Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-12
SECRETARY MoRToN's IDEA

That very femdrkaDie SluteSCnd0 IrOm the wild and woolly west, who presides
 over the agricultural department, fur
 nishes the press with his idea as to what brought about the democratic defeats.
 Like all narrow-minded politicians of small caliber he takes superficial view
 of the situation. He is actually cheerful
 over the result, seeing in it the hand of
 providence in behalf of the presidents
 policy. Out of the clouds he sees the de-
 mooracy mounting up the golden stairs to the gates of the new Jerusalem. He sees plainly that the meaning of the elections Is a merited chastisement by the people of those who thwarted the presidents policy.
 Unfortunately, however. the facts do not justify the secretary's conclusions The president wrote a letter indorsing the New York democratic ticket, and the democrats lost that state by 100000 ma jority against them If it was necessary to rebuke German in Maryland how was it necessary for the vindication of the president that a republican legislature
 should be elected in that state? If it was
 necessary to teach Hardin a lesson in
 Kentucky how did it become necessary
 to defeat the rest of the ticket? If it
 was proper to kill off Brice in Ohio and
 Smith in New Jersey, how did it happen
 that similar defeats and defections
 occurred in all the states that
 indorsed the presidents views and whose
 leaders had not crossed the path of the
 president? Massachusetts and Buzzard's
 Bay are as deep in the nire as Maryland
 and Kentucky are in the mud Wherever
 the democrats adopted the gold standard
 policy of the president they have gone
 down to overwhelming defeat, They
 adopted it in all the eastern states and
 in Ohio and Iowa. and have utterly
 wiped out the party. They adopted 1t in
 Kentucky and Hardin could not save them It was only in Mississippi that the democracy stood by the old flag, and the result there was that the enemy fail ed to carry a single county. Bear it in mind AIabamians! There Is no test oath at democratic primaries in Mississippi. There is no ballot box stuffing in that state The election is @ fair and square one between white men. That state un- furled the banner of the double standard and the result is that not single county of Mississippi but what elected the demo- cratic ticket. Commenting on this action of our sister state the New Orleans Times Democrat very correctly says: "If the democrats have mismanaged their affairs in Kentucky, New York and Maryland they have made no mistakes in Mississippi. The change and reform which they made in the suffrage, and which restricted it to the more intelligent voters, helped them materially, as 1t will help the party in Louisiana, by improving and purifying it. An educational qualif1- cation however, would not alone have as- sured democratic success in Mississippi unless the party had deserved it. The | populists showed considerable strength after the suffrage qualification was | adopted, but the democrats checkmated | this by appealing to the people and mak- | ing the party responsive 10 the popular | sentiment. This Is true democracy and | it always wins. If the party represents | the people 1t Is certain to win: if it does l not failure Is inevitable. By the general | adoption of the system of primaries the | Mississippi democracy got down to the | voters. One of the results was the adop- ton of the free silver plank; another re- suit was a great increase in the democrat ic vote It shut out the politicians and made the party popular one; and 1t won by a. larger majority than ever before. What was accomplished in Mississippi could have been accomplished in any or the other democratic states; but, unfor- tunately, 1t was not. In Maryland and Ohio the democratic campaigns were dis tinctively German and Brice campaigns, and in Kentucky the elections to the dem-
 ocratic convention were so managed be-
 cause of the claims of the various candi- dates, as to prevent an expression of the
 popular will One thing or another in the
 other states tended to cloud and confuse the popular desire and the result was de- feat.
 When the democratic party ceases to represent fully and thoroughly the
 voters, and becomes the mere tool or or gan of politicians or office seekers de-
 feat sooner or later is inevitable. When 1t speaks through the people, when it Is the people, as in Mississippi. victory is equally certain.'-
 Tine pope has granted the French au- thor. Boyer D'Agen. permission to write