The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-09-30
The Third Party Movement in Local
Affairs.

~.
At the outset of these remarks we de-
sire to record our entire respect Tor the
gentlemen who are managing the Sound
Money Campaign in this city. and to ex-
press our appreciation of the motives
which actuate the majority of them. We
do this because we feel compelled to dis
approve the course which they are pur-
suing at this time, just as we are obliged
to regret very much of what they have
done in the past. We take it
that there is at this time
no doubt in ~anybody's mind as to our
disposition to treat them with fairness
and consideration. We most certainly
desire to do so even at the time when we
differ from them most radically. We go
SO far in this direction that we are ready
at any time to stand up for their rights,
even when we think they are exercising
the same in a regretable way.
The News" has from the outset of
this Sound Money movement urged that It
be pushed no further than was necessary
as a protest against the alterations of
the Democratic party in respect to Ma
tionai affairs. We deprecated making it
a V for renewing an old internal quar-
rel of the Democratic party, the grounds
of which were partly personal and wholly
local. We did not. we do not think it a
very s%crupulous proceeding to take adj
vantage of the sound money sentiment
which prevails among Democrats to gain
extraneous strength for a revolt against
the local party organization, for which
support could not under ordinary clrcum-
stances be secured. We did not, we say,
think this very sc%rupulous, nor yet very
Democratic. nor very patriotic. It is
using one thing as a cloak for another.
This is one reason why we do not like it.
1t is a movement without hope or pur-
pose of success, aimed wholly at destruc-
tion. This is the second reason why we
do not like it.
So much for the ethical features of the
case. We are now obliged to glance at
the methods which the Third Party men
cultivate. To do this. we are obliged to
take a hasty glance into the past. Some
thing more than two years ago, the gen
tlemen who are at the head and front Of
fhe nraeent rnovaroao+ aro =.
another and much more Legitimate
scheme Of local party reform. They OBJ
tanned SO much prominence and power
that Allan L. McDermott, then Chairman
Of the Democratic State Committee, in
vited them to put in their claim for tn,
County election officers in contest witt
the so-called Davis organization for rec
ognition as the regular machine. Thi
situation of affairs resulted in a com
promise. Primary elections were hei,
for the reorganization Of the party. The,
were held according to a plan devised ii
whole or part by Mr.. George L. Record
They were directed and managed by Nh
Otto Grouse. We have never heard evei
a hint that they were unfair. The,
did not go just the way the reformer
had hoped, but beyond all doubt the,
cleansed and improved the party organI
cation. and they opened the door wild
for any and every citizen, however pur
minded, to a k part in Democratic poll
tics If 50 inclined.
This, we think, was the opportunity {
the silk stocking element. If the ger
fIemen who engineered the reform
movement had accepted the results {
the primaries, had stood by the newl
treated machine. and had insisted on ir
nuencing its councils. we might have ha
B wonderful awakening Of high-class d.
moeracy In this county. The time WI
ripe for it But, unfortunately. the r.
form leaders. being disappointed at nj
landing absolutely on top. sulked /
their tents. They held aioof from loci