Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-10-28
OUR LAST SHOT.

70 oAA II a ot6ahi0at
is about concluded, the case will go to
the jury next Tuesday, and as to the
verdict there can be no doubt.
In this campaign, as never before,
the people have risen above the low
plane of cheap politics. They have d.
vorced themselves from partisan pas
sion and prejudice, and have given to
tho issues involved, patient considera.
ton, calm thought and honest investi-
cation. They trusted the Democratic
party four years ago and enthroned 1t
in power. 1t has signally failed to re.
deem a single promise then made, and
every measure it has advocated and
enacted into law has proven an un-
mitigated disaster. Under Democratic
Encouragement the people have seen
prosperity take wings and fly away.
They have felt the pinch of impover-
ishment and the straits of restitution.
Agriculture has been conducted at a
serious loss to the farmers. Business
failures have been an every day oc.
curence. In the cities the poor, who
could gel no work, have been fed at
the soup houses and sheltered in the
church missions and police stations.
The country has been filled with va.
grants and tramps driven from the
dead furnaces, idle mills and silent
factories to beg and steal upon the
highways. The masses without means
to buy the common comforts Of life
and the money centers congested with
capital without opportunity for in
vestment. A country of marvellous
wealth and advantages Astounding in
squalid nests of misery and want,
whose counterparts a only be found
in the reeking and crowded dives in
Europe and the olden East.
To these universal calamities Of free
trade, the Popocrats and anarchists
would add the annihilatiDg curse of
free silver and a rotten currency. The
better element of the Democracy has
entered an indignant and most deter.
mined protest against this attempt to
Mexicanize the country; they have cut
themselves loose from this combine of
revolutionary and communistic forces,
and whilst they have a candidate of
their own who is a patriot and q states
man, hundreds of thousands of them,
to more surely compass the defeat of
Bryan, will vote the Republican ticket
straight. On account of his tariff views
no Republican could be more objection
able than Mckinley, yet they are
brave, manly and honest enough to
subordinate such a minor consideration
to the call of conscience-to the solemn
duty of preserving the credit and hon.
or of the nation-the foundation upon
which rest its glory, prosperity and
permanence. The intelligence and pa.
triotism of an awakened people, more
intensely earnest and determined than
ever before, will meet the rampant
and fanatical foes to good government
and financial integrity next Tuesday
with o force mightier than that of
sword, musketry and cannon, and
William Mckinley will come forth
from the hot and decisive contest bear
ing aloft the triumphant banner Of
Protection and Honest Money.
In Tennessee the federation and pa
tience of the people have been ex-
hausted by the utter incompetency and
their hard earnings have been eaten up
by the reckless extravaganza of Demo-
cratic administrations. The fee system
is an abomination and a robber. The
back tax law is a crime against the
citizen and honest government. The
Dortch law is an unqualified measure
OF despotism, taking away, in the four
counties where it operates, the ballot
from every citizen who is 80 unfortun-
ate as not to have q fair education.
Its primary design was to d~isfranchise
the colored man, who votes the Repub-
lican ticket. The poll tax law is simply
an infamy, opening the door to whole
sale bribery and corruption. and max
ing it impossible for q poor man to get
an office.
The partisan system of coal oil in
spection is another outrage on the peo-
pie. 1t annually robs them of one
hundred thousand dollars. Every mar
who uses coal oil pays tribute to this
monster of greed and corruption. The
salaries of the inspectors appointed by
the Governor and to which office no
work or responsibility are attached,
range from $4,000 to $50, 900 per year.
These inspectors live like lords on ex-
tortions exacted from the poorer classes.
These iniquities. that have destroyed
the liberties and are eating up the sub
stance of the people, were bred, born
and reared under Democratic misrule
and mostly under the administrations
of Pete Turney and Governor Taylor.
Nor is this all or near all. Notwith-
standing the excessive tax rate the
State is practically bankrupt, and, ac-
cording to Treasurer Craig, will have
no money to meet the interest on the
bonded debt next January. The money
goes out by the hundreds OF thousands
and nothing to show for it. Hon.
William H. Carroll, Chairman of the
Democratic State Committee, and who
ought to be good authority on this
point, says, Tennessee is the worst
governed State In the IInion Who