The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-12-09
Party Loyalty-The Evil Legacy OF
the MugWump.

DOllIILS lQQdN. L dtSO J
a salve for it; but really we think his
prescription only tends to ~aggravate the
evil.
Mr.. Green very justly shows the failure
of both parties in late years to live up to
popular mandates. In National afra1rs
the Democracy was placed in power in
1892 to pass a bill like the Wilson bill and
to pass it quickly. 1t only succeeded IN
passing an unsatisfactory compromise,
and it did this with a hardness and uncer-
tainty which have been fertile of evil.
In 1884 the Republican party was placed
in control of all branches of New. York
States government to effect certain ur-
neglected to do this, and what little it did
was tardily and grudgingly done, under
the lash of public criticism, and was
done in such fashion as to produce the
minimum of good. Mr.. Green might have
quoted the experience of New Jersey
every year since 1892, inclusive, but as he
GOES mol, we Will let lAdl pass
Mr.. Green recognizes the great danger
of this falling off i'll the loyalty which
party representatives owe to the princi-
pies on which they were elected. He
quotes Mr.. Lecky, perhaps the most jul
dicious historian of the age, to emphasize
the peril, as follows
- -Ac.f,- alrvo VIC hrfn0 C
with it grave political dangers and Is pc
culiar1y unfavorable to real earnestneSs
in public life Faction represents party
Personal pretensions acquire an inord1-
nate weight. and there is much reason to
fear lest the tone of political honor should
be lowered and lest the public spirit of the
nation should decline.
It is pretty certain that We ave seen
some of these evils overtake our w
country in these later evil days. Indeed,
IT might be thought that some of the
above sentences were written to describe
the events of the Fifty-third Congress or
the Legislature of New Jersey from that
which defeated Leon Albeit and passed
the race-track bills down to that which
refused to give the State equal taxation,
cheap ferry rates, cheap gas or any other
of the benefits to which it was expressly
pledged in it's platform.
Mr.. Lecky's remedy for the disease is
quoted by Mr.. Green, and we like it far
better than Mr.. Green's W attempt at
a solution. The extract, like the one
above, is from England in the Eight
oo-+b Cant,1rx-,p uora n ic.-Z.4
The sole way of enabling a popular as
sembly to exercise representative power
with safety is to divide it into great, CO.
herent, disciplined party organizations:
When such organizations exist. they will
necessarily be guided by the ablest men,
who become responsible for their guidance,
who can count upon the habitual sup
port of a large body of followers, and
who, therefore, represent a permanent,
calculable force in the political field.
force to be organized or maintained when
fckleness, is the order of the day, when
party loyalty is the last thing inculcated
in voters, when a writer like Mr.. Green
himself urges the correction of instability
in the elected by uncertainty in the cleo
tors. The political mandates of the last
lew YtdIS HIVE DCCh 81 Wy liz
vacillation of the so-called independent
vote, that every Congressman, every As
semblyman has felt at liberty to put his
own Interpretation upon it and has done
So. The claim that whatever other Sec
lions may have meant, he knows his own
constituency and Its desires-Mr. Cadmus,
$780,, ,,5 M, Co1,~o Ir;aJ1ar
net to speak of Mr.. James Smith, are prec-
ious examples-and he proposes to cater to
their wants and desires, and the platform
and the party be damned. The queer
temper of the public was aptly shown
In Hudson in the very case we have cited,
for in 1894, the Independent vote" COM
areacllery of Mr.. Fielder. for it rejected
Colonel Stevens, who ran on the plat
form of 1892, and it elected Mr.. Fielder,
On his record, to a high office.
AS we watch the vagaries of recent
elections, we are inclined to agree with
the "Sun" that the Mugwump move
IueUt Has DtC4 q "a &c ~ Ian ~oaAA1A
and the Mugwump alliance a curse to the
Democracy. For the one good thing IL
has brought us-the higher public career
of Grover Clcveland-we are sufficiently
grateful to Providence; but it does seem
as IL the good were dearly bought, es-
pecially as the corruption of the senti-
ment of party loyalty by the fanciful
theories of independent" politicians has
done 50 much to mar the usefulness Of
the Presidents character by robbing him
OF the appreciation which he deserves.
1t is very true, as Mr.. Green remark
that the Republican party has shown
more party cohesion than the Democracy
This is natural. This will always bf
true. 1t is an Inherent law that tthost
who make common cause IN common sci
sishness will stand together more firmly
than those who are reaching out in al
directions fo- abstract general good