The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-12-06

l lie late political reaction has been
vi'Iously interpreted and ascr1bed by
men from all parties to various causes.
THIS difference of opinion is to be ac-
counted for by the fact that the action
was thoroughly erratic and that by no
process OF reasoning can a justification
of 1t be found. The doctrine of tariff re-
form which the people embraced with
feryor and enthusiasm in 1892, they have
repudlated with chilly bitterness in 1894.
And that reputation took place before
they had gained any practical knowledge
OF It's workings. AT the very moment
when the object of the revolution was at
tanned or partially attained it was follow
ed by counter revolution. The cause
OF the reaction is not to be found in
reason.
For tbs to be chiefly ascrlbed to law
as certain as the laws which regulate the
succession OF the seasons and the course
OF the trade-wlnds. 1t Is the nature of
man TO overrate present evil, and to IN
derrate present good; to long for what he
has not, and to be dissatisfied with what
he has. This propensity, as it appears
In individuals, has often been noticed
both by laughing and weeping philoso-
piers. 1t was favorite theme Of Horace
and of Pascal, of Voltaire and of johnson.
10 Its influence on the fate of great COM
mun:tles may be ascribed most of the
revolutions and counter revolutions re-
corded IN history. A hundred genera
lions have elapsed since the first great
national emancipation, OF which an &C.
count has come down to US. We read in
the most ancient of books that a people
bowed to the dust under a cruel woke
scourged to toll by hard taskmasters, not
supplied with straw, yet compelled to
furnish the daily tale of bricks, became
SICK of life, and raised such cry Of mis-
cry as pierced the heavens. The slaves
were wonderfully set free; at the moment
Of their liberation they raised a song of
gratitude and triumph; but, in a few
hours, they began 10 regret their slavery
and to murmur against the leader who
had decoyed them away from the savory
fare of the house of bondage to the
dreary waste which still separated them
from the land flowing with milk and
honey. Since that time the history of
every great dellverer has been the history
of Moses retold. Down to the present
hour reloicings like those on the shore of
the Red Sea have ever been speedily fol-
lowed by murmurings like those at The
Waters of Strife. The most just and
salutary revolution must produces much
suffering. The most Just aG3 salutary
revolution cannot produce all the good
that has been expected from it by men of
unrestricted mind and sangulne tempers.
Even the wisest cannot, while it is still
recent, weigh quite fairly the evils which
1t has caused against the evils 1t has re-
moved. Fort4e evils which 1t has caused
are felt; and the evils which it has re-
moved are felt no longer.
Thus the election resulted in complete
miscarriage. The people hove simply
returned 10 their ills of which they with
good reason have complained. Ills which
they unwillingly ascribed to the demo-
cratic party but for which every man of
cultivated mind not thoroughly stultihed
should have perceived that to The repub-
lican party and 10 it alone belonged the
slbility. They have only made
the consummation of desirable and i'm
peratively necessary reforms more diff
cult.