The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-07-07
WIFE RE ARE AT
PARTIES THAT HAVE. OUTLINED
THEIR USEFULNESS
without Principle, without sympathy
with Only Inordinate Greed For
ONCE and Plumber. They WIN b
Left to Die. Overwhelmed with Com
tempt OF an Indignant People.

pear TO them. we O1Len near q M6u
say he is Republican or Democrat
who never thinks for moment what
It means. What he really does think
Of is, that he votes that ticket. There |
was time when to be either Demo-
crat or Republican meant the accept
ance of well defined political creed. |
Both the Republican and Democratic
party had great mission to perform.
It was the necessity of reform that |
gave each OF them an existence. The
Jeffersonian creed, as promulgated by
that eminent statesman and founder
of the Democratic party, was plain
and well defined. It was the popular
politics of his day as distinguished
from the Hamiltonian theory of a more
centralized government. Jefferson's
idea of government was that the
people should keep their hands directly
on the throttle of power. That all
powers should emanate from the
people and all laws enacted with their
consent and approval. Hamilton be-
longed to that school of politics
that believed that the people were not
absolutely capable of self government
that some checks should be thrown
around them to guide them through the,
tempestuous waves of political excite
ment. More than a century of expert
ence has proven that Jefferson was
right in his theory of government
that it was safer in the hands of the
people than of few men chosen other
wise than by popular vote.
Without discussing further the rela-
tive merits of the two forms of govern
ment we pass on to the subject in
hand. There was a time when if
man defined his political views you
knew at once where to place him. But
such is not the case now except with
the Populist. A Peoples party man
can't open his mouth on the subject Of
politics, but that you know at once
where he is at" But Republican
and Democrat may talk politics for
hours and SO long as they don't mem
ton party names you could not tell for
the life of you to which party each
belonged. There is scarcely an issue
presented BY either Of the old parties,
hit thai the diviidual members Of the
party disagree s widely Is do the par,
ties. Thus we have free silver Repub-
licans and anti-silver Republicans
as well as free-silver Democrats and
anti-silver Democrats. It is possible
for an anti-silver Democrat to get into
an argument with free-silver Repub-
lican, and under such circumstances
how could you tell where either Of
them were at as long as they refrained
from mentioning party names? The
same is true of the tariff, the income
tax. the transportation question and
all other prominent issues. In fact it
is an easy matter for a Republican to
become a Democrat or Democrat q
Republican without changing his poll
tics. All he has to do is to change his
vote.
Then so far as the two old parties
are concerned, it is not what man be-
lieves that constitutes him Demo-
crat or Republican, but the party he
votes with. The creed of either party,
if it can be truthfully said they have
a creed, is broad enough to take in any.
body but Populist. But the strange
part of it is, that man who believes
in pure Jeffersonian Democracy is no,
eligible to memb ership in the ranks d
the Democratic party, and the man
who believes in Abe Lincoln Republic
anism is considered too cranky to be
long to the Republican party
| Now, if neither of these parties rep
resent any well defined economic prin
ciples on which its members agree
what do they represent and Of wha1
use are they? The answer is plain
They represent and are controlled b,
q thoroughly equipped and organized
band of office-seekers and politica
bosses, backed by trusts and corpora
tions, whose bidding they are willing
to do for pay, and whose conscience
, are not burdened with economic ques
} tions involving the rights Of the PEG
pie. No sane man can deny this
American statesmanship has gone Il
, seed. Each campaign isrone of boodl
and Misrepresentation. The object
! not to educate the people, but to de
! ceive them. 70 this end every nerv
, is strained; every subterfuge is re
sorted to. Character is dragged il
3 | the slime Of Islander and misrepresenta
! ton. Men who are considered homes
Q otherwise become incarnate politica
. fiends. Lies are piled up mountain
high. They are displayed in flaming
: headlines in the press. They are Re
peated by men who pray that thi
earth may be as Heaven. And wha
is the stake that is being played for
The offices with the salaries and boodl
9 behind them. These are th
i crumbs from oulr masters table
lover which the political dog
81 fnhts But where do tho !peopl
ID ss.as u q s53ssss