Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1898 — DEMOCRAT'S VIEW OF DEMOCRACY. [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRAT'S VIEW OF DEMOCRACY.

There are views and views among Democratic leaders nowadays, and the contrasts are as remarkable as the elements of the party are conflicting. The Washington (D. O.) Times, a leading Democratic paper, punctured the patriotic pretentions of its party in the following editorial: “Sinoe the outbreak of the Spanish war they have committed —that is, the Democrats in the house —about every error possible. Giving a grudging support to the various imperative measures which followed the original appropriation of $50,000,000 for the national defense, they lined themselves up almost solidly against the war revenue bill, and capped the climax last Wednesday by casting the bulk of their*vote in opposition to the annexation oi Hawaii, a consummation devoutly desired by a two-thirds majority in both houses of congress aud four-fifths of the American people without regard t o party. “The result is plain. What was intended to be, aud wnat was originally a purely American war has degenerated in the eyes of the oonntry into a Republican war with all that that implies. “The Republican president stands before the world today as one pursuing a patriotic policy in the teeth of unreasoning Democratic opposition. When victory comes to him and Spain is humbled in the dost; when America’s possessions are enriched by the addition of Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and perhaps the Canaries, Mr. McKinley can rise and truthfully say: " 'This is niy work—mine and the Republican party’s. As we saved the anion in 1861, so now do we glorify it with victory. Ours the triumph, the spoils, including a majority in the new nouse of representatives! ” “And the people, on the Bth of November, will cry ‘Amen.’ ’’