Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1904 — POLITICAL COMMENT [ARTICLE]

P OLITICAL COMMENT

A Dead Party. A political party is supposed to be an organization of men formed and maintained for tiie purpose of upholding certain political principles and tiie acompllsbment of political purposes in acordance with those principles. Those connected with it arc supposed to be in accord as to its principles aud purposes. Every political party when it first comes into existence answers to this description. Every party begins by adopting and publishing a political creed and stating what it wishes to accomplish and inviting the political people to accept its creed and join in efforts to obtain its ends. If a new party triumphs and accomplishes its original purposes it may move forward upon new ground, but to deserve the support of those who have contributed to its success it must aud usually will adhere to its original principles, and its new purposes must and usually wHI be in harmony with them. So long as a party pursues this course it will preserve its continuity, Its cohesion and its vitality, provided those not in sympathy with its newly declared purposes wilhdraw nnd seek other affiliations more congenial. As a party grows older imany adhere to it for what it has been or from force of habit or from the moral cowardice which fears the cry of “renegade,” or some other political equivalent of the labor union epithet of “scab,” raised by those who approve of the new departure and seak to bully other people into its support. In some cases the new departures are of tiie most incongruous kinds, many of them at variance with the original principles of the party and with all decent principles, and the party itself becomes a medley of the mqst discordant elements and quite inaca,pable of -coherent action if intrjsted with power. This is pre-eminently tiie case with the Democratic party. Originally the fundamental article of its creed was democracy—a representative government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Before the Civil War it bad so far abandoned that article that it in effect denied to people of the African race all right to share in their own government, and it was left for a Republican President ’to formulate the doctrine in the words just quoted. The party abandoned that article, which alone gave it vitality, at the dictation of its Southern leaders. During the Civil War its Northern leaders refused to restore the creed and the party because further discredited. After the war the Northern leaders so shaped their course as to invite the Southern whites to join the party en masse aud their invitation was accepted.

Even with the aid of the solid South It failed to succeed, and so Its leaders began bidding for the votes of all sorts of cranks —currency cranks, Populistic cranks and every other kind except the comparatively respectable kind which made waff on whisky. Thus the party lost all'of -its Democratic .principles and character and became all that tvas undemocratic. It became hostile to government of the people by any but white people, and insisted that the white people South should do more of the governing than the white people North, it fought the anti-slavery amendments. It sought to ruin the public credit and disgrace the country by debasing the currency and repudiating United States bonds. It attracted to itself the disreputable and lawless classes of the cities and the strike bosses who were ready to support any party which would give them a free hand to slug and murder “scabs” and trample upon the rights of the public and violently assail the peace and well-being of society. The party ceased to be the Democratic party in anything but name and became a loose aggregation of all the bad elements of society, having nothing in common except lust of the spoils of office and a desire to break down, some at one place and some at another, the restraints of law and of rightful authority. It has become a party which outrages the name of Democracy by taking it in vain and which-Is,not deserving of anything but overwhelming defeat and utter destruction. The Democratic party no longer exists. The disreputable party which has stolen its name and is using it for base purposes must necessarily be abandoned by every respectable citizen who perceives its true character and Is not deceived by a name and by memories of the excellent things to which it was once applied.—Chicago Chronicle.

Bryan, the Socialist. William J. Bryan says that if Parker f£ elected, imperialism and the race issue will tie settled and the Democratic party will have time to take up economic problems. Then he discusses some of these problems as he understands them and as he wants the Democracy to act on them. He favors state ownership of railroads rather than government ownership, a scheme so wildly Impractical as to arouse suspicion pf Bryan's sincerity. Then be would have Uncle Sam own the telegraph, telephone and other monopolies. In a word, Mr. Bryan would change the Democratic

organization Into a body of socialists and, in time, work out a community of Interest scheme that would take little cognizance of the individual. None of Mr. Bryan’s schemes are new, but it is new to have a man of his political standing approve them. Democrats who have Voted against him four and eight years ago may well pause nnd ask themselves “what might have happened had wo swallowed the Bryan dose?” While the sound money Democrats are congratulating themselves on the return of the party to “safe and sane” lines, let them not whistle until they are well out of the woods. Judge Parker says lie voted twice for Bryan and he has never said that he sunk his principles in doing IL Bryan has said that he would both vote and work for Parker. He himself Is a candidate for United States Senator. With Bryan in the Senate using the magie of hi* voice in behalf of State and Federal ownership, and with a man in the White House who has twice given Bryan the strongest expression of confidence one may give another, the sound money advocates, the solid business element of the country, may tils* cover when too late that they have been sowing seeds of socialism simply because the sturdy Americanism of President Roosevelt wouldn’t permit him to kowtow to it or to any other element.—Toledo Blade. Dull Campaixn iu the West. Some of the papers are saying that this will be a dull campaign in the West. There Is a chance that this is true. Farker has no standing among Western Democrats. He will not poll anything like the vote In aqjr-of the Western States that Bryan commanded ,and Bryan in 1900 carried only Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Nevada outside of the old slave region. The nomination of a nonmagnetic and nonsilver Democrat for 1904 is eminently calculated to make the canvass so onesided In the West that comparatively little interest will be taken in It. President Roosevelt is immensely popular in the West. He will probably carry not only all the States that were won by the Republicans four years ago, but will get the four Bryan States of that year in addition. A clean sweep of the entire West by the Republicans in 1904 is among the probabilities. Un-. der such circumstances it is hard to see liow any great amount of excitement could be raised over politics in the West this year. It is even said that the Parker managers contemplate giving up the West without a struggle. This would be the sensible course, for they have not the faintest chance to make any headway outside of the solid South, and possibly one or two of tho States of the north Atlantic border. But let nobody suppose that the Republicans are going to abandon the West this year on account of their heavy predominance in it. Nothing of the sort is contemplated. Chairman Cortelyou and his assistants may be relied on to make a canvass here which will be as active as if the West were in serious doubt. But it takes two sides to make a fight. If tho Democrats are unable to put up any serious contest — and this is the actual case—the Republicans alone will not be able to raise much excitement. No canvass will take place in this section which will recall the wild scones of tho campaign of 1890, when Bryan stumped the entire region west of the Alleghenies, and when lie had skillful spellbinders in his train who were animated by a little of his own earnestness and eloquence. Parker will not take ilie stump, and even if he did take it he could say nothing that would arouse any enthusiasm in this quarter. A solid West and a practically solid North will confront a solid South In the canvass of 1904.—5 t. Louis Globe- , Democrat.

Mr. Davis’ Acceptance. In accepting the vice presidential candidacy on the Democratic ticket Mr. Davis said not onjf single word on the trust question. . Nor on the question of labor anJ capital. Nor on the Philippine question. Nor on the tariff question. Nor on the Monroe doctrine. Nor on the Panama canal. Nor on the open door. Nor on reciprocity. Nor on the navy. For the candidate of a great party for the second office in the land not to make a single reference In his kej q.>te speech to any of the questions which divide Jii* party from the opposition party L* at once extraordinary &nd unique In the history of the United State*. Not since the adoption of tha constitution has there been a parallel case.

Vote the Democratic Ticket—ls. If the country Is In favor of free trade and tariff ripping, It Is time for the country to go Democratic. If people want the tariff torn up and business paralyzed, ‘they should vote the Democratic ticket. The Dlngley law was made to bring prosperity, and it has brought }t ami maintained It for seven years. Such people as are tired of prosperity should vote the Democratic ticket. That opportunity Is alw-ays open. Such peopls as are In favor of a tinuance of prosperity should vote the Republican ticket and assist In keeping the Republican platforms right —Dm Molnea Capital.