Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1891 — READY FOR THE FIGHT, [ARTICLE]

READY FOR THE FIGHT,

KANSAS EDITORS NOT DISCOURAGED. Dbmocbats Warned in a Ringing Address AGAINST THE FORMATION OP Entangling Alliances with the Hotheads op the People’s Party. Topeka, Jaly 27.— This has been one of the notable days in the history of the democratic party of Kansas. From all quarters of the state the democratic editors assembled to re-affirm their faith in the prinoiples of the party and to give expression to their views on the questions of the hour. This meeting was called by a ptevious convention of the democratic editors held in this city, at which a committee was appointed to prepare an address to the demooraoy of the state and nation defining the position of the Kansas democrats in their relation to the republican and people’s parties. The fact that at the last election the democratic party of this state failed to nominate congressional, legislative and oonnty tickets, preferring rather to unite with the alliance, in order to defeat their ancient enemy, had given rise to the opinion in many quarters that Kansas democrats were oreatureß of the past. The incorrectness of this impressien was clearly manifest at the meeting to-day, when the democratic editors put forth their platform in no uncertain terms. The address prepared by the committee met with the unanimous approval of the editorial fraternity, and was adoptad withont a dissenting vote. After a preamble, reoiting the fact that a large conservative element is beooming seemingly inooulated with dootrines foreign to the genius and fundamental principles upon which onr government is founded, the address prooeeds:

Awakening to the Nation’s Peril. “We hail with delight the awakening of the American people to a realization of the wrongs they have suffered, which are the direct result of ideas and doctrines antagonistic to democratic principles. But we are not unmindful of the fact that of all the demands made by those who have but recently discovered these great wrongs there is not one which can be desoribed as rational and which is within the hounds of possibility but what has been made over and over again by the democratic party. And while these wrongs were accomplished with strong hands, unlawfully, over the united and be t efforts of the democratic party, it was* largely by the aid of those who now clamor for a redress of these wrongs by a species of communism and state socialism that are foreign to Amerloan traditions and the constitutional prinoiples upon whioh this government was founded. Nor are we blind to the fact that this latter-day movement of these w o until recently were the political associates of the perpetrators of these wrongs is simply a desperate effort to get the benefit oi democratic measures and democrat(c policies without abating their par - tisan prejudices sufficiently to vote the democratic tioket. We say te all who hopelfor better things, ‘All hail, brothers,’ bat we cannot consent to withdraw from the field of activity at the very moment when the trinmph of demooraoy make reformatory relief possible. After thirty years of devoted adhesion to principles and measures through misrepresentation and obloquy, the old veterans in the warfare for liberty oannot be crowded aside by new reernits and amateurs who were Auxiliaries of the enemy in the great battles of the recent past. Demooraoy A gainst Centralization. “The reason that the democratic party has survived for a century is because it deserved to survive, because it is the only party in thiß country’s history whioh haß stood up for the people against centralized power. The demoeratio party is therefore, and ever has been, the constitutional party of this country, and its opponents, whether federalist, whig, know-nothing, republican, or what not, have been, and are the enemies of these salutary restraints and sound constitutional principles, the maintenance of whioh is necessary to the protection of the individual against the aggressic ns, usurpations, corruptions, extravagance,lioentionsnesi and criminality of thoße in authority. The demucratio party stands for individualism against institutionalism, for the scattered and segregated individuals who constitute the great mass of sooiety as against corporations and all manner of concentrated forces by which the united energies of the many are molded by the fw. It believes in the perfect freedom of each individ al 60 long as the same results in no positive and palpable wrong to another. It believes that each individual is entitled to that large liberty which he may enjoy without denying to another equal libeity. It realizes that modem progress has bro’t us face to faoe with new conditions and problems that imperatively demand solution; but it is not prepared to assent to the proposition that the solution of these problems involves the shotting of onr eyes to the lessons of the past and turning a deaf ear to the a< monitions of history. We believe in abolishing the iniquities of olass legislation in tariff taxation, thereby adusting the burdens of the government equitably upon all. When we reflect upon the motives whioh prompted the now justly reputed infamous piece of legislation known as the McKinley bill, it is little wonder that it has for its companions appropriation bills aggregating over a billion dollars for a single Congress, an amount equal to that deemed neoessary during the years of the civil war, a time when the nation was bleeding at every pore and supporting from a million and a half to two million men in the field, Sneh unparalleled extravagance can neither be explained, nor justified nor atondd for. It can only be denounced, condemned and punished by perpetual banishment of its perpetrators from place and power. Stand Firm by the Party. “Therefore, in view of the foregoing facts and with the best of feeling toward those who cherish the real practical liberty guaranteed by the jonstitution and who are struhgling substantially for the identical reforms advocated by the democratic party, wa cannot bring ours elves to believe that now is the day or hour in which to haul down the flag of the democratic party Kansas. On the contrary, wc would advise the strongest possible organization among democrats and the formation of clubs and societies throughput the length anc, breadth of the state

to the end that democratic doctrine may he properly disseminated and the people beoome enlightened upon the practical reform movement as enunciated in the democratic platforms. To the demooraoy of Kansas we say, stand firm. Put your tickets in the field. Stand stoutly by your principles and time will bring you viotory."

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