Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-09-20


When "Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked"
it does not appear from the sacred record
that he did himself any good. Presumably
there followed reaction, and a stormy
kicking against wise measures and needed
restraints, and sense of personal response
bility was doubtless followed by such
penitence as the Maine and Vermont cleo
tons expressed In 1890 and 1892 the I'M
parallel prosperity Of the country, and
the highest wages labor had ever received,
made many people so sure Of the ihimit
able future and SO confident that Demo
cratic votes and labor organizations were
all that they required that they "waxed
fat" and kicked over the national policy to
which their unprecedented prosperity was
largely due. So we have this year A
Democrats in Maine out of every 100 voting
the Republican ticket or refusing to vote
at all.
The complete official returns show that
only 30640 Democratic votes were cast
against 55.07S two years ago, or $50 per
cent. The Republican vote was 5000
against $1,000 two years ago, and as sew
cral thousand Republicans doubtless
failed to vote, it may be inferred that
somewhere from tenth to a fifth of the
whole number of Democrats voted di
rectly for the Republican candidates
Roughly it may be assumed that the in
difference usually observed in non-presi
Dental years may account for decline of
about tenth in the vote of each party or
that 800 Republicans and about $500 Dem
ocrats may have failed to appear for that
reason only. In that case 500 Democrats
must have voted the Republican ticket, or
nearly 10 per cent of the whole number of
Democratic voters in 1892 while about H.
900 more, or about 90 per cent of the whole
number of Democratic voters in 1892 re-
fused to support the destructive policy of
their party 1t may be doubted whether a
more significant or crushing defeat was
ever administered by its own voters as a
penalty for unfaithful and offensive ac-
ton. A loss Of nearly Is per cent of its
voters, third of them supporting the op-
posing ticket, never comes by accident
Not only to the Democratic party, but to
the leaders of labor organizations, this
change should be particularly instructive
1t is no injustice to them to say that they
We're in a very large measure responsible
LOT tLle lttllHR Vi Us W lilt Iltt-
tional policy of protection which pcrvadcd
so many of the wage-earners in 1890 and
1892, Leaders had told them for years that
parties made no difference, and that the
only thing they had to care for was their
organization, because that would enable
them to secure good wages in any event
1t was not wilful untruth, we may
readily admit. The leaders themselves
had seen the country prospecting so long
for the whole period of the active lives of
most of them-that they had quite lost the
power to comprehend the tremendous in
fluence of national laws in determining
the conditions of labor. They forgot that
a prostration which throws out of employ
ment half or q third of the workers in any
great industry must create, in spite of all
organizations and the utmost efforts of
labor leaders, a state of things in which
more than one man must of necessity be
competing for every mans job In that
state of things no power has ever existed
which could maintain wages.
Treating all these considerations with
rontempt. labor leaders persistently taught
the wage-earners throughout the country
10 treat party changes and differences of
national policy and questions of tariff as
Of no real consequence to them. Their
future would depend, they were told, first,
, upon the irresistible prosperity and the
permanent growth of the country, which
would continue no matter what tariff was
adopted; and, second, upon the organiza-
tions which enable them to secure at all
times their share of that prosperity. This
philosophy was to large extent the cause
of the election of President Cleveland and
a Democratic congress in 1892, and of the
consequences which Democratic voters
now view with disgust. After all, it APP
pears that the nations industries do not
thrive if the voters set themselves to have
British prices and British wages of labor
, In the United States. The next time the
labor of this country is told that parties
and tariffs make no difference, within the
present generation at least, a smile of con-
tempt-if nothing harsher-win probably
nnswer.-TNew York Tribune