wat
terson treats all these compromises with
evil as causes of defeat, and stands for
the platform which he forced the party
to adopt in convention, holding all pro.
lection unconstitutional. Each element
has democratic states and a strong BODY
of democratic voters behind It. No
wonder Mr.. Watterson in his latest in
terview is mot certain whether we
have got any democratic party or not"
and predicts a strong effort to 'raise the
strange banner of silver" which may
split the party into a thousand pieces,
or destroy it altogether"
Plainly, the defeat has not enlightened
democracy very much. "Ephraim is
joined to his IDOLS" and if the wage
earners of the country want any defense
whatever for their industries, their one
hope is in %upholding, not the compro.
misers. who have to barter with free
traders in order to do anything, but the
party which advocates prote ,tion as the
only national poIicy.-Trlbune.