The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-10
Joseph Dana Miller on the Defeat.

INSSAtCtS.
Joseph Dana Miller on HI Defeat.
We print today a letter from Mr.. JOS
eph Dana Miller, written in that gentle
mans usual interesting style, in which
an effort is made to reach the funda-
mental causes of Tuesdays defeat. That
the effort is a failure in a large degree
results, we think from the too great de-
preston to which Mr.. Miller gives
way on account of the set back given to
the cause in which he is an enthusiast.
The error Mr.. Miller makes is that OF
finding too much fault with the De-
mocracy and too little with everyone
else. We are not inclined to be over
lenient with some of our leaders. We
are far from c~ondoning the errors of the
last Congress-, and, yet, we think the
party has been punished beyond its de-
serts-far beyond-through a crazy i'm
pulse of the public mind ndustriousiy
stimulated by lies and appeals to preju-
dice of all sorts,
We cannot, for instance. find any
reason for joining with Mr.. Miller in
denouncing the Wilson bill as an tut
terly inadequate application of the prin-
ciples which had won such a splendid
victory at the polls" 1t was certainly
Inadequate as a final settlement of the
tariff question, but is seems to us to
have gone as far as the situation war
ranted or as the people counte on when
they voted that splendid victory. There
is a difference between holding radical
principles and working for their ultimate
success. and that reckless revolutionary
spirit which fails to see that reform
may be an unmixed evil when it is sud
den and radical at the same time. 1t
may be questioned whether radical
change could have done much more
harm than the protracted period of I'M
certainty which followed the introduce
ton of the Wilson bill, but assuredly
this was not the fault of the bill but of
the Senators whom we all agree in con-
demning.
Yet, once again, we cannot agree with
Mr.. Miller in his unqualified disapproval
of the Senate bill. We do not regard it
at the worst, its faults are negative.
The free wool feature is accepted by Mr..
Miller as a strong merit. Experience
seems to show that it does not especially
favor the Sugar Trust, while it cuts off
the bounty system. 1t makes great re-
auctions in numerous commodities in
common use. It has already shown
marked signs of stimulating foreign
trade. It seems to us to be an enormous
Improvement upon McKinleyism, and in
fact so fair a tariff bill from the aver
age point of view. that the Republicans,
when they come back to power, will
have much difficulty in assailing it.
The trouble is not so much with the
Democratic record as with the way in
which it has been assailed by extreme
Democrats like Mr.. Miller, who, because
the general level of the party would not
rise to their level, w vituperated it
so c-onscientiously that the public. who
do not think, only listen, have come to
believe almost all they said. In our judg-
ment. it is both untimely and f~ruitless
to hear condemnation upon David B.
Hill, James Smith, Jr, and Arthur Pew
German; de mortuis, etc. 1t is still more
mistaken to attack the President for all
that he did and all that his party did not
do. The position of Grover Cleveland
appears to us to remain. upon the whole,
unassailable upon any ground saw those
of passion and prejudice, and Mr.. Miller
thinks too much to give way for any long
time, to these impulses.
once again we disagree with him as to
the danger of d-isintegration of the Demo
craey. 1t appears to us that nothing ha
been lost in the way of principle. and
nothing in the spirit of aggression among
the leaders. At any rate, if the party
should go to pieces, the cause, as Mr.
Miller himself holds, must go on, and
after all 1t is the cause and not the name
that earnest men arc devoted to.
correspondent. who signs