Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-08-07
A SHORT POLITICAL REVIEW.
Political Xattesi Considered with Ref
erence to Republican Prospects

Political KattesI considered with hefs
erence to Republican Prospects
It was in 1884 that the republican
party, after an unbroken succession OF
triumphs for "a years, met with its first
| national rebuke. The republican lead
ers assigned different causes for their
defeat, among them being Belshazzar
feast of millionaires at Delmonicos, in
which Mr.. Blaine took an active part
just few days before the election, and
Burchard's penchant for ALTERATION
when he declared that Rum, Romanism
ana Rebellion were all allied against
republicanism. The true cause Of the
overthrow of the party, however, was
found in the fact that the country wa2
overrun with tramps and that, while
farmers were selling their wheat for 65
cents per bushel, restitution and STAR
walton had made their appearance with
the apparent intention Of remaining.
In 1883 the republicans were again
restored to power because the demo-
Gratis were no more inclined to give the
people relief than those who controlled
the republican party were. Full con-
troll Of the government passed into
republican hands March 4, 1889. The
congress which convened the follow
ing December elected Reed speaker Of
the House and he made Mckinley
chairman of the Ways and Means COM
mittee. Mr.. Mckinley introduced his
famous bill and it became the law dur
ing the following summer The people
evidently thought more of the free
sugar" than they did of the tin plate
and other protective features of the
Mckinley law, since they repudiated
the republican policy in the ensuing
congressional elections and gave the
democrats control of the House by
nearly 140 majority. Times waxed
harder and harder babies starved to
death at Braidwood, ILL.,, because their
coal-mining parents could not provide
humbly begging for help and state
ment of their deplorable condition was
given to the public over the signature
of the republican governor of their
state. Strikes, riots, lockouts and
trouble generally prevailed and all this
time the policy inaugurated by the re-
publican party was unchanged. The
troubles eliminated in 1892 when the
Mckinley law had been in undisputed
control for two years, in mining riots
in Arizona and East Tennessee, where
laborers were shot to death by troops;
in railway riots in New York where
the New York National Guard dis
graced humanity by shooting boy to
death and brutally stabbing him with
a bayonet after he was dead and in the
awful Homestead murder, where the
Pinkertons massacred workmen and
were paid S. per day for their bloody
work.
The people were in a desperate hurry
for relief and as the democrats had not
had full control of the government
since the war they turned to them for
help and gave them complete power in
all departments. And now the repub-
lican party, chuckling with delight
over the distracted and disheartened
condition of the people, which it braz-
emily charges to democratic legislation,
when it really is the result of demo-
cratic treachery or incompetency, be-
1ieves that its way to restored power is
open. Banking upon the ignorance or
forgetfulness of the people it has nomi-
mated as its standard bearer the very
man whose tariff policy had been in
full force two years when the Home
stead murder occurred and which the
people repudiated, if they repudiated
anything, in the most emphatic manner
in 1892.
The signs are rapidly accommodating
that the republicans have counted
without their host, and that while the
disturbed and divided condition of the
opposition may result in a republican
victory, large majority will vote
against the return of their party to
power and it will never again be able
to crystalline it's distinct views into
law.