Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-10-08
No.Party Men.

Respondent on the subject of parties
With much sourness they declare that
neither of the two great national parties
should have the administration of the
Government. 1t is evident, they say,
that the party in power cannot be re-
formed, and that the party striving for
power cannot be trusted with it. If this
be true, it leaves the grumblers in an
awkward dilemma They do not pro-
pose any adequate remedy. We have
scanned with great care the complaints
that are made by discontinued people
and the newspapers that represent them.
Not one has yet suggested any way out
of the quagmire in which they profess
to find themselves. OF so-called "inde-
pendent" journals we seem to have great
plenty; but while we affirm that indie
pendence in political journalism is es-
sential to real influence, we must say
that these independents are only neutral.
Their strength is to sit still and growl at
all the world. 1t is SO much easier to
tear down than build up that they find
great comfort in lazily pulling things to
pieces. Somehow they fail to give US
anything that shall take the place of
that which they would bring down to
the dust If it is true that both the great
political parties are dead and buried as
the Fentons and Cochranes declare,
what is to become of us all on election
sort. In republican government es-
pecially we do need active and dominant
political organization. 1t would appear
that the criticism of the no-party men is
aimed at lettering men altogether from
- Il 10 ,fNy
thing.
We have great respect for small and
earnest political organizations. Though
they may be mistaken in their general
aims their honesty of purpose and devo-
ton to central idea may be heroic.
But where is the reputable nucleus of
any third party in this country to-day?
1t is easy to say that such rallying
point is found in reform. But what is to
be reformed and who are the reformers?
So far as any national reform organiza-
ton is concerned there is not even the
pretense of one: and the cry of reform"
is so vague and general that we are re-
minded of the plight of some New En-
gland strikers, who, when asked to state
the grievance for which they tumultu-
ously demanded redress, were at a loss
what to say until one ingenious fellow
raised laugh by declaring that they
wanted rum with their water To be
sure, we have innumerable indictments
of this corrupt Government" as neutrals
phrase it; but when people look at the
morals and manners of the men who are
so noisy on the subject of public honesty
they are moved to mirth. Fancy, if you
can, the leaders in the latest reform
movement-that at Cincinnati-refOrm
ing the Government of the United States
Whatever may have been the motives of
the original agitators of that ill-starred
expedition it Is notorious that it was
burdened with all the political adventu-
rers and riffraff that had been sifted out
of the other living organizations. Yet
the no-party men keep up their jeremiah
continually complaining that there is no
party worth the having; and they insist
that somehow there should be new Or
ganization for them. We do not see
how they can be gratitied unless they
choose to form some sort of an unpatri-
otto association which shall be pledged
to sit still and find fault The history of
parties in this and other countries shows
that the great mass of voters must be
divided on vital questions. No party
ever came into existence on a mere gen
erality; none was ever borne to power
on the abstract proposition that new
party would be a good thing to have in
the country.
Very clearly it is the duty of every
good citizen to exercise his privilege of
casting ballot for elective officers. AS
republican institutions are managed, it
is necessary that parties with complete
and widely-ramifying machinery should
be organized to bring forward and sup
port candidates. Nobody has seriously
proposed disbanding of all parties with
voluntary, individual and unconcerted
action by all voters as a substitute there
for. If the present political ills are so
great as represented there ought to be
some means of reading them from the
body polite, which is, after all, the
source of all power, corrupted or uncor
rupted With the people ultimately
rests the responsibility for the evils com
planned of If, tor example, there is a
large element in the Republican party,
as alleged, which is disguised with the
management of affairs, can it not more
effectually bring to pass salutary
change IL affairs by insisting upon a
reformation in their party than by fold
ing hands and finding fault? The party
now in power has the means. ability and
disposition to reform itself whenever
necessary. 1t is not possible for any
political organization to be long in ex-
istence without abuses creeping into it,
But no party in this Republic SINCE the
foundation of the Government has ever
exhibited such sensitiveness to criticism
as the Republican party. twas founded
upon moral ideas; it has conducted the
Government mainly by policy OF ma
tional and international honesty. Its
peculiar pride today is that it is the sole
defender of the nations credit and the
nations honor, and that it stands by the