St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-14
REFUSE FUSION.

REFUSt; FUSION.
Occasionally we hear of some Demo-
crat advising the fusion Oh the state
ticket OF the Democrats and PopuliStS.
Our advices are that in the western
part of the state, where Democracy has
been submerged under Republicanism
for years, and where the division of
the waters still leaves them submerged
by both Republicans and Populists,
this opinion Is the most general. The
reasons assigned for this action are
that it is desirable that the Republi-
cans be defeated, the capitol be clean
OF the barnacles in it, the books over
hauled and new deal had; that this
cannot be done by the Democrats alone,
a contingent of whom have been swept
Off into the Populist movement; that
the Republicans control by plurality
which would become minority If
fusion were accomplished.
We admit that it is extremely desir-
able that the majority of the voters of
this state should peremptorily reject
the policy of the dominant party and
uCpllSC IL VI CUuLlOl. ~ II dCSlloo3S
that the two organizations now opposed
to that party, aud whose control de-
ponds solely OH their separate action,
should unite their forces. But we are
quite clear that those who are urging
it-those Democrats. we mean-are not
aware that there are political as we'll
as chemical incompatibleS which will
not mix OF blend. and are innately and
immutaDly distinct and antagonistc.
Such people DO not clearly sense the
essential differences between Democra-
cy Oh the one hand and paternailsm
under the guises of Republicanism and
P0puliSm on the other.
If Democracy stands for anything. it
means the minimum of interference by
the state with the Individual; it denies
that theory of government which re-
CARDS the aggregated power of the COM
munity as always properly used in tax
ing care of some one OR some class; 1t
limits the state to the protection OF the
property of its citizens and security III
their "life. liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" Paternaism means the
ever increasing transmutation OF the
liberties of the citizen into state power.
to be used in promoting aud fostering
and encouraging and protecting those
individuals or interests or classes which
may manipulate congresses and iegis-
latures successfully, under pretense OF
the public welfare.
The Republican, urging the protec-
ton of industries, the raising of wage
rates by taxation applied either directly
or indirectly; the Populist, demanding
the printing of paper money" and the
loan OF it to farmers on their land or
the building of government warehouses
to store their lmperishable products
and advance money on them; the silver
lite, demanding that the government
give him market for his bullion. are
all equally paternalists, holding views
of governmental function as opposed to
the Democratic as are the poles and as
irreconcilable as are fire and water. We
are now Inundated by the spectacle Ill
the federal senate of men who claim to
be. who may believe they are Demo.
Gratis, trying to mix Democracy and
paternalism in the tariff bill; and the
land echoes with the protests of Demo-
Gratis against the unholy miscegenation.
For twenty years and more there has
been a steady increase of paternalism,
until now even the men who nave sWum
thoughtlessly or even approvingly in
the current. are dismayed at the danger
signs on every hand, and are asking,
Where are we drifting? The common
est thing is TO hear Republicans inno-
Gently denouncing Coxeyism, without a
suspicion that CoXeyiSm is only aggra-
waited kepublicanism. Others of them,
clearer of eye, see that it is an effect of
the same cause in which protection finds
root. The elections of 1890 and 1892,
the accessions then of the bralniest men
of the Republican party to our ranks,
meant that the conviction had come
home to thousands Of Republicans that
national safety was involved in return
to and practice of the Democratic prin-
cipies of government.
The duty of every Democrat, then, is
clear. At no time more than now must
he insist on the principles of his party !:
never so much as now must he resist
every effort to betray those principles.
Whether the effort be made by coterie
of corrupted senators or whether it
come with the alluring promise of re-
leasing the state from Republican con-
troll by means OF a fusion with paternal-
lists of another stripe than the Repub-
lican. it must be met firmly and with
decision, and repealed. There are vic
tories which are disgraces; triumphs
which are disasters. To obtain control
of the state or retain that of the nation
is indeed a victory if it come as the free
gift of majority convinced by US that
our principles are the only sound and
safe ones but it would be a disgrace
which would make our ears Jingle and
our cheeks burn with shame il il came
as the price of sacrifice of those
principles, prostitution of them to the
mere gain of office. Better a hundred
honorable defeats than one such shame
full victory.
MAJ. POWELL'S RETIREMENT,
The retirement of Maj. John Wesley
Powell from the position he has long
occupied as chief of the geological sur
irx <>f hor