Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1883-04-14
APoIiticnI Doctrinnire.

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Political Doctrinnire.
The editorial utterances o. George
William Curtis, in Hayper's Weekly, are
often highly enjoyable reading on more
grounds than one. The solemn self
complacency with which he assumes
that all the Republican party has to do
TO achieve victory in the next Presiden-
tial election Is TO compose its differences
by the formal submission OF the Stall
warts TO the Half Breeds, is enough to
move one TO mirth. Another OF the pos
tuldtes by the aid OF which he constructs
hypothetical victories for his party, Is
the likelihood of the Democratic party's
making some serious blunder. The
great Apostle OF "Snivel Service" reform
may rely upon 1t that the only blunder
which will be committed by the incom-
ing Democratic Congress will lie in the
direction Of economy and the establish
ment OF an honest accountability by Off
cials to the people, with such tariff and
revenue reforms as to wise discretion
may seem cxpedient. We have no pa
thence with this twadde about Demo-
cratic mistakes. While an occasional
blunder Is an inevitable incident Of any
political organization, the chief mistake
of the Democratic party has lain in its
non. possession OF the Treasury, the
army and navy and the hundred thous-
and Offices of the United States, while
the great wisdom and invulnerability to
mistakes Of the Republican party has
consisted in its possession of these ad-
vantages, with unlimited coin from its
benefciaries superadded. Nobody ever
questioned the party wisdom Of the
Democratic party until ls4s. when il
was foolish enough to encourage divis-
ion in its own ranks. This silly mistake
has been made by the Republican party
during the last two or three years, with
the result of placing il in condition of
helplessness which is nearly as grent as
that of the Democratic party in 1860,
and even more pronounced than was the
Democratic embarrassment OF 1913,
although the latter was grave enough to
defeat the party for the time being.
While Mr.. Curtis theories in manner
made charming by the graces of his liter
airy methods, there is no species
Of conjuration by which the follow
ers of Grant and Conkling can be
made to harmonic with those Of
Blaine and his familiars. Another
feature of radical Republican weakness
which the accomplished editor of
Harpers Weekly overlooks is the loss,
by the Republican party, of the German
and Latin race vote. owing to fanati-
cal pressing Of the so-called temperance
issue. He reminds us of purblind |
individual, with speetacles on nose, pre-
pared to take in long vistas, who cant
see the ditch at his feet. There has
never been period in the history of the
Republican party in which it did not
depend for success on the German vote.
The German. aaame with devotion to
liberty, which in Europe took the shape |
Of Red Republicanism, on his arrival in
the United States looked simply at the
concrete thing known as human slavery.
He knew nothing of, and cared nothing
for the peculiar constitutional traditions
and environments which counted for SO
much with the native born voter of this
country. He was simply alive to the
fact that there was party here whose
shibboleth was the Acknowledgement of
the slave, and he threw himself into the
crusade with a genuine Teutonic ardor.
Since tho war the German has had time
to do a great deal of thinking. His
faculty of analysis has been at work,
to a signal purpose, of which the Demo
cratic party has been the beneficiary.
When the theorists and fanatics whom
he had placed in power coldly turned
against him and developed very vigorous
propaganda looking to the curtailment
of individual liberty, by the develop
ment of certain dyspeptic and Sabbatar-
ian hobbies, the German experienced a
great awakenment. As result, he has
given the Republican party the cold
shake. AS further result of this state
of things, the Republican party, which
has by the same agencies alienated its
Latin race adherents, is not absolutely
sure in the next Presidential election,
OF four States of Union whose desti-
mics il has administered so long, and
whose royal domain it has squsndered
so consciencelessly and so shamelessly.
The scheme of national campaign
which, on the part of the Republican
leaders, leaves the German vote out of
the calculation, is like the play Of Ham
let with Hamlet left out; or, to employ
less hackneyed SMILES, it is like the
American Revolution without the Dee
laration OF Independence, the tea party
in Boston harbor or Bunker Hill.