The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-10
WHAT THE ELECTIONS MEAN

1t would hardly be an exaggeration tc
call the results of the late municipal
elections tidal wave. Considered from
any point Of view they are truly re-
markable- Within five months of the
time President Mckinley was elected
there is a reversal of political sentiment
in the country, so far at least as a
municipal election can indicate what
the political sentiment of the country
is.
What does it all mean? That it means
something no one will deny, though
people will differ as to what that some
thing is. Those who achieved this re-
versal Of political sentiment, and all
who sympathize with it, may exagger-
ate what it means, but those who were
surprised by the reversal, whose hopes
it dashed to the ground, they will do all
! in their power to minimize its true
meaning; will attempt to pooh-pooh its
Importance; will strive to be cheerful
where there is apprehension. if not de-
spair
Judge Sears, who was the Republican
candidate for MAYOR of Chicago, has
been interviewed upon the result of the
election in Chicago, and gives his views
as follows:
think that the result is an express
sion of the prevailing discomfort of the
masses with the existing business con-
dition-of an unreasonable disappoint-
ment in an illogical expectation as to
the time of returning prosperity.
1t is simply a part of the same wave
that struck Cincinnati and Canton, o.
1t seems as though our politics, both
national and municipal, were getting
to be like a teeter-board, with first
one party and then the other in power.
Here, at least, is frank admission of
the prevalence of discomfort among the
people with existing business condi-
tions. 1t is also frank admission that
is the result of this discomfort. All this
may be as Judge Sears says, an I'M
reasonable disappointment in an illogi-
cal expectation as to the time of re-
turning prosperity, but the illogical ex-
pectation was the direct result of the
promises of the party that elected Ma
jor Mckinley president of the United
prosperity as the result of any man s
election, was it not illogical to hold out
to the people the hope of immediate
prosperity as the result of the election
Of any man? 1t certainly was.
That there is disappointment
throughout the land because there is
no return of prosperity as the result of
McKinley's election, there is no doubt
in the world And this disappointment
is fast assuming the shape of discon-
tent. Thus the New York Tribune says
that many persons sincerely feel, and
others express more or less insincerely,
disappointment because the improve
ment in business expected to result
from Republican success does not come
pointment has found unmistakable ex-
preston at the polls this week.
1t is possible that this wonderful new
tariff that the people are told will do
so much for them and for whose adj
vent While waiting they are told to pos
sess their souls in patience, may bring
prosperity and furnish labor for all who
would work. and if it does disappoint-
ment and discomfort will not be long in
disappearing. 1t is to be hoped that it
WILL though il is not to be expected.
The country has had tariffs galore
since the great cause of its ills was
put in operation, and each was filled
with the promise of a, permanent cure
of the ills from which the country suf-
fered; but the ills still endure. Since
the decentralization of silver, Feb. H.
1873. there have been As general tariff
laws, acts amendatory of such laws,
joint resolutions, presidential procla-
nations, etc, all relating TO the tariff
If there be virtue in tariff legislation,
why does the country suffer so today?