The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-04-05
HYDRoPHoBIA POLITICS.

| everybody Oh ire OiicE SUE " 10 AOb
bers. liars. thieves and scoundreis. It
imagines this for a few days ard then
comts TO believe it. Then the min
ority talks it for q while and last
works itself up into a sort Of feverish
| spasm where ii has political st. Eitus
dance and goes jerking and Topping
around, slapping everything and every
body. its own friends as much as its
antagonists. When the minority wins
a fight by such tactics it sneaks away
in shame for its tactics. If 1t loses il
Sneaks away in shame for its tactics.
So frothing hydrophobia campaigner
really gets little satisfaction out of a
campaign either winning or losing.
Tomorrow a campaign closes in
Wichita, in which a minority has been
making one of these hydrophobia cam
paigns Il has been talked, printed
and posted that the Republican candi-
dates are a set of robbers and villains.
Wichita is not a large community, or
a community so large that its people
do not know each other. They have
been living here together for years.
They know one another pretty well.
The candidates on all the tickets are
men who are known to the people and
know one another. They are men
who associate together a great deal;
who meet OIL the streets and talk to-
gether; who sit side by side Sunday
mornings in church; who occupy ad-
joining seats at the theaters; whose
other to their little social entertain
ments. Most of them have been do
ing this for years. Most of them will
continue to do this for years. But
right now the community is asked to
select some one Of these men from our
common social cauldrOn and believe
him TO be an archangel and to select
also this self-same mans friends and
believe him to be a common liar and q
petty thief. They, the people of WITCH
tia, are asked to put a label ''non-parti-
san" on one of their citizens and at
once worship him as thing of beauty.
purity and godIiness; and TO put label
on another citizen and call him "Re-
publican" and denOunce him for a liar
and a thief who will steal the city blind
If he happens to be elected to the coun-
Gil.
And by whom are they asked TO do
this nonsenSical, idiotic thing? By a
few scheming federal office-holding
Democrats who have placed these
''nOn-partisan' tickets in the field. 1t
is this minority and its heelers who
have been carrying on a hydrophobia
campaign. Early in the morning the
poor voter will be told that Giles Smith
Of the Third ward on the ''nOn-parti-
san" ticket is a spotless, indebted lily
and that Colonel InneS, on the Republi-
can ticket is black villain seeking to
despoil the city treasury. On the aft
ernOon of the same day this same poor
voter will see with establishment and
wonder Giles Smith and Colonel Innes
together on the street swap
ping stories and smoking, with mutual
content, Wheeling stOgies.
Naturally the voter is befuddled. He
cannot see how this pure white lily in
politics can be rubbing up in social con-
verse against the black villain lines.
OF course the charge against Colonel
Innes and the comparative laudation
of Giles Smith is nonsense.
There is an issue in the campaign and
it is this. Socially and commercially,
and individually the two
men are friends, as all the candidates
in the city are. But there are public
questions on which they are not
friends. One is a Democrat, the other
n Republican. One believes in Re
publican principles, the other in Dem
cratic principles. One believes his
principles are right The other be-
ieves his principles are right And
that is all there is TO this campaign in
Wichita, right down at the bottom and
excluding the hydrophobia froth of
few insane manipUlators. 4 majority
of the people of Wichita are Republic
cans. They are sick and tired of Dem
ocrauc government carried out on
Democratic principles. They have
tried it and it has failed. miserably.
ANONYMOUSLY failed. They want no
more Of it They want to see this
country Republican again. They want
it in Republican hands. They want
TO GUST the Democrats and keep them
out until the Republicans have restored
the government TO heighth of pros
perity where the Democrats can mon
key with ii without impairing it.
Ii is simply n question of politics.
The man who believes that the Demo
cratic party has overloaded this coun-
try with prosperity; who believes that
the Democratic party has has given
every workman something TO do; who
believes that the credit Of the govern
ment has been sustained by the Demo
Gratis: who believes that Cleveland did
right in selling those bonds % the Roth
schldS: who believes that a Democratic
congress did right in selling out To the
sugar trust: who believes that the
greatest blessing in history was the
passage o. the Wilson tariff bill: who
believes that all men should surrender
their personal preferences for allow
ing a postmaster 10 make a good show
ing of his party bosses: tho man who
believes all this should vote for the
"non-parGSan ticker Which Is made up
Of Democrats and who viii i've and die
nv rho FAarr,. .sr., - IN