The San Francisco call., 1896-10-24
TACTICS OF DESPAIR.

In letter to the Boston Journal written
early in the month Mr.. Manley of Maine
said:
The remaining weeks of the campaign will
be filed with all sorts of false reports which
will be circulated in relation to the labor vote
and the coercion of employees by employers,
and every political falsehood that the widest
Imagination invent will be started and
circulated in order to discourage and discon-
cert the great army of Republicans and honest
money Democrats who are fighting side by
side in this splendid battle. We should not
be disturbed by these rumors. In the East
they will say that the West is all wrong In
the West they will give out that the East is
doubtful.
This prediction of the tactics to be en-
pIoyed bv the Bryanites has been verified
to the letter by the events of the time
which has passed since the letter was
written. The false rumors and reports of
which Mr.. Manley spoke have been pub
lished day after day in every Bryanite
organ, and notably in the chief organ of
that party in this City. Fortunately fore
warned was forearmed. The cry of CO.
ercion has not been so effective as the
orators and organs of the Popocrats ex-
pected. On the other hand it has proven
to be something of a roorback. The work
ingmen of the country have regarded it as
an insult to their manhood. Business
men have looked upon it as q SANDER upon
American citizenship and it has hurt the
Bryan cause as much as any blunder COM
mitted by the fusion leaders during the
campaign.
1t is too late, however, for the Bryan
leaders to devise a new system of cam
paigniDg now. The tactics they have
adopted they must stick to, and with them
fight the battle to finish. We shall hear
much of coercion, intimidation, from now
till election DAY. We shall hear also loud
boasts OF what will happen in the East,
and there will not be lacking equally loud
boasts of Popocratic success in the West
In fact, it will be on the part of the Bry-
antics a system of Chinese tactics, in
which they will endeavor to frighten their
foes by hideous noise and horrible masks.
Intelligent men will not be alarmed by
either the clamor of coercion or the boasts
of coming success. Careful polls have
made it certain that the so-called doubtful
States-Illinois Indiana and Michigan
are virtually as safe for protection and
prosperity as are Massachusetts, New
York and Pennsylvania. The election of
Mckinley IS, indeed, sure. The thing for
California Republicans to work for is to
put this State into the Mckinley column,
and if loyal Republicans and honest
money Democrats stand together and
work as they should do there will be no
doubt of the result here any more than in
Ohio.
The Popocrats are, in fact, demoralized,
dismayed and flying from the field.
Almost every day we hear of some noted
Democratic leader like Morrison leaving
the party even at this late hour, and we
hear also of Republicans who at first de-
clared they would vote the fusion ticket
now coming back to renew their allegiance
to the grand old party. All the evidence,
therefore, assures the faith of the sam
guine. All the omens are for victory. All
the prospects are for prosperity. Let us
go forward in the certainty that the vic
tory is ours and that the one thing left to
do is to turn the defeat of Organism into
such rout as will drive 1t forever from
American politics.