Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1888-09-14
A Weird 10 Young Men.


Minneapolis Tribune.
Tens OF thousands Of the young men Of
America will cast their first vote this fall.
and enter upon the political career which
is part of the valuable inheritance of
every American citizen. The power of
habit and association are probably the
strongest elements in the construction Of
character. and the casting Of n first ballot
may be likened 10 laying the corner stone
Of the building of life. The young man
who is called upon to exercise the elective
franchise for the first time in 1888, has
the possibility of living fifty or sixty
years thereafter. and very largely. the
whole OF his after life may be affected by
this virgin political act. Young men are
watched more closely than they imagine
by their older fellow citizens. and their
future career may be made or married by
even the simple act OF casting ballot.
1t is not our purpose TO assert that all
there is of political virtue is embodied in
the Republican party, and that every
vice is typited by the Democratic. On
the contrary. as in all organizations com.
posed OF men, there is much of strength
and beauty in both these great parties,
and very much in each of them that good
and wise men are struggling TO destroy.
But If the young man will read the his
tory of the country from the Revolution
10 the present time he will learn one thing
that the Democratic organization is ira
ditionally reactionary IN its policy, and
has always been opposed by party of
progress. In its early history the Demo
cratic party, clamoring for the rights of
1.-THE people. in their name strangled
safe national currency and replaced it
with the wild cat output of sponsible
private and State banks. Later on. this
same party threw its entire strength
against the policy Of extending govern
mental aid TO internal improvements, and
but for the discovery and Improvement
of the steam engine, a close adherence TO
that policy would have left the spot
where we live to-day still in "A savage
wilderness 1t is only repeating its early
history in this year 1888 in the advocacy
of free trade, and yet every line Of our
national history proves that the brief
eras of protection have been the only
prosperous seasons enjoyed by the peo-
pie Of America.
1t was the party Of slavery antedating
the war, and stood always as the sponsor,
advocate and protector of this crime
against the spirit of eternal justice. until
the demon OF war was turned loose in the
land by its leaders; and then. in the
South il stood rs the active element of
national destruction. while at the North
it became the dead weight of passive OBJ
struction which the patriotic sentiment
of national life was compelled 10 carry as
1t battled for very existence with the
South
Ii stood firmly planted against the
policy of free homcsteads for free men.
which policy since 1860 has covered the
West with happy homes, school houses
and churches, and literally compelled the
wilderness TO blossom like rose"
1t arrayed all the strength Of its intel
companies To construct railways across
the Western plains and mountain ranges
10 the Pacific coast. and now seeks to rob
the enterprise that created them of their
honestly earned reward.
But the worst is yet 10 be said. Not
only is il the opponent Of every move
ment toward the material and political
advancement of the race. but its gigantic
strength is used ceaselessly to cripple.
obstruct and Kill every aspiration toward
a higher moral and spiritual life. 1t
hates temperance, aud is the attorney of
the curse Of alcohol
Let young men pause and ponder these
facts-reason upon them. and then de-
eide whether their first ballot had not
better be cast for the party of growth
and progress, rather than for the organ
iZatiOn Of reaction and death.