The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-09-30

ton which was rendered to him infcordial
good faith, and others Of them simply
stayed away when they were invited to
AXE part publicly in the councils of the
party. Last year, the personality of Mr.
McGiH aroused them to a faint display OF
interest-some Of them. at least-but
apart from that 1t is to be feared there
is only too much truth in Mr.. Allan L.
McDermott's bitter reproach that they
nave been calling themselves Democrats
and voting the Republican tick twice
a year.
In passing, We cannot refrain from here
instituting a contrast between the action
of these gentlemen and the course pur-
sued by a similar element among Repub-
licans- That the machine management
of the Republican party is i~nnately as
evil as any that Democracy has ever ex-
hibited. no sane mar can dispute. In this
State it would be ridiculous to pretend
that Sewellism or Hobartism stands upon
any higher moral level than what used
to be called Abbettism, or thar Smith
ism or ~Blodgettism or MeDermottism. In
this county, 1t would be absurd to pre-
tend that there is any ground for prefer
enee for the rule of Sam Dickinson
over Bob Davis, or that the morals or
methods of Mr.. Dickinson are in any
way higher or. purer or more useful to
the public than those of the so-called
Democratic boss. The Republican party,
however, has one immense advantage in
the loyalty of the best element Of Repub-
icans to the party machine. and their
determination in all cases to impress
their conceptions of right upon the party
management, We cannot recall the time
when Mr.. Gilbert Collins. Mr.. Fiavel Nc
Gee, Mr.. George H. Perkins, Mr.. Henry
Mehl, Mr.. JOIN NJ. Jones or gentlemen
of hat stamp either sulked in their tents
or organized defeat for their party be-
cause Mr.. Dickinson did not distribute
the party patronage on what they con-
sidered to be just the right plan.
And now We come down to the very
present time. And, here. we find grave
reason to object to the manner in which
these gentlemen have conducted their
campaign to date. We concede thai it
opened well. The first steps were taken
in the form of open meetings, held at
Taylor's Hotel, to which all Gold Demo-
Gratis We're invited. We are happy, too.
to express a cordial sense of the energy
and s~elf-sacrifce shown in getting the
county properly represented al the Tren-
ton Sound Money Convention and later
at Indianapolis. We have nothing but
words of praise for the gentlemen who
jumped into the breach, gave their time
and money to the cause, and took the
risks of misconstruction of their conduct,
which, it appears, were not wholly i'm
aginary.
But we cannot see that the later pro-
ceedings nave been equally c~ommendable.
1t seems to us that the Sound Money
movement has developed in this county
into a close corporation affair. No general
meeting Of the people has been called.
Only one attempt to hold any sort of open
meeting vas made. and all the proceed
ings since that occasion seem to be in
direct opposition TO the sense of the ma
jority of those who participated in it. No
body knows very well who is managing
the movement, or who is in it, or just
what is being DONE. Secret meetings of
and only the most guarded accounts of
the proceedings are given to the press.
Out of one of these meetings-one which
assuredly had no sort of representative
character-comes the announcement that
a local tickle has been nominated, which
the best element of Democrats in the
county are calmly invited to support.
Now. we do not say that the National
Democratic Party has no right to nomi-
nate a county ticket IL it so desire. It
has. That is to say, it has if the major
fty of those who intend to vote the gold
ticket so desire. But to ascertain the de-
sire of that majority, some proper steps
should nave been taken. A mass meeting
might nave been held; it would not have
been impossible to hold primaries; but
assuredly some device should have been
adopted to ascertain the will of the vot-
ers. The little nucleus of a machine