The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-12
This paper is Democratic IN principles
end is Independent in its uiesos On q" tocas
questions.
Is New Jersey a Republican statea

EBG u tsSlCHCfkASf<s w. ~
questions.
Is New Jersey a Republican Statea
Is New Jersey a Republican State?
This is the question of supreme interest
for politicians just now. and especially
for Democrats.
For two years c~onsecutively the Re-
publican party has controlled both
branches of the Legislature. The first
year it made an average bad record. 1t
left undone all the things it ought to
have done. It did all sorts of partisan
grabbing. which it ought not to have
done. Notwithstanding. the people re-
newed the lease OF power to the Republic
can party when election day came around,
; after the usual manner of Republican
States.
This. however. was not so discouraging
as 1t might seem to be. The so-called
Senate muddle was still a provocation to
many citizens. and so fully served to
account for the events of last November.
But this viii not. serve to account for
the Republican sweep of Tuesday. The
Senate muddle was a dead issue. as dead
as the Mulligan letters. The Republicans
had held another Legislative session and
had made a record not of average bad
ness, but of absolutely corrupt subseryi-
ency to the corporate influences of the
State and reckless disregard of the pee
pies interests.
Then, what was the matter on Tues
day? Why did the people. with the rec
ord OF the Session new IN their minds,
still give the Republicans a series of vic
tories which all but amounts to a clean
sweep of the State? 1t viii not do to
say that local causes were at work
Local causes which bring about similar
results in Camden. New Brunswick,
Trenton, Newark, the Oranges and Jer-
sey city, are pretty widespread in their
operation. II cannot nationally be said
that it IS q mere coincidence. There
really seems to be some one impulse
directing pubic opinion in al quarters.
Peterson. Roboken and Bayonne, 1t is
true, went The other way. but in these
cases. we fear. the candid man must
admit the local causes are operative,
and these places are the exceptions
which prove the rule
Yet. IN spite Of the .puzzling nature
of the proposition here presented, we
are reluctant TO admit that New Jersey
has become a Republican State. We
cannot deny that there is a present re
volt against something in the Democratic
a.party; but we do not believe that the
sprinciples of the party are any less popu-
lar in the State than they were when
Grover Cleveland obtained a plurality
Of l4.974 in 1892. The revolt is against
certain men, against certain corrupt
methods, against excrescences on the
Democratic party idea. diseased spots
which have weakened the party's use
fulness to the people and driven the
voters away from it with feelings of
nausea.
What are We going to do to bring the
voters back? Are we to nurture and
Are we to claim that it is healthy and
sound and beautiful? Are we to tell the
people dhat the disease is in their moral
sense and not in our anatomy? Are we
to call on them ito loath the surgeon who
has laid bare the sore and who has I'M
dertaken to extirpate it? This seems to
be the idea of some OF our Democratic
colleagues. We find the True American"
of Trenton. for instance, wildly clamoring
that wrong is right. that robbery is
honesty, hat perjury is virtue. that
plumber and blackmail are not only ex-
cusable. but honorable in high places.
We find it. spewing venom over men who.
whatever they may hope t gain for
themselves, are yet doing the yGalic and
the cause of abstract honesty, service
beyond price in the revelation and punish
mentl of fraud and villainy of the black
est kind
Now, what is to come of it all? VIII
we garry U1t CedlS ny dSASAAo1h5 -
plunderers? Win we win back votes by
telling them that what they think is
monstroas abuse exists only in their own
minds? Or will we do better by help,
ing to stamp out the evils which have
been carried on under the stolen protec-
tion of Democracy and by advancing mer
whose mere names are a guarantee
against the recurrence of wrong?
Much may be done by granting from
the outset the proposition that the people
are shrewd and observant. by recogniz
ing that lies and hunlbug will not i'm
pose on them. and then by tempting
them ito forget the evil that is past BY
offering them something unquestionabi
good for the future.
runuDkT Ut TnEM RpJn-