Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-01-17
TT rs IMPERISHABLE.

Those claimants to political foresight
who are foreteiiing the speedy death
of Democracy OH the occasion of it's
every reverse in an election. says an
would be who should announce that
the centrifugal force had ceased to he
a power in the universe. because
cause forsooth comet is now and then
seen rushing towards the sun with
iery speed.
This occasional predominance of the
centripetal impulse but proves the cor
rectness of the general law that bal
for preserving the equipoise of the
planetary systems The same truth
obtains in all human governments.
There is tendency to centraiiZe;
there is tendency to Democratize
The former. if prevailing to it's logical
issue, results in absolute despotism.
The latter. if left unchecked, would re-
suit in anarchy. 1t would not be well
for society that either thing should gain
unreStrained ascendPncy. The party
representing either idea should be
able to enforce it to the ultimate.
Each should serve as a check upon the
other, hindering the eXcesses to which
the insoience of a too assured triumph
might impel the victor. A. party. in
power without fear OF displacement
would become the most relentless of
tyrants. r.
The principles nfsI9emoeracy must
live so long as the leys freedom con
tinues to exist: But the. party advo-
eating them may changeits name. In
the struggle that is going on between
these anGagonistic cf4eds,I now the one
and now the other may gain the as
tendency on some side ssue. 1t some
times becomes snsesAsary5'in the opinion
of leaders to indues the belief that the
old lines have been wiped out and that
men are arranging themselves into
parties upon new points of difference.
| But after the confusion attending the
readjustment has cleared away it will
be found that one of these is advOcat-
ing the essential doctrines of DemOc-
racy. Some who claim to hate the
word will find it impossible to hate
what it represents and will be found
perhaps uDwittingly battling for its
vindicatiOn.
Democracy dies hard" we heard
remarked by an old cOuntryman
who had been led to believe that he
had found something better" With
out intending it he uttered the truth.
AS an expression of great doctrine of
human freedom Democracy cannot die.
The foes of liberty wish for its extinc-
ton. Demagogues who would make
themselves autocrats by so swaying the
passions of men as to induce a total
surrender of their freedom, would re-
joicesat it's effacement. OF course, all
the advocates of centralized power are
! foes in fact if not in word to
"a government of the people,
for the people by the peorle. .
But all the same there will continue to
be those to whom such state of things
is an object of desire and of effort.
Until such an ideal has utterly faded
from mems minds, Democracy cannot
die.
Men placed in the lead by the advO-
Gates of Democracy sometimes commit
great blunders, and if in power, may
infiict upon the country decided inju-
ries. Such things are to be expected of
fallible human beings But no one
should in his impatience a. these, repu-
diate the Democratic theory of govern
ment and go to the extreme of pattern
aiism. One may indeed honestly be-
lieve that popular government is fall