The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-02-05
ESSENTIALLY SECTIONAL.
The Democratic Party Is the Southern
Party Pure and Simple.

ESSENTIALLY SECTIONAL.
The Democratic Party Is the Southern
Party Pure and Simple.
Naturally, the one thing that will
excite most remark and criticism in
the arrangement of committees by
Speaker Crisp is the preponderance Of
southern men in places of Importance.
But what reason has anybody to find
fault? The southern men need not
complain. The northern men who
have given victory to a southern party
what business have they to blame
the party for which they voted because
it is not the party for which they did
not vote? The democratic party would
really like If it could cease to be es-
sentially sectional party. II would
like to have power at the North as it
has at the south, but it cannot 1t
would like to have host of strong.
capable and experienced men from
northern districts to represent it, but
cannot When il has Randall, Hol-
man, or a Springer, be his qualifica-
tions of the first rank or only of the
second or fifth, it really tries to make
the most of him. So we have had for
thirty years small demagogues from
northern states held up admiringly as
pecimens of democratic statesman
ship. The party was only doing the
best it could with the material it pos
sessed.
At the south the democratic party
does, in fact, represent the predominant
feelings and wishes of the majority of
white people. 1t embodies their best
and their worst It gives voice to their
convictions, and shares their error
where they mistake prejudice or selfish
greed for sense of duty. The men of
the south who faithfully represent the
party in that section have a possible
future. 1t is not for them necessary at
every recurring election to cheat and
lie, in order to conceal their opinions
and aims from the voters with whom
they have to deal. If they are sincere
and true with those voters, they have
not to fear political burial or ostracism
because the party has concluded that
this year it must put on a different
mask and wear different disguise.
What happens to northern demo-
Gratis OF character and sincere convic-
tions, all such men of prominence and
capacity have learned to their sorrow.
They have to fight from the outset
against the general trend of public
opinion in this section, to know that
II the time they are resisting what the
northern people believe to be their
true interests, to be contented with the
applause of the multitude whose ignor-
ance or want of real convictions must
render their approval as evanescent as it
Is valueless, to cons ult with and depend
upon the creatures whose power to de-
feat the popular majority by fraud or
crime makes their political place.
They have to take the latest tricks of
demagogues in a party convention
instead of any convictions they may
ave, to profess devotion to free trade
one year and to the mildest and most
diluted tariff reform the next, to shout
with Cleveland and against free silver
to-day, and with Hill and for free
silver tomorrow. No wonder that out
OF such a life strong democrats do not
often come to the surface. The marvel
is that any men of genuine convictions
are left in the party where such con-
ditions prevail
Thus when the democratic party
wants to get work done in congress it
has to take for most places southern
men, in order to get men of experience
and strength. They have been retained
longer in congress by constituencies
than the men from northern districts,
where majorities fluctuate, and so have
learned more of the ways of legisla-
ton. 1t is peculiarly unfortunate for
the democratic party, too, that most of
its sure northern districts are in great
cities where the grogshop-keeper is
more potent in that party than the
statesman, so that such districts have
a trick of electiug men who are of no
use or value. In spite of every effort
the party remains essentially sectional,
essentially a southern party, because
its northern end is lame with all kinds
of lameness. If under these trying cir
cumstances Mr.. Crisp has contrived to
make 4 selection of committees that is
in the least respectable, he deserves
some sympathy and some praise, and
not a great deal of criticism if it is on
the whole a southern arrangement
n V Tribuna