New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-08-14

The organization Of what is called Work
mgmcn's party in Ohio and one or two other
States and the placing in the field al inde-
pendent ticket for State officers in Ohio, m~O-
luces a new factor in politics. Not that there
is anything new or fresh in the appearance Of
a third party there has hardly ever been a
national or State election in which there has
not been a third and often fourth ticket in
the field. But the present organization, if
handled with any kind of skill and slrewdness,
and conducted with fair degree of honesty of
purpose has in it clements which may shortly
make il formidable. IT at once abS0rbs into
itself by natural causes the scattered body OF
votes known IN the last Presidential election
as the GreenbaCk party. Its objects are the
same, and its methods do not differ from
those OF the incomplete thinkers and half-view
economists who think wealth can be enacted
10y law, and prosperity appOrtioned by an
exact weight and measure scale. The
w0rkingmens organization will natural
ly take up the membership, assume the
machinery, if there be any, and take
the place Of the sGreenback party. 1t may
draw to itself in addition large body of dis
satisfied voters of all classes, who believe it
duackery in craftsmanship, to lift up into
sound health body polite suffering from an
accumulation of disorders and diseases in all
its members. The movers of this new pOllt-
ical enterprise could hardly have chosen more
suspicious time for initiating it, The bust
ness dcprcssions, stagDatiOn in trade, pleva-
fence Of pauperism, and widespread uneasi-
ness and discomfort, are all in favor of any new
nolitical movement The hard times are taken
10y the unthinking as proof of the incapacity
of the old parties to administer government,
and they are consequently ready to take the
prescription of any quack who comes along
with large promises and palatable pills. SO
the time could not be more favorable for the
movement
In one view the organization Cf the new party
will be productive of good. 1t will be q cIys-
Utilization of political clements that naturally
and properly work together. The leaders in it
are evidently sincere in the belief that they
have not only definite aim but distinct pro-
cesscs and well-digcsted plans and purposes.
Ii is better that they should step out from the
old parties, and clearly state what they believe
in. and why, and then invite all who agree
with them to unite under their standard. All
the world will know then precisely what they
are at. and all the world can Judge whether
the object is desirable and the steps proposed
WISE BY separate action, likewise, they Will dis
cover their own strength and make ii known to
Others. And if, as some of them believe, they
are in a majority, perhaps the possession OF
power will bring to them sucii sense Of re-
sponsbility that we shall see the great re-
forms they propose carried out under the
processes and with the forms of law, instead
of their being accompanied by cOnfGsOn blood
shed and anarchy. Oar own impression is that
the feeling of the country at large is decidedly
hostile to any proposition TO turn over the
government Of the country to such men as
have appeared prominent in this movement.
With all the rage for legislative quackery in
finance and the readiness to indulge in en-
piricism in political economy, we do not
think we have quite reached the point of turn
ing over the government 70 be experimental
with by chat sort of people. But if we have
reached that pitch of desperation it is better
that we give them their sweet will at once, and
when they are done, come back wiser to the
old prescription of patience and the medicine
of common sense.
There are, however, large possibilities of
mischief in the movement. The separation Of
the workmgmen, or those who call themselves
such, from the old parties, into a distinct and
independent organization, with a State ticket
of their own is well enough bat in the cleo
ton of members of the Legislature and county
and municipal officers, and by and by Of MEM
bers of Congress, they will be offering the US
ual large temptations TO demagoguery, hypoc-
risy, dishonesty and all manner of deception
and trickery. For it is the habit OF third