The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-11-15
silver and 1900.

There Is no m~istaking the Significance Of
last weeks election in It's relation to the
Democratic party as O national organiZa-
ton which will not participate in another
general election for Congressman n legis-
lative or State officers generally until the
Presidential battle Of 1900. The results Of
the voting tend greatly to strengthen, con-
solidate and enforce the power Of the radi-
cal free-silver element. predominant in Chi
cago in 1896, and now certain to be in con-
troll at the National Convention of 1900.
Briefly summarized, the results in tho
South were more decisively favorable to
Democratic candidates than any similar
elections lave been since Populism threat
ned Democratic local supremacy in many
Southern States. The Populists are again
voting the Democratic ticket, and the price
Of their continued alliance il adhesion to the
radical principles enunciated in the Presi-
Dental election in the Chicago platform
the Crime Of go.
In those of the Eastern States in which o
serious effort has been made. as in Connec-
ticut, to attract the honest-money candi-
dates to the party whose allegiance they
foreswore two years ago, 1t has failed
utterly. In the States in which the policy
Of evasion Of national issues has been fol-
lowed, New York, New Jersey and Mary
land, there has been no gain in consequence.
In Massachusetts, and Illinois, where the
Bryan Democracy reiterated it's purposes
as declared at Chicago, its candidates did
better last week than they did a year ago.
In the Far West, in Colorado, Utah and
Idaho, what measure of success the Demo-
cratic candidates attained was due chiefly
to the aid Of Silver Republicans; and 1t
does not appear from the returns from
any State that the Silverites, whether
Democrats, Populists or Republicans, have
any mistrust of the sincerity Of the Demo-
cratic organization in its temporarily
muflled advocacy Of radical policies. or that
the honest-money voters Of the country,
Democrats, Republicans or independents
there are no honest-money Populists-had,
or have, n particle Of confidence in the pro-
LESSONS made by some Democratic orators
Of their disavowal Of ~silverite predictions
and purposes.
The effect Of last weeks elections has
been, briefly, to tighten party ines with
even greater firmness than was the case
two years ago. The National Democrats,
bO Cttllcu, uuNo Dccu ellulluhJSu euUlT6ly.
They now vote the Republican ticket or
they vote the Democratic ticket. The
Middle-of-the-Road Populists, and there
were nearly 100000 of them In 1895, are
again in the fold Of the F~usionists. In the
South, the Southwest and in the mountain
States, tho Populists and Democrats pre-
ponderate; in the Eastern. middle, middle
Western and Pacific States, the Republican
party is the party Of the majority. There
are no visible recruits to the Democratic
standard to be secured by an abandonment
of the principles to which the party, as a
national organization, is committed there
is the certainty Of serious and positive
losses in any attempted abandonment Of
the issues OF two years ago.
Unquestlonably, the present economic
conditions, as well as the political relation
OF the two parties toward each other, the
prestige of Republican victory n the
Generalization Of the opposing forces, make
almost hopeless for the Democracy the re-
ncwal of the battle Of two years ago; but,
be the outlook propitious or discouraging,
the lesson Of the late election is unmistak-
ably clear: The Democratic party is COM
mitted ~irrevocably to the issues OF 1895.