The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-11-15
HON. WILLIAM L. WILSON
HIS VIEWS OF THE CAUSE OF
DEMOCRACY'S DEFEAT.
lie Says This Country is Now Passing
Through Period of Unrest.
Looks Forward to 90
With Hope.

With Hope
New York. Nov. 11.-In letter to tn,
press from Washington, Hon. William
l.. Wilson of West Virginia gives his view
OF the cause of Democratic defeat in the
recent election. After declaring that il
is neither discreet or dignified thing for
member of a defeated party to explain
his own or his party's defeat, he says:
None the less, however, it is the duty
OF the Democratic party, after such re-
verse, to make a deliberate, honest and
mistaken scrutiny into the causes and
forces which wrought its overthrow and
INTO the conditions upon which it may re-
gam is ascendancy with the American peo-
Iple. ~
Undoubtedly there were loccA nfIu-
ences and factoinal fights that contributed
TO 1t and emphasized the result but it
must be admitted that there We're strong
FORCES everywhere operative that really
snapped and brought about that result
ANA the greatest of all these forces was
the commercial depression that for a year
OF more past has hardened the lot and
made ANXIOUS the lives of large section
Oh our people Hard times is an enemy
pelore when no political party in America
has ever been able to make a successful
stand in power.
Inns is, and perhaps always will be.
weak point in popular government.
| neh lapOr is out of employment, when
| Iarm products are low, when our finan-
cal system is disorganized, the wisest
administration and the most wholesome
laws do not avail to save party from
temporary disastrous overthrow.
Moreover the whole teaching of the pro-
! tectlve system trains men to depend not
on individual effort, the plain virtues of
industry, thrift and temperance for
prosperity and material comfort, but on
government and laws of congress.
LET me add also, that we, together
with. all our progressive nation, are now
passing through an era of change, of
unrest and of somewhat tumultuous
agitation. The rapid adoption of the
great instruments of modern industry
and trade, the complete revolution
which these are bringing about
ion, the steady obliteration of handi-
crafts the dislocation of many indus
tries-all these things, together with
the unsettled relations between labor
and capital, have swept us into an era
where for some years it may be increas-
ingly difficult for any one party to hold
on to the federal government for any
length of time.
without attempting to apportOn the
responsibilities for the hard times be-
tween the two parties and stoutly dis
claiming any large share of it for the
Democratic party, pass from these gem
ordinations to the second part, and that
is the defeat of tariff reform. l do not
believe the people have discarded tariff
reform in their action last Tuesday, for
when | look over the whole country l do
not find that to have been the common
ground of their action. No question was
ever so well and so thoroughly fought out
in popular discussion before them as the
question of reforming and reduc-
ing the tariff. In every cam
paign from that of 1856 to
that of 1892, it has been the great issue
and in every campaign except that of 1888,
the Democratic party has won decided
fore that the people have now classified
the Democratic party for doing what they
put them into power to do, is to question
their intelligence. If they inflicted chas-
tiZement because of its dealings with the
tariff it has been rather because the
party did not carry out with sufficient
promptness and thoroughness the work
they had to do, and hold responsible the
whole party for the action of few in
delaying that work, nowhere more vigOr
ously denounced that in the Democratic |
press of the entire country
1T is hazardous, of course, to indulge in |
hypothesis, but l have no doubt that had |
that bill which passed the house on the |
list 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 country |
would have been reversed and the Demo
cratic party might have even weathered
the industrial storm with credit if not Sue
cess.
Not only did this long delay and the
limitations of the house bill chill and |
anger the greater masses, but it kept |
the business of the country in the torture
of suspense and uncertainty, thus hard
ening and eXasperating the crisis and
storing up wrath against the whole party |
for the actions of a few of its
ed, though Il vast improvement Oh the
Mckinley bill, was still so obnoxious in
some of its features that the president
allowed it to become law without his
signature, and it had been in operation
too short time before the election for
the people to see and appreciate its ben
ctts.
Again. do not accept the view that
tariff reform has suffered Il defeat. be-
cause | have not any where found Re
publican candidates advocating repeal
of the law, They have denounced in
general and 'disclamed against some
rates which they deem locally objection
able but nowhere presented an atfirma
tive platform demanding its repeal and
a return to prior conditions.
"In tariff rHform, as in reforms generally,
it is the first step that Is the hardest aud |
have always contended in congress and in
the hustings that IL we could once make II
breach in~AEe protection system
the first reform and its visible benefits would
carry them to a gradual overthrow of the en-
tire system, without any gtoeral agitation,
such as must precede and mark a victory,
and without the turmoil and uncertainty
which arrays against such movement on
the part Of the business community which
desires nothing so much as change.
by 1896 let us hope the present clouds
already breaking will have vanished from
our skies. The new bill will then show on
It's merits the temporary scare and reselt
nent against IL will have spent their force
md do not believe the republican program
will call for its repeal and relapse Of Nc
kinleyism and protection
DR.. Prices Baking Powder is one one
1f tho hiUb Orodn nrtiplac mona oosnnoni- |