Likely nobody was a conventional hero in the sketch, even when compared to your typical Warner Brothers skits where Daffy and Bug's trickery could get rather mean spirited for the protagonist. Hell, despite the title of the short being of the Dover Boys Dan Backslide has the most lines of any character (barring the Narration), and a lot more sole focus even though he's only introduced about 2.5 minutes into a 9 minute short as the air-quotes "villain". He also doesn't win in the end, but neither do the Dover Boys, so you can't even chock up the protagonist to the victor as it's pretty much that one guy skipping in the foreground from time to time.
The sketch has a very bizarre sense of story, even for today's standard.

Starring Ira Gamagōri as Tom.