Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-10-02

aimed at deterring men altogether from
voting; II Is not designed to reform any
hing
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-
tion to central idea may be heroic.
But where is the reputable nucleus of
any third party in this country to-day2
1t is easy to say that such rallying
point is found in reform. But what is to
be reformed and who are the reformersY
SO far as any national reform organiza-
tion 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 loss
what to say until one ingenious fellow
raised a 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 riff-TaH that had been sifted out
of the other living organizations Yet
the no-party men keep up their ieremiad,
continually complaining that there is no
party worth the having; and they insist
that somehow there should be a new or
ganization for them. We do not see
how they can be gratified unless they
choose to form some sort of an unpatri-
otic 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 mere gen
eraltty; none was ever borne to power
on the abstract proposition that n 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 a 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
I'LL 81,
| planned of. If, Tor example, there is a
large element in the Republican party,
as alleged, which is disgusted with the
management of affairs, can it not more
etfectually bring to pass salutary
| change in affairs by insisting upon
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
nations pledge to protect in their polit-
ical rights all classes of citizens. There
is nothing vague about this. If these
objects are not worthy of the devotion
of the voters of the Republic, we fail to
see any that are more worthy. If any
other organization, whether proposed by
partisans or by no-party men, has any
more definite or more vital purpose, we
would like to hear of it.-NeU York
Times.