Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-09-13
'RAH FOR MAINE!

mental, colossal, unprecedented repub-
Ican victory was gained in this state
yesterday. Cleaves, rep. for governor,
was reelected by from 10000 to
$1,000, Tom Reed is returned to con
gress by 10000 or more and AIilliken
and BouteIIe by 1000 to 5000 major
ity. No such stupendous victory was
ever before scored here. Republican
majorities are nearly twice as big as
usual. Democrats are stupetied, re-
publicanS ecStatic.
In Vermont the returns from the
state election of Sept. 4 show direct
loss Of about 1876 democratic votes,
the republican vote increasing 9,112,
and the total vote 1901. No less than
26 per cent. of the entire democratic
vote III that state was lost, and more
than 20 per cent. cast for the repub
lican ticket. 1t does not matter Wheth
er the percentage is somewhat larger
or smaller; the only fact that counts
is that remarkably large proportion
voted with the republicans this year,
giving them majority of nearly 10000
nothing like it since the war; For
this phenomenon there are two eX-
plantations offered.
Free trade journals assert that the
heavy democratic loss occurred because
voters were displeased by the failure
of their party to change the tariff thor
oughly and radically. Free raw ma
terials had been promised and only
free wool given; revenue duties OH
manufactured products were promised,
but protective duties, sometimes higher
than those of the Mckinley act were
imposed. The wrath Of the voters was
because the tariff had not been reduced
enough, and the elections teach that
the democratic party cannot hope to
succeed until it lives up to its profess
sions and principles. That is one eX-
PLANTATION. The other is that prepare
ton for a democratic change and the
change itself have driven many thou
sand people out of employment, and
that the voters resent and punish what
the party did, and not what it failed
to do According to this view, the
party is whipped because it moved
toward free trade at all. The other
view is that the party is whipped
because it did not move further in the
same direction.
1t ought not to be difficult to deter
mine which of these views is the
CUrreCL one. If one is clearly sensible
and the other clearly not, it is some
thing very like dishonesty to set up
and reiterate false Interpretation.
One safe indication is that the demo
cratic loss was especially large i'll the
manufacturing towns. This points dis
tinctly to displeasure of manufacturing
workers, many of whom are out of en-
ployment, and who are not III the least
likely to resent the fact that duties
were not cut down more. Another in
dicaGon is that the people who de
Tended the democratic party in that re-
Sion set up the claim, not that it had
done all that it could in the way of
tariff revolution but that it had
really done very little and not enough
to hurt anybody. They presumably
knew what objections they had to COM
bat. But the surest indication Of all is
that the malcOntentS and rebelling
democrats, whose votes were with
vi q w II lAOlll NANlL Wv IL pSlIl IlOSllS
voted the republican ticket This the
returns prove as plainly as such re
turns can prove anything. But man
who is Disguised because his party has
not entirely reversed the republican
policy does not manifest his indigna-
ton by voting for republicans.
The tariff as it stood was a repub-
lican measure. Vermont. like other
states, had experienced under it re
markable expansion of industry, an
advance in wages, an improvementsin
business. When the threat of change
came in 1892, business began to decline
and industries to shrink. The loss con-
hnued more than a year, and has not
been repaired by the ragged, sectional
and indecently partial reductions of
duty made by democrats. The men
who voted the republican ticket under
such circumstances declared as plainly
as they could that they were dis
pleased because the republican policy
had been disturbed. He who offers
any other conclusion, under the circum-
stanceS, impeaches either his own in
telligence or his own honesty,
But if this is the meaning Of the
vote in Vermont, what is to be eX-
pected in other states? No doubt in
some, where free trade notions pre-
vail, there may be many democrats
whose disgust with the incompetence
of their party and its failure to keep
its pledges may lead them to refrain
from voting, or to vote with the popu-
lists. Probably the democratic party
In some states will lose a great many
votes in this way, though it would be
absurd to expect that such disSatis-
fed voters would transfer their sup
port to the party whose policy they
wished more completely uprooted In
all the great manufacturing and min
ing states Of the north, however. it is
reasonable to look for just such losses
as have appeared in Veralont. caused
by wrath because a benefcent repub- |
lican tariff was for a whole year de-
prived Of its helpful influence upon
business and industry by the threat |
of democratic change and has since |
been in large measure crippled by the |
change which has been effected
PARTY'S EXPERIENCE.
A Milwaukee man who made |
speeches in Milwaukee last spring