New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-06-11
IN 4 TIGHT PLACE.

IN d TIGHT PLACE.
II is vour turn now, McssYs Democrats Of
| Ohio. Republicans have avowed their opinions
plainly and manfully. Do the Democrats dare
to meet them in the same fashion No one
expects it. When the Kentucky Democrats
stopped to a cheap evasion, it was felt that a
higher courage was not to be expected from the
same party in the doubtful States. The nom
ination of Judge Hoadly would be an evasion
in itself. Yet that is said to be well-nigh GER
tain He is not a Democrat; neither is he a
Republican. His opinions are not In harmony
with those of any political party, and he has
served on either side so often that his weak
points are known to both. He is political
acrobat, capable of interesting feats in ground
and lofty tunbling. but for that very reason
his nomination would be confession that the
Democratic party wants to dodge its own past
history and to hide under matches Its own real
convictions Perhaps that would be an ex-
pedient thing to do But it is open to question
at least, whether cunning in lodging is the
one quality that the country is most inclined at
this time to appreciate and reward
More than once already the Democrats OF
Ohio have tried their fortunes with a candi-
date of mixed antecedents, variable opinions
and uncertain aims. On every such occasion
they have failed to cast anywhere near the full
party strength. After every such defeat they
have attributed the result to the dissatisfaction
OF disgust of part of their own voters, APP
parently with some reason. A nomination of
a candidate who is not Democrat, made
because he is not Democrat, and for the
express purpose of catching some voters who
l n. = 10
than it gains where the old-fashioned and
"brass-mounted members of the party have
once acquired the faculty Of resenting an insult
to their opinions. The voters who followed
Vallandgham and Thurman and Allen, it may
be imagined, have some little feeling when 1t
is proposed to disinfcct the party by taking
| out of it all that used to be considered Dem
ocratic.
| Tie difficulty, however, is chronic The
world in which we live has not grown up under
| Dem ocratic ideas or policies Soft money and
reputation have not shaped its financial con-
! dition hatred of corporations has not prevent
| ed the multiplication of banks or railroads
! the fondness for "patTiarchal institutions y
has not excluded immigration; free-trade has
! not prevented Investigation of industry or
the uprising of hundreds of establishments
where manufactures thrive because dIscrmi-
mating duties for protection have been levied
and maintained. In short, in Ohio as in other
! Northern States, the state Of civilization that
actually exists is essentially product of Re
publican policies and teachings. We have
banks and railroads, mines, furnaces and fac
tories, because Republican ideas have for many
years prevailed in the Government Now what
is an unhappy Democrat to dol Shall he
avow his old Democratic ideasY IL so, he
makes war on the existing civilization. Or
shall he accept aud rejoice in the existing civ
iIizaton, with all its magnificent triumphs
| If so, he makes war on the Democratic past,
tramplcs upon its traditions, rejects its ideas,
T and insults the memory of its departed leaders.
! 1t is singular that the Democrats themselves
do not seem TO comprehend this political cal de
sac into which they have marched. Still try
| ing to get on where there is no thoroughfare,
they smash their heads year after year against
the solid walls that rise before and around
them, and seem amazed because it hurts. But
| if any of them try to about-face or back out,
the rearmost battali0ns denounce them and
tread them down as deserters from "time-
honorcd Democratic principles"
! The patty can keep silence, after fashion,
about slavery, or the rebellion, or colored suf-
| frage, or soft money, or reputation, or other
questions that have been sufficiently settled.
But it cannot shirk the tariff question in the
same way. There are great many Demos
Gratis who refuse to believe that question set
tied. These clamor for reversal of the policy
| Of the Government They insist that the party
shall set itself against the magnificent indus
trial development of the past twenty years. 1t
is false to itself, to its history and its creed,
these men affirm, if it does not go to work at
once to tear down the factories, to put out the
furnace fires, and to fill up the mines. These
results, the civilized world knows, must flow
from the policy that thev demand, and get they
have no patience with any Democrat who Is not
uncomproInising and outspoken in his hostility
to the protective system. The root of the diff
Guilty is that large section of the Democratic
party, including those who are most faithful to