OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10240, 24 December 1894, Page 7

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(Fsom-Our Own Cobbespondbnt.) San Fbancisco, November 15,

POLITICIANS AND THIS PEOPLE,

The Congressional elections on the 6th mat. simply buried the Democratic party. Scarcely one member lives to tell the tala. la the entire extent of the United States north of New York City, comprising 1,000,000 square miles and 22,000,000 people, not a single Democratic representative his been elected, last is a degree of solidity unexampled in our political history. This region stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific; it includes 16 States and p&rta of seveu others, and yet out of j about 110 representatives it could not elect a single Democrat. Oat of 356 members in the Lower Hoase the Democratic party will have I barely 100 representatives. In the present House it has a working majority of over 70, ia the next it will barely be able to muster a corporal's guard, i Such, lot us hope, is the fate that will ever ! await those who deliberately violats their I pledges, lie bo the people, and falsify every promise mnde from the platform. Oo thuse grounds I am heartily glad tho Democrats h&va had a good thrashing, but on purely utilitarian grounds I am not. Tha moo who went over from their own party to place their opponents in partial power will reap no benefits. The policy of M'Kinley, once again apparently triumphant, is, in ita outcome, as certain as ifl death to tho victim of the serpent's fangs. No sophistry oan blind the thoughtful and intelligent to tho fact that a policy which has multiplied cur one niilliouaira of 30 years ago to 4500 at this present hour, and which has flooded the markets with cheap imported labonr and the streets with unemployed, and which has compelled the millions of consumers to pay an enhanced value for every ar&iolo they wear, use, or consume—nothing can hide the fact that such a policy must, eventually, end in national collapse sufl permanent pauperism of the i people. Un&jrtunatoly we are not ail thoughtful nor intelligent. We are governed by our passions. It is 60 easy to think I things cun'6 be worse and a change must do good, and we willingly folio-.' the beck of every artful leader nad swallow every cunninglv-deviaod fable. This baing so—and I j think its troth will b3 adwutod—the political ' revolution, for such it is, of last wesk is comprehensible. Men, when hard pressed for the necessities of life, are not apt to consider causes, but vots straight for a change at all costs. Therefore tho Democrats were rftf'.-i&fed. At ths same time it should uofc ba forgotten that whilst much of what has happened during tha last two yeara would have happened r.ny tray, it in equally true th&t President Cleveland i 6 largely responsible for the overwhelming nature of the disaster. Ilia blunder is the greatesb of which any President has ever been guilty. Returned to office by the largest, or one of tho largest, popular votes ever given to do certain work promptly and well, he. allowed time—days, weeks, and mouths—to slip away without making the1 least attempt to redeem his party's plsdges. Had Cleveland called, as he wan advised to do, Congress together in j March 1893, a Tariff Bill, infinitely mora i acceptable to the country than the one eveotuI ally carried, could have ha^n law by tho July i following, and thus afforded speedy relief to all claeaes arid certainty to the interests involved. It is common history that this 1 course ws not taken. Distress, doubt, trickery,

lying, went on space, until some year and a-half after Cleveland had been inaugurated a wretched abortion, wliich could find no oue to father it, was passed. Then it was that the whole country, siok and di3gusted with tha entire business, rose in its might and kicked every man jack of them into the limbo o£ blackest night and deepest death. INCIDENTS OP TUB CAMPAIGN. The battle was fought with great bitterness throughout. Vast sums of money were thrown into the doubtful districts by the wealthy manufacturers whose sympathies, it is hardly necessary to state, were with the poor working man— i.e., the Republican party. M'Kinley, Reed, Cuauney Depew, Harrisou, and every speaker of repute on tvs Republican side were brought info play. Meetings, as vast in size and numbers as tha country they represented, were held throughout the East. Special trains were kept in readiness, stoppages made at every Btation, and addresues delivered from the platforms of the cars. Morning, noon, afternoon, and far into the night, with scarce an interval for meals or sleep, the speech-making, or " campaign of education " aa it is termed, continued. There were torchlight processions, fireworks, and brass bands innumerable. Young ladies, dressed in pure white and mounted ou horseback, came forth in cavalcades of 50 and 100 to escort the chief orators and candidates into their respective towns. Oannon boomed, muskets blazed away, and bells rangout their peala cf welcome, whilst through it all and above it all "Bill" M'Kinley told his immense audiences how the great policy of Protection was accepted throughout the world save by Engutud, New South Wales, and New Zealand. And are these, are we, all wrong, my fellow-citizens, and they alone in the right ? Whereat there was deafening cheering. Nor did anyone mar the unanimity or general joy by thinking to ask how it is that in the countries classed as Freetrade labour is infiuitely better paid than in Germany, Russia, France, Italy, and the like, or how it is that from the countries classed as Protectionist the U.S.A. receives most of its " pauper labour" ! Perhaps, however, this may hint at the explanation of why "Bill" M'Kinley refused to take part in a debate with "Tom" Johnson, the millionaire Freetrader and single- tax man of Ohio ; for, be it known unto all mcD, that the aforesaid "Tom" Johnson is one of the best debaters in the country. Alas ! that it should be co, but brave "Tom" Johnson weat down beneath the avalanche of popular indignation that buried good and bad alike on that fateful Tuesday. Then there was Mr Wilson, of Virginia, a brave, courteous, learned gentleman, a man who represents the best type of American citizenship. He it was who brought himself to death's door in the cause of tariff reform, and laboured month in month out for the benefit of the toilers. Such a man under analogous) conditions in England would not have had to look twice, or work hard, for his seat. . Here his reward is banishment from a House which is not worthy of him. . Then there is the once "solid South," solid no longer. In tho past the South has always been counted upon to roll up solidly for the Democratic party, and few Republicans ever deemed it would ba otherwise. Bat the abolition of the sugar bounty by the Democrats was a cruel blow. It swept with one fell swoop millions of dollars from out the planters' hands, aud who shall blame, these patriots forgoing over to that party T»hieh p&ys them in hard cash as the price of their support P The extinction of the Populist vote Ju one other feature of the recent campaign. The States of Colorado and Kansas have gene over to the enemy, female suffrage in the former and Mrs Lease ("tha cyclone oratoreas") in the Utter notwithstanding. All of which would seem to imply that the people are tired of wasting their votes upoa outside parties and ifl3ues, and have determined to try the efficacy of a new allegiance to "the grand old party "of trusts and monopolies. Nor should I omit to mention the fate oE the " unlimited coinage of silver .it a ratio of 16 to 1" party. The silver men were liftad up by the cyclone and carried away to where, beyond these voices, there is peace. ■■ j The delightful and time-honoured pastime of roll-stuffing was, as well became a free people, abundantly indulged in. la all the large cities hundreds of men were gathered from the outlying districts, lodged in roomy houses and hotels, registered in the various precincts, and marched to the polls in all the glory of a proud enthusiasm such as the modest consciousness of duty well and faithfully done can alone inspire. And in those districts where actual men were (Scarce, and " bosses " were in need of more voters, the imagination was brought into play., A single person would be enrolled a half-dozen tiaies under a half-dozen mythical names. In one ward he would be himself, in another a ranch, in another a country village, an Irishman, Italian, or Jew, aa the inventive mind of the "boss" might suggest;" In Philadelphia—a city of,brotherly love—they beat the record in registering a dog. Ssid dog's name was Willie, owner's came was Rifle, and Willie Rifle went down on the roll as a free American citizen, entitled to all the privileges of his high calling. In San Francisco we only managed to roll up 6000 " staffers," but then San Francisco occasionally forgets itaelf and becomes moral, which, from an electioneering standpoint, is decidedly improper. The women did not fare vety well. The Populists ' v of Kansas, who supported female suffrage in their platform, were wiped out of existence; the Populists of California, who had a female vice-president, are looking for each other everywhere but in places of pomp and power; the only judge in San Francisco—an upright, honourable man, — who was openly opposed by our public women, was elected by the largest vote cast; and in New York the women passed a reaolution aud unburdened their souls auent Dr Parkhurst—the one man above all others responsible for tho late great victory over crime and vice in that vast and j wicked city—through the medium of their ; president as follows: —>**-I do not see how it is possible for any women to be led by Dr Parkhurst, or how any Belf-resoneting woman can volunteer to help him ia his movement to reform the} city government, or be associated with him-*in any of his so-called social and political reforms," It aeeias the genial reformer does not approve the cause of "female emancipation," and doss favour pleasure gardens aud lager beer for the working and other c'.asseo! Oh ! broad-miuded>-woinea. MUNICIPAL POLITICS form perhaps the most interesting phase of the late contest. These is nothing dry about thu conduct of affairs in our large cities. It is unsecessary to detail how these great centres of life have been governed. Briefly they have not been governed at all but handed for years over to a gang ofgunwhipped Eascale, which has run them far its owa bflaeflt. The city governments have been noets of n»stißss3 end vice. They have bribed, debauohed, and corrupted. They haVe sold offices to the highest bidder, and have had fixed scales of charges for the positions they have had for tale ranging from 50dol or lOOdol for a porter's billet to tens of thousands fer a judgeship. Gambling houses hava been protected in return for an' agreed upon price by the police; brotbalkeepers have paid large and regular fees not to be interfered with ; saloons have plied th^ir trade at all times and honra in return for a cojaaidemtion arranged with tho authorities ; lieanaes have been sold in return for cash; indecent publications allowed to circulate without hindrance; and every vice known to the vicious made to contribute towards the blackmailing fund in which city officials, police commissioners, aud those of lesser degree all had a share. Here is a verbatim copy of a portion of an address published by a body of citizens of San Francisco who banded together to try and <Io Bonie little good, in the way of purification of oity politics, at the recent election. It needs co comment or amplification:— Nearly 40 years ago the criminal classes controlled the city. Gamblers and desperadoes filled public offices. PncUed juries rendered false verdicts, confiscating property of honest citizens or liberating thieves and assassins. Ballot-box stuffing, repeating, and fraudulent countin/f retained the rascals in power. No redresa by law being possible, the people sprang to arms, and by force regained the nghisthsy had lost by fraud. We are rapidly drifting toward the same condition of affairs. If supervisors have not been chosen from the criminal classes, they have equalled them in criminality. In the conventions, of both the large political parties nominees are pushed for place under tho promise to divide patronage with political managers, and to vote for such pilfering bills as such managers require. The ftdminißtraton of the law affords no redress. Embarrassing technicalities besut all indictments against criminals who have political inlluence. Trials are delayed until witnesses disappear, and criminals are acquitted by sympathetic or venal juries. In civil cases verdicts are bought, but jury bribers are seldom convicted ; dishonesty in office i commands the tribute of a smile. I Tho moral blight has reached the bench, and | the office of judge is open to such as are ready te . pave with gold the road to a nomination. The Street department has become a machine to create jobs in grading, sewering and paving for the benefit of political strikers, while a Committee of Merchants is sweeping the streets. Without authority of law, corporations use our streets, tear ud our pavements, and exercise all privileges of ownership, without regard to the rights of the public. ,- ■-. THIS CITY OF NEW YORK. But it is the great city of New York, more especially, I had in my miud when commencing this note. Hers tho greatest battle for purity of municipal aovemtneut known to the United States ha 3 bec-u fought and, temporarily at lenst, won. Mr Hiil represented tho machine element —the horribly debasing and debased element—in politics. Clever, personally pura and popular, he endeavoured to carry the whole house of Tammany to the control of the city government and, in bis own person as Governor, the control of the State. He and Tammany v/cre opposed by men of all parties and beliefs. The clergy, led by Dr Parkhnrst, who for upwards of two years had, through ridicule and slander, proved and proclaimed thb city's vices to their, very depths—the clcsn men in the

Democratic party, the Republicans whether lean or unclean, the dissatisfied, and the large business elemeut, all joined in the fight against Hill. The Republicans, naturally, felt elated at the prospact. It hardly seemed possible for Tammany to win, though bo great was its name and so dreaded its power that men doubted up to the laefc. Another important factor in the contest was the nature of the evidence produced at the Lexon investigation, and to which I referred in my laafc. The city was horrified at the statements made. Bribery, treachery, vies, and cruelty were proved against every official called, and that with such genuine evidence o£ unwillingness to speak what they knew upon ths part of the witaesaea, that men and women wore, without exaggeration, fairly appalled. It seemed as though the people had been living for years upon a thin crust of earth which might at any moment bie'ak away and hurl them and their dear ones into a fiery furnace ten times heated. Small wonder that every anti-Tammany candidate was elected by an enormous majority, and one of the most soul-inspiring funeral services known to the oldest inhabitant promptly inaugurated. The dead were so thick they had to be buried in heaps, THE ANTI-LYITCIIING L3SAOUE. This body of well-meaning Englishmen and Englishwomen, the repressntatives of which are at present in this country, is not likely to do much actual good. There are quite as many cultured and intelligent Americans condemning lyachiog and its demoralising effects as there are Britishare, but, so far, their protests and appeals have had little weight. It is hardly probable, therefore, that that which has been unheeded when coming from their own people will be patiently listened to &nd obeyed when proceeding from an outside source. At toe outset the Britishers labour under a disadvantage. The aanie people that condemn lynching will condemn outside interference, even though such interference has a like object in view, OF all people the Americans are the most touchy in this respect. They resent anything that savours of the belief thst they are not capable of managing their own affairs, op that they aro not, in every respect, as humane, civilised, and law-abiding as any people on earth. In fact your readers well know the Americans claim to be the moßt civilised, the freest, and the greatest people. This being so it can be easily understood how hotly they would resist the implication implied in the constitution and mission oE the AntiLypchiag League. Added to this there is the additional fact, perhaps equally as strong as the former, of that ouly partially concealed antipathy upoia the part of the American press and politician to overybody and everything British. The cause of lynching is not to be sought in any theory of lawlessness for the pure love of lawlessness among the inhabitants of certain districts, nor in any conception of armed freebooters roving the country round, armed cap-a-pie, iseekiDg any little nigger whom they might devour, nor in any greater liking for cruel deeds than is general in every community; but the cause rnnst be sought where it will be found, and that is, to the shame of the American people be it said, in the complete failure and breakdown of our courts of justice. Here is the cause aod here is the remedy, although this last I will never come until men know, as they know in England, France, Europe generally, and the British colonies, beyond peradventure or the shadow of a shade o? a doubt, that crime against life and women will be promptly and inexorably meted out. When this day comes lynching will cease; until it doea lynching will continue. :■ MB AND 3IHS XENDAL played a three weeks' engagement in this city duriDg the past month. Their repertoire consisted of " The Second Mrs Taaqueray," " Tba Ironmaster," " All for Her," " Lady Clsncarty," "A (Scrap of Paper," and "A White Lie." Without doubt Mrs Kendal, in such a line of characters as the above pieces call for, is facile princeps. There is no actress on the English or American stage who cwa approach her in thesa parts. Tall, graceful, handsome, and with yeara of experience of etage life to her credit, udded to a talent far above the ordinary, she is able to present the many phases of the emotions that stage heroiaes are called upon to portray with an ability and skill which, for sustained consistency of a high standard, have no equals. Mr Kendal is an excellent partner. Ec is quiet, unassuming, gentlemanly, and with no abanrd vices of stage posing, mannerisms, and affectations. <■ The company, likewise, was good, the staging -excellent, and the costuming far beyond the dead level of dulness common with travelling -companies. . PineroV. . "The Second Mrs , Tanqueray " raised a storm of disapproval from the press. This latter institution made the remarkable discovsry that the play is immoral! Ho more laughable affair has happened for a long time, San Francisco's press with its shameful ancj shameless " adst," its exploitations of scandals, divorces, elopements, seductions, and the like ; its toleration of low dives, where beastiality reigns supreme and unchecked every night; its general pandering to the low and unworthy, was the press that denounced Pinero's play as immoral! It is difficult to imagine how a play that leads a bad woman to a violent death -at her own hands, that teaches pure women not to hold themselves too far aloof from their leas fortunate sisters, nnd which wrecks the future of a brave soldier because his past has not been pure, it1 is very difficult, I think, to conceive how any play with such a cataclysm of retributions can, even by the most dull, be classed aa immoral. The Kendala do not propose coming to San Fraacisco again. . Nor can I blame them. There is not sufficient people in the city to make it financially worth while for such artists to come here. Tiue, we flocked to Irving, but then Irving at that time wag to us a curiosity ; and the only theatrical companies that can make money in 'Frisco are exponents of comic opera of the burlesque order, leg kickers, I roaring farces, speefcaouiar melodramas, strong men, tws-headsd nightingales, and moral plays like Zola's " Therese Ragain," as expounded by that moral couple Mre Brown Potter and , Mr Kyrle Bellow. \ NOTES AND COMMENTS. j Long and detailed cablegrams of the wreck of the Wairarapa appeared in all the American papers. in conversation with Sfe Witheferd, of Auckland, I was not surprised to learn that the statements accredited to him by the city press were based upon the reporter's imagination and the latter's ability to confuse matters of which he knows little. Mr Witheford never represented himself as a representative of the New Zealand Government-., did not state your railways vvere for sale, and did not claim to be authorised to negotiate Cor any guch sale. All :Mr Wiiheford has said has been in the direction 1 of establishing larger aud more satisfactory ! trade relations between New Zealand and tho t United States, and he has bean oordiiilly received I by the merchants and business men here. He : carried with him from Sau Francisco letters to T the most prominent men and women in the I country, and will call upon President Claveland i and others when in Washington. The following is not; an extract from the 7 accounts of the battle of Pingyaag. It merely 1 refers to a Harvard football match:—Three i broken collar-bones, one broken leg, one i splintered rib, one twieted jaw, one sot of teeth s knocked out, one twisted leg, producing water i on. the knee, .three Bprained ankles. The i puzzle is to find where the "sport" comes in. J A couple in Milwaukee applied for a divorce. > Question arose as to custody of " dogs." Both T wanted them. Both burst into tears when dogs caressed them. They kissed and made it up. i Application for divorce proceedings withdrawn. j i Eighty Norwegian farmers, under tha leader- ! » ship of their pastor, have left the State of I > MiuneuoSa, U.S.A., for Bella Coolo, British E Columbia, where they will form the advance 5 guard of some 3000 souls who propose settling under the British flag and founding a new . Norway. All have soaia means, and were 1 warmly welcomed to Canada by the Earl and Counters of Aberdeen. r The Marquis of Pullman, American citizen t and philanthropist, who publicly proclaimed j last July it was impossible to accede to the ] : demands of his men as the works were not pay--1 ing, recently presided at a meeting of his feUow-Etockholders, whereat the usual quarterly • dividend of 2 per cent, per share was declared and the net surplus for the fiscal year ending July [ 1 is given as 2,320,4i6d01,.which, of course, was "carried forward." Pullman made the further 1 statement that by increased attention to their ) work the msohaoics have increasad their daily • earnings from 8s s£d to 9s. Brava ! 1 A womnn died in Chicago on the 19th ult. who witnessed Napoleon's entry into Russia j and spoke with some of the soldiers when they wore retreating from Moscow. She was 105 I years old. I The A.P.A.'a have been successful in many cities in completely changing the religious coni- [ plexion of tho elementary school directorates. ! The' statement is made that of 7,000,000 [ young men between the agea of 15 and 35 in ) the United States, only 5 per cent, are church morn'oßi's, aod 75 per cent, never attend church !at all. : There are 250,000 public schools in this country, with an average attendance of , 15,000,000 children. The annual expenditure jis W3.000,000d01, and the capital invested i 350,000,000(101. Largely-attended meetings were held by Herr Most &ud ot'aers in honour of the Czar's death. Resolutions of joy at the event were passed amid storms of approval, and the hope expressed that the rest of " the beastly Romanoff a " might speedily follow. Said a speaker at a banquet, at which 1500 represeutative men were present, " Great Britain is the last country in the world the people of Amarica wish to confer any benefits upon, either by legislation or executive act. If it bo possible for a peace-loving people like ourselves to have a traditionftl enemy, assuredly that enemy is Great Britain." How is this for " tho federation of tho race" ? and, remember, it is the party uttering such sentiments that has just swept the country. Dr Talmage has resigned the pastorate of Brooklyn Tabernacle. He believes Providence,

through the instrumentality of three fires, I clearly intimates he should not again resume the control, I would remind your readers that the new Republican House does uot take office until December 1895. The Congress which meets next month is the one that was elected in 1882. This io another of the anomalies of our written Constitution.