St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-27

dent citizen of that state who was
clearly the popular choice of the Demo
Gratis Of the state.
MIR. Fairchild. who presided at the
great meeting held in Cooper Union,
stated suecinctly the object and scope of
party organization when he said that
1.-THE sole function Of and the only rea-
son for the existence of party COM
mittee is to afford an orderly and reg
uar system through which the men,
bers of party may be called together
from time to time to govern themselves.
not to be governed by their servants or
agents." He put against this plain and
accurate avowal as plain statement of
the actual condition there which it is
proposed to overthrow. He said: ''ln
this state matters have come to such
pass that the committees of the Demo-
cratic party, from the state committee
down to the town committee, assume to
dictate what shall be the action Of any
caucus, primary or convention, and this
in utter defiance of the wishes Of the
majority of those who may happen to be
present at any one of their party meet
ings."
There is much in this for the Demo-
Gratis of Minnesota, as we'll as for some
Democrats in st. Paul. to think about
seriously. We have here the same tend
ency-if not las fully developed, because
we have not had the control of the state
government. We have had it in full
blossom in municipalities where our
party is In the majority. We have seen
a little oligarchy in this city, composed
of one man and his lieutenants, abso-
lutely prescribing who should go as del
egates to the conventions, appointing
the judges OF the primaries and supply
ing them with the ''slate" tickets in
sufficient quantities to stuff the boxes If
an opposition showed strong enough to
need it. They have selected the candi-
dates, and the conventions have sub
Serviently ratified the DEGREES. We
have seen this reach such stage that
at last the Democrats in the ranks rose
and smote the machine" hip and thigh.
We know that they are in the temper to
repeat the smiling if the same need of
1t recurS.
There should be no place in Demo-
cratic party anywhere for boss. There
can be no permanent success for any
party that permits it. There should
and must be head. as there must be
an organization; but the mistake is in
making the head supreme, or, rather, in
permitting him to become supreme, and
the organization merely the machinery
by which he executes his will. The
Of
ception Of this plan. Sooner or later
they will sprout and ripen and destroy.
Dissatisfaction follows action. and grows
until it become the avalanche which
sweeps everything to ruin in its course.
Lowell truly says in his democracy"
that 1.-THE Democratic theory is that
those constitutions (and he might have
said parties also) are likely to prove
steadieSt which have the broadcast
base,' and that sit may be conjectured
that it is cheaper in the long run to lift
men up than to hold them down, and
that the ballot in their hands is less
dangerous to society than sense of
wrong in their heads"
The Democratic state central COM
! mittee recognized the Importance and
the need of this in declaring that in the
selection of postmaster the majority of
the Democrats receiving mail at any
Office should decide who the postmaster
should be. The county and local state
committeeman were required only to
! ascertain and certify that the action
| taken was that of the Democrats and,
| that their choice was fit and repu-
table. We believe that the committee
| should have gone farther and adopted a
method, and enforced it, by which the
| local choice might be fairly and meth
| odically expressed: and when this is
done we believe that no man, no matter
what his official position in the party
may be, should have or be recognized
anywhere to have the power to thwart
| the wishes of the Democrats concerned