The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-17
A SOURCE OF REPUBLICAN
STRENGTH.

The money question had much to do
with the remarkable result in Maine this
year, but those who seek to ascertain all
the causes of Democratic defeat will find
that the tariff was very much of issue.
Maine is a State thrust into Canada. Can
ada is practically on three sides of Maine.
Two-thirds of it's land boundary is the line
between Canada and the United States.
Few States have suffered from the pres
ent tariff more than Maine. 1t had large
sheep industry and the farmers of Maine
having small fiocks of sheep have suffered
severely. Maine is a lumber State, but
free trade in Canada has cut the lumber
business of that State as it has no other
It's farmers do not raise wheat and corn
but potatoes, hay and crops adapted to
the markets of the manufacturing cities
The reduced duties all the farm prod
ucts of Maine have opened these markets
to the Canadian who because OF his
the Eastern cities with his products, there
by creating glut in the markets which
has cut prices to the serious disadvantage
of the Maine and Vermont farmers. These
were the causes which cut the Democratic
vote in Maine In 1894 nearly in the mid
dle-a small portion going to the Repub-
leans four thousand to the Populists, but
more staying at home.
1t is probable, however, that if the tariff
had been the only issue, the Republican
majority last Monday would not have been
SO large as in 1894, since men who did not
vote the Democratic ticket in 1894 might
have been induced to have done SO in 1896
The plurality this year should have been
about So O00 and the 1900 additional may
The plurality this year, over $4,000, may
fairly be attributed to the cowardly sur
render of the Democratic leaders to the
policy of the silver mine owners set
forth in the Chicago platform. In other
words, the Republican majority in Maine
was increased 1000 to $1,000 because the
party stood for sound money and pushed
that issue to the front The same was
true in Vermont.
Vermont and Maine not SO different
from other States east of the Missouri
river that the same influences will not be
potential in them. That is, in most States
of the North the money issue, instead of
reducing the Republican vote, is quite sure
extent of the increase may not be so much
as in the States named, but in the most
of them, by the time of the voting in No
vember, the Republican party will be the
gamer by standing up for sound money
1t may be said that the States named
are influenced by their nearness to the
money centers and their savings-bank de-
posits to adhere to sound money. Those
who so say forget that Maine carried
away with the greenback craze in 1878, 1879
and even in 1880 as was no State in the
West. The farmers of Maine constitute
nearly as large a per cent. of the whole
number of voters as in Indiana. In no
State, in proportion to it's population, have
more wage earners and people of small
means put more into savings institutions
than did those in the cities of Indiana in
the few years preceding the Democratic
catastrophe of November, 1892.
The present drift of sentiment in favor
of sound money in Indiana and the pre-
cedents established by Vermont and Maine
warrant the conclusion that the Republic
an plurality in Indiana will be larger in
November than it would have been if the
tariff had been the sole issue.