St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-16
"raERE Is NO PE,CE.,

Minnesota Democratic association to
illustrate, says that the imminent need
is a getting together of all these on one
common ground. and this, it thinks,
should be the Chicago platform, whic II
is broad enough to furnish a common
meeting ground for all.
1t is needless for US to say that the
protest of the ASSOCIATION is that that
ground, taken by the party, is aban-
dOned 10y all these Southern and East
ern elements, and the association. speak
ing for the Democracy of the state, re-
fuses either to abandon that ground or
to remain silent when it is being cut
from under the party by either the
Uillites or the TillmanlteS or any other
body of ''ites.''
But we regard it as useless to urge
these reeusants to return. They have
deliberately left the platform and the
party at vital moment when every
consideration should have kept them
true. Instead of resigning the places
they hold when they find that they can
not. for whatever reason. sustain the
policy deliberately adopted by the party.
as manly men would DO, they assume to
sit in Judgment. as a higher court OF
appeals. and file dissenting opinions in
the case.
1t is just as we'll to recognize existing
facts and conditions. 1t is better to
face them than to avert the eye and
deny their existence. No course can be
laid for the future unless it take into
account the facts of the present. What
are these conditions? What are the
away? Is there any ground for rea-
sonable expectation that these revolving
elements of the party can he brought
into sympathetic union again?
ProlfS accumulate of the accuracy of
the analysis of the state of opinion made
by the GLOBE some time since. On
every hand are TO be seen in increaS-
ing quantity the evidences that we
are again in one of those periods of
party disintegration and reformation
which is the unavoidable concomItaut
of representative government. 1t is in
herent in the nature Of political organi.
cations, and must be until the race be-
comes thoroughly stagnated in homo
geneity. As long as there is progress
or capacity for it, the sureSt indication
of growth will be the bursting of old
party organizations and the budding of
new movements, either from fresh
shoots or from the old STALKS
The solvent is always a new idea or
an old one reylvitied, that comes to at :
tract the attention OF meD,to enter the ir
Thoughts. to form anew their convictions
and. f1uXing all parties. to loosen The
ties OF partisanry and, with its mysteri-
Gus power, 10 compel men to align
themselves -afresh. Thus the idea of the
individual came with Jefferson to chal-
lenge the federaliStic idea of cOllecIiv-
ism; to insist on the Limitation of gov
ernmental interference with the man as
opposed to the paternalistic idea of the
federalists, which regarded the man as
incapable of caring for himself, and
made it the duty OF the government to
paternally care tor him. Thus it came,
not to multiply instances, when the idea
OF human freedom came to oppose that
OF human slavery and tore Wings and
Democrats from their parties and forced
them into the ranks of the Republican
party.
So now the solvent is again the idea
of an enlargement of the liberty of men
to embrace the freedom of exchange.
Just as back OF the Republican pretense
Of desire only to restrict slavery was
the spirit of deadly hostility to slavery,
so back of the pretense of the Demo-
cratic party that it would restrict tariff
taxation to purposes of revenue only is
the spirit of opposition to the tariff itself
| as source OF revenue, and that not en-
| tirely because Of the paipable injustice
OF eXempting wealth while taxing food
and shelter and fuel and clothing, all
| llte'S neceSsarieS, but because it binders
| and obstructS and claims the right to
| prevent the free exchange among pro-
| ducers of their products, thus derang-
| ing the natural distribution of wealth.
Democrats may not all be willing to
| admit this, but the number who will
| deny it is vastly less than ten years ago,
and, under the impact of the logic of
| the situation, their number is daily
| lessening. But if Democrats do not per-
ceive it the protectionists do. They at
|
| pose to be. Just as the old slave-owning
oligarchy saw back of Republican pre-
tense the motive spirit, so these latter
| day labOr-ownlng OligarchiSts see the
| current Oh whose surface Democratic
| preteDsiOn is floating. 1t is this that led
| them to reject the advice of that canuy
| Scot, Carnegie. to accept the Wilson bill
| and pass it. They do not propose to
make any concessions. They will fight
every inch of the ground. They see that
| there is now on another ''irrepressible
| conflict"
In this renewed conflict of old ideas IT
is natural and inevitable that men take
sides as their inherent nature, rather
than their education, iiRpeIs them. The
man with Democratic or paternalistic
disposition will adhere more strongly
to his cause; those who for any one of
the hundred reasons have been affjliat-
ing with the party to whese principles
they are naturally antagonistic, will
move By more or less rapid stages to the
party with whose aims they sympathize.
If we now see Democrats like Hill and
TIllman resisting their party policy, it
is because they are not Democrats, but
are essentially paternaIists. If this
effect of the disintegrating force is just
now more visible in our party, it is be-
cause we are in responsible control /;
but it is working, quietly but just as
persistently and effectively, in the 9TH
ers. If Democrats are becoming Re-
publicaDs, Republicans are becoming
Democrats.
Democrats have every reason to hail
the coming of this process. They rep
resent the idea in this struggle which
has always come out victorious in all
the struggles it has had. Even where
not completely triumphant it had COM
PEELED material notifications replacing
absolute paternalism with constitutional