New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-04-13
PRECEDENTS OF NO VALUE.

Precedents count for nothing this year. Dem
ocratic friends. who are hunting records TO show
that New-YOrk has been uncertain in voting
and Republican friends, who are pleased with
the idea that favortes have not often won In
conventions, may well take notice that there Is
no precedent for such prostration Of business
and industry as has resulted from Democratic
success In 1892. Experience. the stern school
master. found all other rods insufficient, and has
been using a new one, heavier than any that
ever lacerated the backs Of American scholars
prior to 1899 Even the Civil War, if it taught
that generation the meaning and extent of Dem
ocratic disloyalty, did not teach anybody the
amazing incapacity of that party TO govern, or
its tremendous power to do mischief
These are things which the voters have been
learning in much suffering and sorrow. No man
can form a conception of the deluge OF mis-
fortune which has swept over the homes OF
American wage-earners since the vote FOR a
change" in 1892 The folly and the penalty
were both without precedent. II Is not unreal
sOnable TO expect that the revolution In feeling
and purpose Of the people will also prove be-
yond precedent. Never before at least since 1911,
and even then not so plainly, have the millions
been forced by personal experience TO learn the
consequences Of bad economic legislation. There
are thousands of Democrats in every State to-
day who are deliberately voting Republican bal
lots as often as they have a chance, In order
to bring back Republican good times. This state
Of facts which will hardly be denied by men
who know anything Of the country, is rendered
more potent in its influence by the renewed de-
preston this year. and by the peculiar dstribu-
ton of It, When the loud-voced boom came
last summer there were many politicians who
hoped that the wage-earning millions might for
get what they had lost and suffered under De
mocracy. But the prostration returns in some
departments of business as severe rs at any
previous time. and in every one II Is enough to
remind workers and voters how great has been
the change since the country enjoyed its highest
prosperity under the Mckinley act in the months
just preceding the last Presidential election.
Moreover, there is peculiarly instructive dis
elimination in the distribution Of disaster. Sales
Of wool at Boston are the smallest in all the
records of that market. and prices Of wool, as
farmers know. are about the lowest they ever
saw. But the change in wool was absolutely to
Free Trade Not 40 per cent Of the machinery
for making mems woollens Is now In operation,
the experts state, and many say the prostration
in that industry has never been so great for fifty
years az IL Is now. But the heaviest decrease
In duties was in woollen goods. Farmers are
getting the lowest prices for farm products, as
whole. that they ever received. but the Nc
Kinley tariff was the first that endeavorcd con
sistently to protect the farmers Meanwhile the
iron industry is getting along better, though not
well, for Democrats were forced 10 accept Repub-
lican duties on most Of the iron products in
order to pass any tariff bill whatever. The OBJ
ject-lesson is not one which wiz be easily for
gotten.
This experience, being beyond all precedent,
renders 1t likely that the people will ignore all
precedent in their angry application Of a remedy.
They are not in the mood to be patient with any
bosses who stand in the way of the demand for
thoroughgolng Protection They are not at all
In the humor to vote Just as the within sezes
them, between Friday night and Tuesday morn
Ing as they have done in some States and some
elections heretofore. The men who have 10
reckon with 13,OO0,OO0 angry Americans next
November may as well forget all the precedcnts
ever recorded.