New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-09-05
THE DFNOCP1TIC EXCUSE.

The latest excuse offered by the Democratic
party is that its legislation, confessedly dis
crclitable and inadequate must be charged 10
incxpcricnce For more than thirty years. 1t Is
said the party has had none Of the RESPONSE
bitics of government. and it is not wonderful
if AT first il makes bad job. This is good
excuse and its force must be admitted. In the
delicate matter Of adjusting watches for In
stance, man who has spent thirty years
shoyelling dirt cannot be expected 10 excel q
trained matchmaker. In the handling of an
electric dynamo one would not expect a fisher
man from the Jersey shore to be quite as skill
full as A man educated for Il lifetime in The con
troll of the mysterious and dangerous electric
currents But in practical life we do not select
a good old fisherman to run electrical machines,
nor do we pick d1-shovellcrs TO repair our
watches Why should We do that sort Of thing
in politics:
This last year the people have been learning
that there is not an electrical machine anywhere
that IS more dangerous. or that requires more
skilled and experienced handling, than the tax
ing machine Some bluudrrs In the plans of
taxation. even before they were put into prac-
teal effect, cost the country several thousand
millions in slagnaton of trade and industry,
ing will cost The finest watch is not more deli
cate or more difficult To understand, than the
machinery of government but our Democratic
friends who asked AID ioyfully obtained two
years ago the job of controlling and adjusting
the Nations government think they should be
excused for failure because they knew nothing
about it.
|, does not strike the people So They intrrIst-
I.o
claimed to be able to manage things altogether
better than the party then in power They We're
told TO try it. and were given free hand with
entire control in both branches Of Congress and
In the Executive Department. They are judged
by what they have done II the good people were
shade nnwlse To trust the promises Of men who
wanted office. and 10 select men experienced us
dirt -shovcllcrs for thirty years to do the work Of
trained watchlnakcrs SO much the more they
will look sharply at tho work done, and demand
that the results attained shall Justify The conf
dence given. 1t seems to them all the more
necessary that their action should be- reversed
quickly and thoroughly If its results show that
| they trusted men who Were pitlably incompe-
tent to do what they undertook.
Nor is 1t in any degree an effective excuse for
the party in power that lis own discords and
divisions have caused It's failure. II will be an
swcrcd. and rightly, that the party ought 10 have
known its own purposes when 1t asked from the
people the control Of government: that in fact
ii did know we'll as ii knows now, that lis
members and its leaders were not in accord Oh
questions Of vital Importance that II ncverthe-
less put forth sundry professions and made GER
tain pledges. with deliberate intent TO draw 10
its support those whose wishes those professions
and pledges graifed. and that II thus deliberate
~ cheated the people by pretending to desire
and purpose what it could not do lis failure
Is simply proof that II acted In bad faith, pro-
Tossing TO be united in purposes and pledges
which were never intended TO be carried out IA
they We're understood by the voters.