The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1883-06-20
The Difference

If the elections of next fall were to
take place this week there would be a
very meager vote cast. The voters are
not thinking much about politics Most
of them have made up their minds what
they are going to do, and look for no
new details that can change their inten-
tions. But there are many more who
are merely Indifferent, and others who
are waiting to see what the great parties
win do. Yet it does not follow that the
elections next fall will be tame or inde-
cisive The liquor question is apt to
drop to the reag; minor and local is
sues will shrink out of sight as the ap-
prOach of another Presidential election
| is realized; and men win turn their
thoughts once more to the question
which must after all be the decisive one,
namely, whether the one party or the
other, Judged by its past record and its
constituent elements, can most safely be
intrusted with the vast responsibilities
of National Government. Circum-
stances are likely to arise before the
voting begins next fall which will bring
that question very sharply to the minds
of men. The Democrats dread it.
Above all things they desire to escape
another public verdict upon their own
past record.
Before long, however that party will
meet in convention in several important
States. In these bodies the contest be-
tween different elements of which the
party is composed will come to a head.
One set of leaders or the other viii be
put forward to speak for tho party.
Nominations and platforms will show
which element has the upper hand.
Last year the Democrats had the adj
vantage of almost as many different dis
guises as there are different States; in
some they professed to care for moth
ing but beer and whisky; in some they
were only anxious to resist mOnOpOlies;
in some they clOaked a scramble for
office under pretended zeal for Civil
Service Reform; and in others they
promised as many different revisiOns of
taxation and the tariff as there were
distinct interests to be conciliated. This
year, in spite of themselves, their NOM
nations will mean something. Certain
definite measures have been passed by
Congress, and others are loudly de-
manded, and an attempt to be non-com-
initial will now be quite as significant
as the most explicit declaration.
Do what it may, the Democratic party
must perforce show whether it thinks
itself fit to be trusted. and call upon the
voters to say whether they think it fit to
be trusted. If it hunts up strange and
unknown men, or political tTicksters
who have never been identified with its
history, it will show that it is ashamed
of its own history and leaders. Confess
ing that these entitle it to no confidence,
it will, nevertheless, ask the voters to
say that they give it all confidence. By
so doing it will compel men to consider
what the history and who the leaders
have been Of whom the partyis ashamed.
Or if, on the other hand, it names men
who have been identified with its past,
that history inevitably comes up for
review.
The Republican party has no such
difficulty. 1t has a history, but is not
ashamed of it, and would be only too
glad to have the elections decided by
the public Judgment as to the work
done by the party during the past twen-
ty-five years. The Republicans also
will meet in conventions, but there will
be no effort anywhere to disOwn the
past record of the party, to put on dis
policy 1t does not need to pretend
that all its leaders have been always
wise, or all its officials free from blame;
taken as whole, its past challenges
scrutiny. Not being ashamed, and
having nothing to hide, it can nominate
new men, or men who have been long
identified with its history, as circum-
stances in each case may dictate. 1t
will not be foolish enough to pretend
that in every particular every Admins
tratiOn, including that of President Ar
thur, has met its highest aspirations,
and yet it will have no occasion or de-
sire to disavow or disown that Admins
tratiOn as a whole, or any other; on the
contrary, it can claim public thanks and
honor for the general conduct of the
Government under the present Admins
tratiOn.
There is a great difference between a
party that has everything to hide and
one that shrinks from no scrutiny and
fears no issue. The people will begin
to feel that difference when the con-
ventions of the two parties pass in re-
view before them. 1t is possible, too,
that events may draw public attention
very strongly to the financial course of
the two parties. There may be indus
trial contests or disasters this summer
/ Financial disorders are not wholly inn
possible. If they come, voters will
ask which party weakened the public
Treasury by silver coinage, strOye to
cripple the banks by constant assaults
upon them, and threatened all invested
property by Communistic proposals.
That the Democratic party is afraid of
its past history is not strange. But its
only way to get rid of its past is to die
| and bury itself.-M Y. Tribune.