The Saint Paul globe., 1896-08-18
POT AND KETTLE.

cal and national, is the proud assump
tion by the supporters of so-called
Democratic tickets and platforms
that they are painfully regular" and
that everybody else is a Philistine and
an inhabitant of the outer darkness.
We have never known a, campaign in
deed, in which this line of regularity
was attempted to be drawn with such
painstaking exactness and such disre-
gard of consequences. The ordinary
rule is for political party, or it's rep
resentative committees, to invite the
cooperation of those who have hereto
fore acted with it, or who may intend
to do so in the future Not so now.
Not more eagerly does a church council
search through all the records of a
! trembling offender who has been hailed
before it to find some trace of heresy.
than do the genuine, simon-pure Bry-
antics look up the record of those who
have been in the habit of thinking and
calling themselves Democrats, to see
II they will pass muster with Altgeld
and have the stamp Of Tillman's pitch
FORK branded upon some portion of
their anatomy. Here is the West Du-
luth Sun, that is only one among a
chorusing multitude of newspapers,
approving, though somewhat plain
lively, the expulsion of certain dele
gates from the state convention of
Minnesota on this ground: ''Men who
do not support the principles of the
Democratic party are not Democrats.
and should not be recognized as SUCH
Various little fellows are similarly
exercised about the position of the
G % be, and the goose flesh breaks
out all over them when it continues
to announce it's Democracy and it's in
tention to support and maintain with
all the strength that there is in it the
ancient, true and accepted faith of the
Democratic party. What title have
these people, say the Bryan followers
I ana the Lind shouters, to call them
selves Democrats, or to give advice or
counsel to the party? They are who'll
Iy irregular and must not be counte-
without repeating the familiar argu
ments and historic proofs by which
we have been able to vindicate the
claim of the sound money men who
refuse to support Mr. BRYAN to true
Democracy, this matter of scan
ming the credentials raises an issne
quite as awkward for those who in
sist upon it as for anybody else. IF
this is not case of pot and kettle.
certainly we never saw one 1t is reg
ularIty, forsooth, that is the all-im
portant item. is it? Well, how about
Mr. Bryan himself? We have noticed
that he formally severed his connec
ton with the Democratic party some
time ago. We have quoted from two
or his speeches at the South last year.
IN which he called God to witness that
ne would not support Democratic
canoldate II nominated on a gold
standard platform. We have noticed
that he said, on the 18th of March
at Mount Vernon, ILL.,, to a public au-
d1ence, these words: 81 am not a Dem
ocrat." Because a combination meet
ing consisting of the anti Cleveland
leaoefs among the Democrats and the
representatives of the silver mining
states decided to nominate this man
Tor the presidency, does that make
him Democrat? And is not the titIe
of man who stands by the doctrines
or the party, as they have been an
nounced since its formation, and who
has always voted the Democratic tick
ct, nay, may even have himself head
ed its ranks in forlorn hope. as good
as that of a man who, a few months
ago, was assuring the country that De-
mocracy was one Of the sins not to he
laid to his charge?
Let us come a little closer homo If
you please. This very convention
whose Democracy could not stand the
propinquity of such men as Mr. Law
Ter, Mr.. Cutcheon and Judge McCaffer-
ty, placed in nomination for the gov
ernorship Mr.. John Lind We are not
now raising the question of Mr John
L1nd's character and fitness for This
ONCE We are raising the question of
MS party standing and party regular
1ty, because that is what his cham
| pions so earnestly insist upon. Not
only has he always been a Republican
but we assert that he is a Renuh1ican
today He has never renounced if .4e
has, as we understand it, asserted that
he holds to the doctrines of Republi-
canism as ardently as ever with the
single exception of free coinage. IF this
be true, and unless Mr.. Lind has
changed his opinions entirely upon tba
tariff question, then he is as ont of
harmony with the party that nonni-
mated him on the tariff as others are
upon the money question Refusal to
accept the silver plank Of a eonven-
ton makes a man a party outcast
While refusal to accept some other
plank makes him so surely one Of the
faithful that he is eligible to the high
! est honors and emoluments that the
! party has to bestow 1t strikes rs thar
| of all the people to raise question
t concerning regularity the supporters of
! the tickets labeled Democrat. in bo+b
nation and state. should be about the