The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-03-02
DEMOCRACY DEFINED.
Purposes and Principles 0assd Cpoo ID
t1onal wDlIAee.

! tional WslsAee.
There were some yearsin the history
| of the party when it earned the appel
1ation OF bourbon and the definition Of
| never forgets. 1t grew to be considered
| the conservative party OF the union.
| using the word in its sense OF resis-
lance to every progressive movement.
| 1t was Offered by lot Of eminently
respectable old fossils who could not
bear the strain on their nerves and in
tellects that q consideration Of any new
and better way OF doing things in
vo1ved. They were the statesmen Of
the rut. TheyNdominatedth the party be-
fore and for long after the war. Prin-
ciples were too vigorous and exactine
for them: they preferred the clean and
sippered pantaloon'' OF policy. !.
Judging from words spoken and
printed now. there are men who think
that they are democrats who assert
that the party can have nothing to do
with any of the new questions that are
coming on, as they have always come
on, and always will among progressive
races; but that the party must assume
a position Of opposition and hostility to
them. They pirate about the tradition
al policy of the party assuming that
its traditions bear no older date than
the ffties. They are evidently ignor-
ant that the party in this country had
it's birth in the first progressive move
ments that sought to break the crust
of federalism. The founder of the
party was the radical OF his day. He
stirred the country with new ideas.
he was born n revolutionist, and many
of our most fixed policies are the chill
dren of his revolutionary brain. The
divorce OF church and state, the blow
at oligarchy which his abolition Of tho
law of r,rilnogeniture struck are some
of these. It was not until in recent
lo IT off hn 1afh ar
Of the conservatives and became pro-
gressivc that it has come up out of it
deserved subordination. 1t was when
the mOsSbaclzS were sent to the rear
that tho party inspired tho confidence
that gained its recruits and gave it
victory.
There is no room in any nation for
two conservative parties to co-e1ist.
The republican party lost years ago its
initia tive Of progress, and has been
contented to merely administer the gov
eminent, meeting the exigencies ns
they arose as best it could by temper
airy eNpedients. 1t had spasm OF
progress along its chosen line Of policy
III 1890. but the evidence is plentiful
that It regrets the advance it made,
and will retreat from it when again in
power 1t will accept the tariff act OF
this congress: it will abjurc force bills.
and it will dodge and hedge on the cur
reDcv.
This leaves the democracy only the
avenue of meeting the new questions
OF the day frankly, bravely and with q
view to examine and test and approve
if they chord with the basic principles
of the party. To free trade, to the ma
tionalizat ton of railways, to the single
tax, the sole question is: Are they
democra tic? Adapting Paul's counsel.
it would prove all things: hold fast
those which arc democratic" Do they
n bridge individual freedom? Reject
them. Do they take power from the
state and trans,nute it into liberty for
the citizen? Do they take from priv
ilege the advantage it wrongfully
gained and un1ust1y holds, and restore
Then frankly accept them
and advocate them. assured that what
Is right is democratic. and the reverse,
and that what is not democratic is
wrong and dangerous. Whether the
party does this or not, affects only the
party. Any idea that esta bHshes its
right to live will find n party In good
time, and it is only the worse for the
party that shuts its door on it.-St.
Paul Globe.