The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-11-09

ndu nopie past Ibis latest convert does
not omit the usual tribute of praise. When
the ordinary man says he honors the past of
the Republican party and its great deeds and
then proclaims that 1t is no longer true to its
principles and hence he the deserter is
coming over to Democracy, bringing in his
OF Republicanism, we have long ago ceased
to prick up our ears In wonder. 1t has really
become one OF the well-worn commentaries
OF what the English call rafting" But
, when the presidint Of Harvard adopts the
phrases one cannot help wondering why he
mas never applied to his own ideas a little of
men.
Why has the Republican party noble
pastr was 1t because its founders in 1856
issued programme involving no slavery in
tne territories. election of Abraham Lincoln.
civil war, victory and abolition of slavery,
REIMBURSEMENT of the slaves, payment of
tne bonds, honest money and the practice of
virtue generally and then called for sub
al dared to look beyond the first item. Free
territories seemed ultima Thule then.
whence did come that glorious list of
achievements unparalleled In the history of
the world? Was it because we had great
leaders? Great leaders in politics are the
creation of rank and file. 1t was because
the Republican party then as now was made
up OF men more progressive and of higher
political tone than their enemies. These
Free Territories" to "honest money" and
decided each correctly, as all the world
knows. Even the Democrats know that
now, and no one of them at this moment
either wishes slavery re-established or gold
at premium.
The President of Harvard thinks we are
wrong on Protection" 1t may be so. But
AL history knows we were right on the others.
The party which for twenty-five years has
been right is quite likely to continue SO. The
same sense, even minus the President of
sible results.
= H 7Sa IS however, quite right in going over
Trader; The great applause" with which
his declaration was received shows that the
democracy an hoe SignO recognized long
lost brother. Nevertheless the new convert
must be prepared for some humiliations of
election to see. that party, the Free-Trade
opinions of which have won his affections,
protesting with all the voices of its countless
orators that the Democratic party is no
1t is to be hoped that the new convert may
reform the Democratic party. but even he
must have grave doubts when he remembers
that Horace Greedy and James Russell
Lowell aud even Dorman b. Eaton have been
engulfed therein without in the slightest
the powerful god of the sea will at no distant
day view the suspension of his moistened
garments, while he himself reflects on his
iolly In forgetting how long spoon one must
have Y. when he sups with certain host.
sations OF a changeful world to know that
the President of Harvard before turning
democrat has felt around in the dark and
found that he will have comfortably near
him Civil Service Reform. 1t would indeed
De dl1hcult task to bea Democrat and not
have Civil Service Reform within easy reach
OF the tongue and. yet continue to be more
vlrtuous than ones neighbors And yet /
fear-let us hope the fear is born of merely
partisan prejudice-that the Civil Service
REFORM, which the President of Harvard
thinks he has found among the Democracy is
a civil Service Reform very much in the
bush.
That the common crowd of unlearned and
partisan persons should be confused as to the
attitude OF the. Democracy toward Civil
Service Reform is not surprising. They lack
intellect, culture, philosophy and trained
perceptive faculties, all of which exist in
perfection In President of Harvard. But
Il Is strange that such personage,. so intel
iectual, could ever seem to be misled as to
the significance of facts He ought to have
recognized the great principle which under
lies all this clamor about the attitude of the
Democracy. toward Civil Service Reform. 1t
all comes from natural exaggeration of the
unexpected: When deacon goes to church
nobody notices it. When the village repro
bate takes even back pew it creates pro-
found sensation, When the child is just
beginning to toddle his delighted mother and
look at the little dear, how. firmly he walks"
A tall soldier might 60 by with the per-
1ectlon OF martial stride and nobody would
ever think <, OF talking about the way he
walked. That the righteous should do we'll
is matter of surprise. When the Republican
party makes the full stride forward which
the day and generation demand it gets no
credit, because everybody expects it.. When
t she Democracy get into our last years foot
pected is happening. 1t is the lost sheep of
the House of Israel that call forth the loud
est expressions of delight, and yet steady
going and wise shepherd would probably
find that the sheep that never got lost would
be more reliable in the way of wool and
mutton.
There was never better illustration of
the general principle than in this very case
q civil Service Reform, When Theodore
which distinguish all that he does, attacked
and eradicated the abuses which under the
last administration had crept into the SER
vice, he received only that calm indifference
who can only persevere in well-doing. Presi-
dent Harrison keeps In Office for their full
Jour years the men whom no Civil Service
Reform protects and the Post and Times and
other true friends Of virtue revel in denun-
Grover Cleveland wanted to turn out of
office men who had not been in even a single
year he had only to invent the phrases of
Offensive Partisanship" and "Pernicious
1A aSars Iy and all Mugwumpery was on its
manner of the chosen in the time of Gideon,
which chosen. however, it resembled in no
other respect.
:, In addition to other regrets attendant upon
the passages into eclipse of the President of
Harvard is that in his search for ideas to
present to the world, on SO great an occasion
he did not have the recourse to such original
sources as must be always at the disposal of
President of Harvard. Had he passed out
of the sphere ofcurrent thought as expressed
in the newspapers he might have given us
more sensible Impressions and wiser notions
about the proposed debate between the two
asplrants for the Govern0rship. Had he
condescended to harness his mind for short
would have found that the question of match
debates is not one of small boy courage, not
exactly a question whether man will OF
Will not be ''stumped." 1t Is a question of
good sense in the management Of politics.
What is good sense in the management Of
politics or business can often be found out
by observation. When any system has been
tried and discarded in either, not even
President of Harvard can revive it. Match
tsa aesa nave ave. ceased IN New England. As
more CULTURED and more refined, in a word
more like Boston and Harvard College, Joint
debates have passed out of use. In the
South even, such Is the progress of civiliza-
ton that similar debates are growing more
and more rare. The reason is plain.
All such debates speedily degen-
crate into discussion of men not principles
lie get an opponent on the hip and raise a
laugh more pleases a crowd than the wisdom
OF Plato. 1t makes also bad legislators
Men who are the product of joint debates are
always nervous about their printed records
always on the lookout for the sharp thrusts
OF the platform. They think less of princi-
pies and more Of expedients. Had the Pres.
ident Of Harvard taken the trouble to reread
even those debates between Lincoln and
Douglass which he and the newspapers be-
fore him take as a shining proof of the value
OF such debates he would have found with
that acumen which President of Harvard
must necessarily possess that 1t took not
only the wonderful genius of Lincoln but
great crisis in the history of the world to
prevent even those great occasions from
descending to a low level. What has OBJ
liylon done with all those other joint debates
where Lincoln must have shone over other
rivals and where Douglass learned those
unhandsome tricks of fence which called
forth from Lincoln, the tenderest of men.
some of the bitterest sentences which we're
ever spoken in English? Abandoned in
New England, in the West, and on the road
to abandonment in the South, the system of
joint personal debate is far on the way 10
deserved extinction. Abandoned by adyane-