The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-01-09
The Revolt az Linn.


That the people Of Linn, Mass. a !
Republican stronghold, should have
elected by great majority the Dem
ocratic candidate sor Mayor has set
the explanation works of the dolni-
naut party going. The Democratic
candidate was elected because the
Republican promises of an immedi-
ate renewal of prosperity have not
been fulfilled. The election of Nc
Kinley, instead of being succeeded
by good times in Linn, was followed
by the closing of shoe factories and
cuts in wages. 1t is being pointed
out to the voters that they
are unreasonable in attributing these
misfortunes to the election of Me
Kinley. And that is quite true
But If the shoe factories had been
opened instead of closed, wages rails
ed instead of reduced, the organs
would not have hesitated to claim
that the blessings were directly due
to Mckinley's election. The voters
of Linn are plainly of the opinion
that it is poor rule that won work
both ways. The more philosophical
of the organs are telling the people
of Linn, and through them the peo-
pie of the United States, that it is
both foolish and dangerous to rely
for prosperity upon political action
rather than upon the private virtues
of industry and thrift. That is not
good Republican doctrine; neither
is it good sense, 1t depends alto
gether on what sort Of political ae-
ton is meant.
The Republican party by its
adoption of the protective policy has
done its best to teach the people to
look upon the Government as a spe-
cial providence whose most impor-
tant function is to concern itself
with the business of the citizens and
insure him profit by bestowing tariff
bounties. The Republican theory is
that it is the Government which
regulates wages by levying duties
on imports so as to prevent foreign
competition with home labor. The
Republicans Of Linn who voted the
Democratic ticket because their wa.
ges were reduced or cut off altogeth-
er were, therefore, fawlessly logical
The personal virtues of industry
and thrift are always to be encour-
aged. Like temperance, they are ex-
cellent things for the individual
But the masses are no more to be
raised out of poverty by industry
and thrift, under present industrial
conditions, than everybody is to be
made rich and happy by abstaining
from strong drink. 1t is because
the fruits of labor are appropriated
by others that the men who do the
worlds work remain poor BY polit-
ical action only is this injustice to
be cured. The workingmen who
think their ballots ought to help
them to better wages are right, but
they are wrong in thinking that tax
ing themselves or others by means
of tariff is going to fill their pock-
cts. 1t would not be honest money
either, if they could thus vote it to
themselves, for il would he taken
from others to whom it belongs.
What is wanted are conditions
that will enable every man to keep
what he earns, that will prevent any
body from taking away from another
anything to which the appropriation
has no just title. Not government
that will dip into the common treas
ury to give plums to favorites, not
government that will tax all for the
benefit of some, buta government in
surfing equal rights and no privlleg-
es, is what the citizen should vote
for.
And no matter how much the ben
eficiaries of the present paternalism,
which has the rich for its wards, may
cry out against social disturbance"
''unsettling the foundation of socic-
ty" and the rest of it, the masses will
continue to strive, more or less blind
ly and systematically, to vote into
existence conditions that shall keep
the hand of craft away from the pro
ducts of toll. If the citizens of Linn
did not aim straight, there is no
question that the instinct which
brought the gun Of the ballot to their
shoulders was the instinct that will
ultimately give us a real republic, if
anything can.-Neso York Journal.