Life — November 12, 1896 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

> LIFE: “While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XXVIII. NOVEMBER 12, 1896. 19 West Titirty-First STREET. New York. Published every Thursday. $5.00 a year in advance. Postage to foreign countries in the Postal Union, $1.04 a year extra. Single copies, 10 cents. Rejected contributions will be destroyed untess accompanied by @ stamped and directed envelope. The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to be repro- duced without special arrangement with the publishers. ND so, at last, McKinley has really been elected, and we are authorized to fall on one an- other's necks and proclaim that the country is safe. For several ~ months we have been confident that it would turn out as it has, but there has been so much at stake that, firm as our confidence was, we have been anxious, and have longed and labored to have our assurance made sure. If we have been jubilant over our victory, that was the natural and momentary reaction after a long strain. . . . ry [* has been a prodigious satis- faction to see Bryan beaten, to know that there would be no repudiation, no scaling down of honest debts, no demoralization of our currency, no interference with private contracts, no med- dling with the Supreme Court, no populism, no socialism, no anarchy. Of course we are glad; of course we show it. Never- theless, the feeling that is deepest in the hearts of good Americans is one of thankfulness rather than exultation. The fight that has been made has been for order and honesty. The victory that has been won is not a partisan succ It can hardly be called a Republican victory. It is undoubt- edly favorable to high protection, and it is possible that Mr. McKinley may think it expedient to declare that Protection won it. But it didn’t. It was a victory of the American people for the American republic. It puts the Republican party in office, bound by much more than ordinary obligations to administer the government for the benefit of all the governed. We have been near a great peril, to the like of which the present generation, at least, will not wish to be exposed. We look to the party that will come into office next March to carry us just as far away from the danger-line as possible. We want the fight against the silver barons to be fought out to a finish, and an important part of that contest is for the coming Administration to give us the best and most economical government it can effect. . . R. McKINLEY was not originally the man whom Lire preferred for President, but, since he is to be President, Lire wishes that he may adorn his office and show himself really equal to the situation in which he has been placed. He will be tempted to countenance extravagance, to encourage radical changes in the tariff, per- haps to sanction untimely and im- proper extensions of the pension list, perhaps to consent to rash changes in our foreign policy. LiFe trusts that his wisdom and his patriotism may prove commensurate with his task, and his strength sufficient for the labors that await him. . . TH use of eggs in the closing days of the presidential campaign, now happily past, was an odd and novel feature of the agitation from the effects of which the coun- oe try still quivers. The first eggs used were thrown with the intention of disparaging the cause whose representative was the target for them. It quickly transpired, however, that these missiles were retroactive in their effects, and prejudiced the side whose partisans used them, the measure of the damage done being ina direct ratio to the number of eggs thrown, and, inversely, to their freshness, When reports began to come from Kentucky about the number of votes gained to sound money by the eggs hurled at Secretary Carlisle, it seemed to dawn on the less scrupulous sup- porters of both candidates what the true use of eggs in an American election was. To egg one’s own speakers and lay it to the other side appeared to be the proper trick, and it promised to grow so popular that, possibly, the prompt arrival of election day saved the country from an egg famine. There has rarely been a campaign so notable as this year's for the eagerness of both parties to profit by out- rages committed by the other side. It speaks well for the orderliness of American voters that irregular interfer- ence with speakers or voters should be so unpopular as actually to create a demand for it for use against its alleged projectors.