, 1886-07-29
The Third Party.


tence. Tho purpose, as stated in tue
didate for delegate to congress, and
it invites the cooperation of 'all |
citizens not satisfied with the course |
pursued by the old political parties"
This Is very broad and comprehen-
sive. and when the convention Assem- |
hles it will, no doubt. define more
distinctly and fully its line of policy. |
Politica. parties must be consider
ed simply as the means for carrying |
into effect certain measures and prIn |
ciples of government. In our form !
of government by the people, they be |
come absolutely necessary.
As individuals agree upon one or
more important, leading issues they !
unite into party organizations IN or
der to effectively enforce and put in
to operation through the machinery
Of the government the principles or
the policy upon which they have de
termined This is the history OF
political parties, and will continue to
be. for it is their legitimate and pro
per purpose.
If, then, parties already in the field
fail to apprehend or properly con
slider these leading issues, the neces-
sity foI another party has arisen at
once, and no one Is authorized to
question the right of such an organi
zation, or the authority of those en-
gagged in it.
We fail 10 grasp the relevancy of
our contemporaries remarks. He
scatters worse than an old fashioned
"blunderbuss" Almost any word
builder can ''slosh around with high
sounding platitudes and manage to
construct jingling sentences that
mean nothing What is the matterwith
the old parties? What is the"great
question which makes a third party
necessary? If an exigeacy exists
rendering it necessary that a third
party should be organized, why do
not the third party advocates state it
plainly And why are not tue aims
and mission of the proposed new
party set forth IN Mister Maloney's
call for territorial convention? The
dissatisfied ones in both the old
parties are invited to unite-for
what? Simply to engage in go-Gs
you please scramble for the offices?
No political party was ever yet sue
cessfully organized unless some great
underlying idea or issue existed upon
which to build. The need of third
party in Washington territory has
not yet been made apparent, and
until such need shall have been dis
closed there will be no great rush for
the Maloney convention. Now here
is an extract from the Adams county
Record that sounds sensible. After
quoting the Maloney "eall'' for
convention at Tacoma, that paper
says:
This is decidedly cool. Who auth
orized Maloney and Bell to call a
territorial convention? Who are
! y" llO WIZ oHuil oit
in the convention and who not? The
people of this territory are ready and
willing to give all parties a fair show
for recognition when they are con-
Quoted with proper political dignity;
| but here is convention called with~
out even an object named; it isn't
even dignified with a name, to tell
what subject or object is to be en-
bodied in declaration of principles
to be brought before the convention
when it shall meet The ume once
was when a half dozen intriguers
could bulldose the people, but that
time is passed. If the principles sup
posed to he embodied in this call are
Just, there is no reason why they
should not be proclaimed upon the
housetop, that voters may intelli-
gently understand what they are ex-
pected to do. But the very fact that
this is studiozsly kept out of sight
stamps this call as fraud of the first
water, and which may be rightly
termed The Tacoma Method" We
can safely speak for the people of the
territory generally that they will send
no delegates in answer to any such
| clap-trap.
The third party movement appears
thus far to be blind pool, IN which
all disappointed office.seekers ana
soreheads are invited to risk their
chances Oh kind of pot luck" sys-
TEN. SoTe who have nothing to
lose and everything to gain may pos
sibly fall in with the idea for novelty's
sake; but we doubt if many OF even
such persons could be led into it.
1t has been said that Jefferson
county has responded to the call.
Yes, one citizen of jefferson county
has published call for q county
convention; and he is so modest that
he has not signed his name to the
call" He is member of the
knights of Labor, and it is possible
that he may have responded" to
Mister Maloney's call simply because
the central "Giastacutus" of the
order has directed him so to dO-just |
as members of that order circulate |
posters asking people to boycott some
brand of goods they have never seen
because somebody they never heard |
Of before directed them to do it; or, |
as they signed a memorial asking |
congress to do all sorts of unconsti-
tutional and silly things because a
lodge of knights" somewhere in
Pennsylvania promulgated the doc
ument. The objects set forth i'll the
fundamental declarations of the
Knights Of Labor are worthy. and if
that order can be instrumental in
bettering the condition of wage la
boreIs, or of society, it ought to Re
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