Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-10-23
CAMPAIGN APATHY.

e n
Taking the country over. unauestlonahly
tbo present Congressional campaign has
not been heated one. 1t has been SIN
:su.ariy devoid of excitement and "whoop-
ing IN. features. and from surface indi-
cations il would seem that there has
been and is an unusual lack Of interest
Indeed. II is confessed in Washington
that tho sneakers Of both parties report
great apathy and that the party com
nittees are painfully conscious that these
reports are correct.
F,,t a washington correspondent of the
baltimore Sun. who appears to have
looked over the field very carefully, raises
the question whether this apathy is not
more apparent than real. and sets forth
certain facts which so TO sustain the
belief that it IS. He points out that the
issues of the campaign have been mace
by the people and not by the committees
and Congressional politicians. rms is no
tab!v true as regards the Democratic Con-
sressonal Committee and the tariff is
touched upon in the Democratic COM
paisn book. it is a burning issue win
the people. The Suns correspondent re-
marks that apathetic public sentiment
does not force issues into a campaign
contrary to the purposes OF the poiiu-
clans. and contends that the demand for
tariff revision and restraint Of trust mon
opolies which is made manifest to every
hofv does not denote real apathy or In
difference. That would seem pretty
sound contention.
The correspondent reaches the conciu-
sion that the apparent apathy may be
hut the calm before the storm. and
that the vote, in November is likely to
prove much heavier than has been an
ticipated And that conclusion he fortl-
fes by directing attention to the parallel
between present conditions and those
which existed in the campaign for the
Fjftv-second Congress- During that cam
paign Representative Flower, chairman OF
the Democratic Committee, wrote a let
ter, in which he took very gloomy
view of the outlook, because Of t
"apathy'' that was in evidence. He ad-
mitted that his committee We're olSap-
pointed in the hope of arousing the mass
es, and he dad not, he SAID,
believe that the Den ocrats would
be able to do more than re-
duce the Republican majority in the
House But the people were in revolt
against the Mckinley tariff. They had
been doing their own thinking and doing
it earnestly and intelligently. and the
result was Democratic control Of the
House by an overwhelming majority.
The people have now an infinitely great
er incentive than they had then to revo-
lutiofize conditions; for aside from the
Dineley tariffs being more nox.ous in
itself than was the Mckinley tariff. under
the former have developed the present
intolerable trust evils. There is incalcu-
| lably more reason why the masses should
do their own thinking now than there was
in the campaign for the Fifty second Con-
gress. At every turn they feel ineNcus-
able drains upon their pockets. which can
but force them to think and can but en-
courage the spirit of revolt
So we agree with the SUMS correspon-
dent that appearances may be dece1t1ul
and that there may be surprisingly
large vote cast. And in that event it is
| far from improbable, as we see 1t, that
| the history of the campaign for the Fifty
second Congress will not repeat itself.
| Moreover, SO we would have it, DESPITE
the suggestion which comes from some
| Democratic quarters that it is not desir
| able for the Democrats to control the
next House, because such control would
relieve the Republican administration of
a great deal Of responsibility. What the
Democracy might suffer on that account
would be vastly more than offset by the
moral effect of the demonstration that the
| party was again united-a moral effect
| which could but have a tremendous in
| tuence in determining the result In 1904.