The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1880-02-06
The Duty of the Political Parties.


We have got to stage in the new peri
od of national politics in which one party
or the other must take forward step, and
everybody to whom politics is a serious
business. and not merely q machine for the
redistribution of Offices, at stated inter-
vais, is interested in the highest degree
both 10 compelling that step, and in decid-
log in which direction it shall be taken.
The duty OF taking it rests as much on one
side as on the other. 1t is true that the
party IN power only can take the inltiative
in all matters of legislation but the duty
OF the opposition is something more than
criticism. 1t is bound whenever it OBJ
jeCts, to say what 1t would, If it could, do
instead of the thing it objects to. 1t IS
bound to give the country some better
reason for putting it IN possession of the
government than the bad management of
those who actually hold the government
A capacity for judging by no means arg
ues a capacity Tor doing; and political
criticism differs from literary or artistic
criticism, in that that the critic is bound to
describe the kind of work he would pro-
duce in place of what he condemns. if the
opportunity were afforded him; and not
only this. but offer to produce it. 1t is
only by taking this position that any op
position can make itself respectable, or
play any useful part in politics. Or earn
any title to public confidence, It cannot
rely simply on the failures and short COM
iDgs of the other side. 1t must have a
programme, and submit it frequently for
popular approval.
The same thing is true, n1utatis nautGfs-
dis. of the party in power. It cannot
rely on the assertion that it is more patri-
ot tsc. Of i,ors moral. or more religious, or
more upright, in any va, than
those who seek to supplant it, Il
10 only very small part OF
the duty of men in office to
set an example of virtue In handling
money. or dispensing justice. Nor is .
party, like church,a depository of settled
doctrines, or cultivator of private morals.
Ii is an organization for the transaction of
business, Its function. when in power, ID
not simply to prevent murder and robbery
and collect the revenue honestly. but to
make l1cessant improvements. both in
legislation and administration, SO as BOT
only to increase their efficiency, but 70
adapt them to the eyer- changing needs
and conditions OF a progressive sociesy,
No party caD IN cur time, therefore. JUS
tlty lis retention of mower by the sin, pie
plea that something very unpleasant
would happen if it went out Of Office owing
TO the moral lnierIorIty OF those who
would probably take It's place. The Turk
ish Government is now the only one in the
Western world which gives this as its
raisOn d'etre.
Democrats and Republicans have sue
cessfuily protected themselves, for ten
years or more, against the demand that
they should move on, By the plea that
they. were either getting rid of ''the
results Of the wal" or, 10 some manner,
dealing with the results of the var. Ia
whatever shape the plea was produced. it
furnished q reason for looking back, and
not forward, for standing still, and not
marching onward. Whatever Justification
it may have been heretofore possible 20
find for tEis attitude. it is quite certain
thatgall dealing with the results of the
var, which is possible through legislation,
has been exhausted There remains not
q single problem arising out of the war.
except the disposition of the legal tender
notes Of the Government, which is not now
largely or wholly. economical in its character
and Is certain TO be solved, if soluble, By
the ordinary movements of trade and
population, and by the ordinary social
agencies of commercial civilization.