The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-10-24
The National issue in Our State
Election.

EIccikOH.
The s.Journals did quite a good service
yesterday in its article headed This
year and next in directing once again
the attention of New Jersey voters to
the National aspects of the present cam
paign h eyes of the country are
fixed on New Jersey in this c~onjuncture,
and the National Democracy watches
with baited breath the struggle which
is now being waged.
New Jersey has the unique honor
among Northern states of answering
fidelity to the Democratic party. When
ever New York has gone astray, our
electoral vote has invariably been cast
for the Democratic candidate, and it
would pe a grievous omen to the party
from Maine to California if on the eve
of a Presidential election. and with such
a STANDARD bearer as Alexander T. Nc
Gill. the Democratic party were to sus-
tain a defeat at the polls.
What is the message that the people of
New Jersey desire to send out TO the
people of the United States? Shall we
sound the note of retreat and reaction?
Shall we inaugurate a return movement
towards federal domination at the polls,
towards bounties for favored capitals
tic interests, towards the wholesale
award of Federal contracts as rewards
for political services. towards the fetter-
ing of trade and the smothering of indus
try in order hat a plutocratic class may
wrest INSCRIPTIONS gains from the mil
lions of the American people.
We all know what Republicanism
means and has meant in the history of
the last twenty years,-the scandals of
Robson and Chambers administration
of the Navy Department. the Star Route
v~illianies of Brady and Dorsey, the pros
titution of the Government Land Office
to personal and party purposes, the
denominations of the Census Bureau UNI
der Porter and the Pension Bureau under
Corporal Tanner and Refrigerator Raum,
the pampering of Louisiana sugar plant
ers with subsidies offered as brides for
political influence. the disastrous pur-
chase of silver as a bride to States in
the West. and overshadowing all the
baleful incubus of McKinleyism, .strang-
ling our trade upon the high seas, ruin
ming our markets in the cities of the Old
World. and poisoning our industries with
the hot-house atmosphere of protection
from natural competition.
agony of self-reformation. Like one
struggling against a nightmare, it has
writhed and sweated for two years in
the throes Of economic revolution.
Through the terrible experience of forced
liquidation. of fear and doubt and del
preston, it has accomplished that great
change which was first contemplated as
Far back as 1880, when General Hancock
feebly voiced the first infantile appeals
Of the tariff reform idea. Through the
term of Chester A. Arthur the movement
grew and progressed, and there is no
doubt but if James G. Blaine had been
elected President in 1884 the m
dations of the famous Tariff Commission
would awe been in some degree realized.
But the jealousy of a Republican Senate
prevented the realization of the reform
under a Democratic administration, and
though the Mills bill proved Of value. in
the long run, as an educational 1neazlre,
the cause which it embodied was for the
time defeated by deliberate Republican.
villainy.
Then came that carnival Of crime and
corruption. the election of 1855. which
brought to power all that was most
reckless and dangerous in the Republi-
can party. The debt incurred to the sub
scribers Of the corruption fund had to be
paid. ard Thomas 3. Reel, William H.
Mckinley and benjamin. Harrison were
just the men to reve1 in discharging
such an obligation. The infamous tariff
law of 1890 was enacted amid scenes of
violence and subversion of parliament
fary method. unequalled in the history
Of the country, and, in that dire act. the