The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-07-01
THIRD PARTIES.

The conventions of the Peoples party at
Omaha and the Prohibition party at Gin
cinnati are srousing but little public inter-
est There is too much child's play con-
nectedswith these third and fourth party
conventions to interest to any very great
extent the people OF the United States
The sports Of children may satisfy the
child, but the child must not be surprised
ii grown people take but little interest in
It's amusements. Thu reason tuat people
are not more concerned in these
movements is because of the fore
gone conclusion that they cannot
succeed in electing 8 president of the
United States or seriously affect the result
of the general elections. About all they
have ever been able to do or are likely to
be able to do is to gain some local victory
These third and fourth parties furnish an
outlet for the ultras and crsnks of our
country, but as they take about as many
from one of the great national parties as
they do from the other, it leaves the rela-
tive strength of those parties about the
same
But the chief reason for the failure of
these third and fourth parties arises from
the nature of the parties themselves. They
lack foundation; they lack fundamental
principle for basis of their party struc-.
ture. In other words, there is no good rea-
son to be given why sucn parties should
exist. Take for instance the objects sought
to be obtained by the Prohibition party, as
they are stated by ex Governor ST. JOHN
of Kansas. In his speech on taking the
chair in the temporary organization of the
Prohibition convention at Cincinnati on
Wednesday,, he represented his party as
daring to do right, because it is right;
that it stands for peace, prosperity
and happiness to every home and
death to every saloon in the
land. The first of course, is to be OBJ
tanned by the secondhand is, the home to
be preserved by the destruction of the sa-
loon. He claims that his party IN which
he is 30 distinguished q leader, demands
for women equal pay in the shop and equal
say at the polls; free ballot for the white
man Of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and
Iowa, as well as for the black man of
Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina;
shat the expenses of the government shall
be levied on the wealth instead Of the ne
cessities of the people; that the coinage of
both gold and silver shall be free; that the
government should own the railroad and
telegraph lines; that the president and
vice president be elected by direct vote of
the people; that the presidential term be
extended to six years, and no successive
term; that monopolies be destroyed, the
worst of which is the liquor monopoly.
1t is admitted, Of course that in the
above enumeration Of objects to be CON
tended for some are worthy the best
thought of earnest men and matters that
will have to be faced by the great portion
of the nation ere long. But where are the
basic principles of government underlying
such partyl They have no existence.
The objects for which that party contends
are merely the twigs of political tree, un-
connected with the trunks and the roots
thereof. Such party can never be for
midable in national issues, though it may
have influence IN limited localities.
In marked contrast with these third and
fourth parties stand the two great polit
ical organizations, Democratic and Repub-
lican; the latter the literal descendant and
true heir-at-law of the old Tory party of
England, which stood il that land for the
prerogative Of kings and special privileges
Of the classes, US against the masses
and their clamorous demands for enlarged
liberties. the Tories answering that de-
mand with the statement that government
belonged to tbs well born. The battle CRY
OF the Republican party is, Liberty
sternly regulated by law" and under that
cry, the tendency OF the party's principles
is, not only to regulate liberty by law, but
to crush out its life. The Republican party
stands for authority, the Democratic for
liberty-the largest possible individual