The Democrats in 1892 had accused the Republicans of being hostile to labor, and the tariff of being the tool of callous employers. The Republicans reversed the accusation. Now the Democrats were hostile to labor, and the tariff was the route to prosperity. Outside of the machine-dominated wards of the cities and a few states like Illinois controlled by pro-labor Democrats, it was hard to see why workers would vote for Democrats. Labor hated Cleveland for Pullman and its aftermath. Debs, who had left the Democratic Party, was labor’s hero.
