Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1910-04-28
The Monroe County, N. Y, Elec-
ton.

llplt III NlVbipO COhlihl 4NOW Il 9TH, dU-
mits of a merely personal explanation.
In spite of the advantages which he
derived from bis control of the Repnb-
lican organization in the county, Geo.
w Aldridge, who was defeated by a
plurality of nearly six thousand votes
in Il district which ordinarily gives
large Republican majorities was about
the weakest candidate who could have
been placed in nomination, says the
Philadelphia Enquirer. He was the
recognized representative of ar ele-
ment in the politics of New York
against which the sentiment Of the
State ia at this time in hot revolt. He
had openly disparaged and opposed
the methods and policies of which
Governor Hughes is the popular and
influential and successful advocate,
aud he had been smirched by the dis
closures of legislatures crookedness
and official corruption which
have lately shocked the moral
sense of an aroused and indig-
nant community. 1t was testified in
the course of recent Investigation
that he had received money for an un
disclosed purpose from the lobbying
agent of the fire insurance companies
and after he had confessed having
done 80 it was not expected that the
voters to whom he appealed would be
reassured and propitiated by his asser-
ton that no dollar of it had gone into
his own pocket, but that it had all been
paid into the party treasury.
Rightly or wrongly he was identi-
fled with the indefensible system un-
der which such practices prevailed as
the people are now determined to sup
press an when he announced his can
didacY for election to the House of
Representatives from the thirty-second
New York district. 1t was felt that
his case was that of one whom the
gods wishing to destroy first make
mad. Trusting, no doubt, to the eff.
cheney of the organization of which he
is the head and to the normal magni-
tude of the Republican majority in the
district, he deliberately undertook to
defy the lightning that was playing
all around him and it is no occa-
sion for surprise that he has now fallen
beneath the stroke which he so reck-
lessly invited. Whatever may be his
character and abilities, however great
may be the resources at his command,
no man can run counter to the pre-
dominant trend of public feeling, can
place himself on the unpopular side of
a moral issue, without exposing him
self to certain and condign disaster.
and the mere fact that Aldridge was
defeated by decline of 14,04S in the
Rpnnhlinnn Unfa an1 .e
1850 in the Democratic vote as com
pared with the figures for 1908, would
not in itself possess any more than a
local and personal significance.
If that were all it would not be ne
cessary to go far atield honestly and in
telligently to account for what has
happened. 1t is, however, impossible
not TO associate this Rochester cleo
ton with other elections which have
taken place within the past year at
which the Republicans have suffered
similarly serious reVerses, and nothing
is to be gained by affecting to ignore
or seeking to belittle the unfavorable
Interpretation to which from this point
of view the Rochester incident is sus-
ceptible. 1t must be construed as an
other indication that for various rea-
sons large number of people are dis
satisfied with exciting conditions and
that, as always happens under similar
circumstances, they are inclined to
visit their displeasure on the party in
power and to hold it responsible for
everything in the situation that dis
pleases them. That is what occurs in
the same case the world over and there
is nothing for the Republicans to do
but to keep right on fulfilling to the
best of their ability the pledges en-
bodied in the platform on which they
carried the country at the last general
election.
Political reactions take place from
time to time in the natural course of
events with little or without any re-
gard for the deservings Of the party
against which they are directed. One
is about due now, and if it is on the
road there is nothing in the power of
mortals to achieve that would serve to
stay its course. 1t is easy to assign
this and the other reason for the dis
satisfaction that prevails. We are told
that the chief trouble is with the tariff.
Well, the tariff is as good tariff as
ever was framed. 1t has proved a
splendid revenue producer, and under
its protection the manufacturing in
dustries of the country are enjoying a
full measure of prosperity. There is
nothing the matter with the tariff,
nothing for which Republicans have
the least occasion to apologize, but the
truth is that there comes time when
the community grows discontented. 1t
has permitted itself to entertain ex-
pectations impracticable to realize when
it feels like complaining it is never at
a loss for something to complain about.
If it hadn't been the tariff it would
have been something else and what
ever the tariff might have been it
would have been the same thing.
AS for the increase in the cost of liv-
ing, which is unquestionably at the
bottom of much of the restlessness
which the election returns exhibit, the
Republican party has no more to do
with that than the man in the moon,
and it can do no more than that my
fhinal 20 lraaxo