The Monticellonian., 1895-09-06
EXPOSED DECEPTION.
Voters Last Fall Were Buncoed by Re-
 publican Misrepresentation.


 It is largely assumed by our repub- lican friends that the men of demo cratic antecedents who voted the re- publican ticket last fall will do so this year and next for the same reason. Hence they entertain very lively hopes of victory in Kentucky this year and of sweeping the country next year.
 This view omits several important factors. Last year the republicans told the people and made some of them believe that the democrats brought on the panic and were respon- sible for the depression in business They told the people that the tariff bill which became a law last August would be followed by reductions of wages, suspensions of the mills and general distress. They also promised that if control of the house was given them they would put an end to tariff agitation.
 In view of this plan of campaign, yet l fresh in the minds of the people, Sen ator Lexow, of New York, recently said that the rSse in wages must neces- sarily be temporary, for unless it was so the republicans were wrong and had been wrong all the time. Yet the increase in wages has continued and now they are higher in some in stances than they were before the panic. This is revelation to more people than Senator Lexow It must be especially revelation to those who thought last fall that the democrats had caused the panic. What really caused the panic is thus told in an ex- change:
 The reason for the passage of the Sherman 1 act was stated long ago by Senator Jones, Of l Nevada, who was one Of the eonferrees. The Mckinley bill was sent to the senate by tho house about the middle Of May. senator 1 Jones served notice on his republican col i leagues when the silver bill was in conference l committee early in July that If the committee Sid not agree enough votes of repu ublican sen i ators from silver states would be cast against the Mckinley bill, which had not been taken up for consideration tt that time, to defeat 1t That threat was effective, and the silver com l promise bill was passed, and then the Mckin- | ley bill went through afterward. Every one can see now that it would have been far bot ter for the republican plrty fl that threat had been treated with indifference Had tho re- l suit been the defeat of the Mckinley bill the democrats would have been deprived of the ammunition which enabled them to win the sweeping victories of 1890 and 1s92 and to pass the Wilson c orman bill There would have been no industrial panic in lsg3-9t If there had been no legislation on the silver question there would have been no increased purchases of silver and la 4neial paate tn 1895
 The candid and truthful statement Is taken from that well-known repub- lican paper, the Chicago Tribune, of July g. 1895. In the light of the facts there set forth it is clear that the voters who hold the balance of power in the elections of last fall were buncoed by being made to believe that the depres- sion in business, reductions of wages and general distress were due to the accession of the democrats to power and the tariff legislation that followed. 1 Such republicans as Senator Lexow and the editor of the Tribune see clearly enough now that this is not the case, and it is not to be presumed that the democrats who were deceived last fall can be induced to vote the repab- lican ticket a second time for the same reason.
 The extract cited from the Tribune shows that the corrupt bargain by which the Mckinley bill and the Sher- man bill became laws was at the bot tom of all the business troubles of the last two years The Wilson bill, there fore, had nothing to do with them, and if business revival and advance of wages should not be permanent it will be due entirely to matters affecting the currency, and not at all to the re- vision of the tariff The currency agi- tation is the only thing which now threatens the continuance of prosper ity Whether the republicans, when congress meets, will keep their pledge not to revive tariff agitation remains to be seen. At all events, 1t is pretty clear that they will not be able to work the tariff as the cause of busi- ness depression for any democratic votes at the coming election. Thatde- ception has been pretty efYeetually ex posed by the inexorable logic of events "-Lousville Courier-J ournaL.