Los Angeles Herald, Volume 39, Number 30, 10 November 1892 — THE DEMOCRATIC AVALANCHE [ARTICLE]

THE DEMOCRATIC AVALANCHE

The grand -victory which Cleveland hae achieved iB another significant lesson in American politics. It shows that a great and vital principle may, for a tiue, be overlooked or misunderstood; but that in the end, when the people are aroused to its importance, and realize its significance, the dormant patriotism of the country is sure to awaken to the occasion and assert itself in unmistakable terms.

The Republican party might have taken warning by the fact that Harrison was only elected the first time by the pecnliar arrangement of the electoral vote aniorigst the etates, but actually feiled very largely of the popular majority, which showed that there was discontent among the people about maintaining a war tariff in time of peace. Indeed so apparent was this that the party, through all ita recognized mediums of expreee', n, hail given the people to UDdeiEtund that the war tariff would be modified. Rlindid with power, however, and dominated by tne beneficiaries of the pysem, instead of carrying out their pledges, the Republicans made the McKinley bill their party shibboleth, and by its pitssago increased the stringency of a tariff that was already a burden greater thsn the people could bear.

No one can deny tbat the McKinley tariff Red the Lodge force bill were the real issues before the people daring the campa : gn. They were discuss?d on every stump, and the line of battle waa distinctly ranged for and against them. The people have spoken in no uncertain terms, and the policy of the successful government is marked out plainly. The country will return to sound doctrine in its tariff policy. The manufacturers will be relieved and encouraged by the admission of raw materials; luxuries and non-necessaries will be taxed roundly at our ports ; and the tariff will be adjusted so as to afford ample incidental protection to American industry. The ecandalr.ua spectacle will no loDger be afforded of a great government exercising the sovereign power of taxation to enrich one class at the expense of all other classes.

The force bill has, of oonrße, received its quietus. This measure was a natural corollary of tbe McKinley tariff usurpation. The claeß that was enriched by the bounty of the government was eager to adopt any measure that would hstve perpetuated its favors and entrenched the dispensers ot its advantages in power.

The American people have again demonstrated their right to rule. They have shown that they are keenly alive to any innovation tbat threaten' their national well being or their political rights. They have also shown that they are imbued with a noble spirit of admiration for a distinguished pnblic man who willingly sacrificed his private interests for the public good. Nothing can be more certain than that Mr. Cleveland could have succeeded himself in the presidency in 1888 had he not precipitated upon the country his tariff message on the very e«e of the election. The people were not then ripe for such a message; but Mr. Cleveland, with a prescience that did honor to his judgment and with an honesty that showed the purity and disinterestedness of his purpose, deemed it necessary that the issue should be made, and he made it, knowing that it meant his defeat. Time vindicated his course, and he became the Moses of his people when they realized that they must get out of the tariff wilderness into which the Republican party had led them. This is an incident of the campaign which will live in political history and occupy one of its brighest pages.

Oks thiog baa been at laat definitely settled by the election of Tuesday, and tbat is that Southern California is to have a United States eemtor in the person of Hon. Stephen M. White. The returns aB we write show that the Democrats have elected three members of the legislature from Loa Angelea

county, vie., Gon. Johnj ohn B _«thewa to the senate »p _ the Messrs. Frank G. Finlayson __ d T> j. Kern . t0 tne „m- Bebly. W 4 oU gi)t. t 0 have done better than tbh*., considering the exceptionally good legislative material we presented for the suffrages of the voters, but we have done fairly well. In San Francisco we have to chronicle a perfect sweepstakes, the Democrats having elected fifteen members of the assembly and two senators, the Non-partizaus two and the Populists one assemblyman. The Democrats have also elected the whole three members of the legislature from Sam Joaquin county, and claim a gain of two in Santa Clara. A dispatch received from William H. Carlson of S.tn Diego, to the Hbrald, states that that gentleman mtr been elected as an independent member of the assembly by three hundred plurality. The Republican hold over senators are drowned out of all power for evil. The news from California will grow steadily more favorable tor the Democracy. _____________