The St. Johns herald., 1889-11-07
Signs of the Times.

lumn Tn MaSSacnuSeLlS OpeHeQ DD a speech from President Eliot, ot Harvard, in which he said that al though formerly Republican, he had joined the Democratic party because he was not a protectionist because he thought it's late admin istration more favorable to civil service reform than the present Re publican administration, and be- cause the Republican party had de- graded the pension system, while a Democratic President had tried to restore it to an honorable standing. It was a vigorous, direct, and cour- ageous speech, ,and produced great impression. Mr. Augustus Russ. a lawyer of eminence in Boston, and a Republican, has written letter in which he says that he shall vote with neither party this year, and thinks ten or twenty thousand Re publicans ought to join him in ad- ministering a rebuke to the party with which he and they have been so long affiliated. It will be sad, of course, by the party organs that MT. Russ vote counts exactly one and no more. But that gibe can not satisfy intelligent Republicans. When old and faithful Republicans who are not office-seekers or politi- cians, men who give character and weight to the party, are steadily withdrawing from it, like President Eliot, or refusing to support it, like MT. Russ, and when not only is there no corresponding accession to it of men of similar character and intelligence from the Democratic 1; but when, on the contrary, young men of strong convictions, of earn est character, and of generous en- thusiasm tend to the Democratic rather than to the Republican par ty, it is not enough merely to say with Senator Sherman that "the Republican party is and always has been the party of progress" The simple answer to the Senator is that the attitude of men like President Eliot, MT. Russ, and hundreds of others in Massachusetts alone shows that while Mir. Sherman says so, they do not think so.
 It is undoubtedly true that the Republican party was "the party of great moral ideas" and that the weight of character and patriotism twenty-five years ago was with it. But it is equally unquestionable that notable change has occurred, and that the party leadership is not that of Lincoln, Sumner, Seward, Chase and Andrew, but of very diff ferent men. and that the party ob- jects and tone are as signally changed as its leadership. Senators Edmunds and Hoar, indeed, are still Republican Senators of the old party character and ability. But when practical leadership-the ac- tual management and direction of the party-is in question, it is not they, but Quay, Clarkson, Chandler, Dudley, Ingalls,, Platt and Malone who appear MT. Theodore Roose- welt is conspicuous Republican in New York; Mir. Sherman Rogers is one of the ablest and truest of old fashioned Republicans. But could it be said that they are truer repre- sentatives of the party feeling and tendency and course in that State than Messrs. Platt and Hiscock The facts which answer such ques- tions a:e not disposed of by a  sweeping generalization that the Republican party is the party of progress. Are President Eliot, MT. Russ, and those who with them have renounced or are renouncing the party name less friendly to pro- gress, to reform, to honest govern ment, than when they were proud of the name?