The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-06-27
IeNoRANcE IRIuMPAANT.
The Legitimate Resuits Of Ropubueaa
Er18w

- M
The Legitimate Results Of Republics
Folly.
The threat and continued probability
Of Mckinley 81 nomination awakens curl.
GUS and conflicting emotions In emf
nent republican bosoms. A Washing
ton correspondent reported the othcR
day a conversation ON the subject over
heard in a group of republican n
tors. They were astounded at the sue.
cess of the Mckinley 1t was
not wholly due to thesunscrupuIous and
mercenary methods of his managers.
There was an unmistakable and pow
erful demand for Mckinley among the
republican masses. But why should
thepe be2 The man was a fool-every.
body at Washington knew that Talk
about his authorship of the Mckinley
bill The men who really made that
were Aldrich and Allison and Reed.
Mckinley knew no more about his own
tariff than about four-dimensional ge-
ometry. The clerk of his committee
gave him all his facts and figures, and
for the rest, his parrot-like formula,
brought out on all occasions, about the
American ffreside, had to suffice. Here
was a man who had neither wit nor
power of speech, no knowledge OF
public business, no force of character,
no convictions, no courage, no salient
qualities whatever except an extraor~
binary and wooden-headed self-com-
placency, and yet the masses of the
party of intelligence were madly de-
handing that this bramble be king over
them. 1t was all a strange and depress-
ing puzzle to the superior senatorial
mind.
But the mystery isnots so profound OF
insoluble. Cause produces effect as in
exorably in politics as in physics, and
the whirlwind of tariff Ignorance which
the republican leaders now fear is but
the legitimate reaping from the wind of
folly which they have been sowing for
many years past. They themselves, it
is true, have been very cynical about
it. They have winked to each other
as they have talked about the foreigner
paying the tax, about artifcially high
prices being a blessing, about doubling
the price of wheat by a high duty, about
making the tall chimneys smoke, as
Theirs said, by legislation, and raising
wages by taxation. Off the stump they
spoke of these things with their tongues
in their checks. Believe such things?
That wa not the point; there was an
other president in protection, just as
there used to be one more in the bloody
shirt, and that was sufficient iustif-
cation. But if they were not serious,
the farmers, the artisans, the ditchers,
the bankrupts we're. The gospel Of
wealth for all by taxation of all did
not fall on their ears campaign after
campaign without carrying conviction.
They finally got it firmly in their heads
that the prosperity of the country and
Of the individual depends upon a tariff.
Grossly and palpably and fanatically
ignorant as this -conyiction.is, it is the
inevitable result of the decisions and
sophistries to which republican leaders,
knowing better, have given currency
for political effect. The ultimate no
litical effect they now see, to their own
amazement and consfernatinn-the ig-
forance and fanaticism which they
themselves have helped to create, rush
ing in a frenzy to make the personifca-
ton of ignorance and fanaticism repub.
lican president.-N. Y. Post.