New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-11-12
WHAT WILL THEY DOf

The Republican party Is all right. Let there
be no mistake about that. The men who voted
a year ago for Mckinley and Sound Money and
Protection have not changed their views or
abandoned their positions They are II any
thing more firmly attached than ever TO the
principles of the Republican party which they
maintained in 1896 and made dominant in the
State and Nation. Those principles were not at
stake in the election Just held. The real and
vital question In that contest was one of inter
nal policy of domestic management OF leaders
and leadership And the verdict pronounced
thereon by the voters was that the leaders were
incompetent and their leadership was disastrous
That was all. No sophlstry can disguise 1t, no
special pleading or pettlfogglng conceal us char-
acter or change the Issue majority or near
" two-thirds of the voters opposed to Tammany
placed the seal of their positive dsapproval upon
the leaders and leadership that wantonly and
recklessly divided the antl-Tammany forces and
turned this great city over to the old gang or
hghwaymen They felt It to be duty they
owed not only to good citizenship. but TO their
party as well.
And now the question arises whether the Re-
publican party OF this city can be reunited
whether the Republican voters who differed SO
widely and so positively upon questions of In
fernal administration and management or the
party machinery can Oe brought together to
worl, tremendously in future for the success OF
the party TO which all belong and the manten-
ance of principles in which all believe. Is this
possible? 1t ought to be. But upon what basis!
Do the leaders upon whose wretched work the
Republican voters passed judgment on Novem
Der 9 suppose for a single instant that there IS
the remotest possibility that the party can be
harmonized and reunited under the leadership
which has been 80 signay rebuked and re-
undated? Are Senator Plat and Mr.. Qulgg so
blind In their Judgment or so obstinate In their
folly that they cannot see or will not admit that
the first and essential prerequisite TO harmony
and union Is n change In the leadership which
has been condemned? There Is not an intelll-
gent voter In their entire following who does
not know, and hardly one who will not say, that
any project for reuntlng the party under Plat
and Quigg must be a failure from the start
1t would be the grossest absurdlty. Both Plat
and Qugg know this well as or better than
anybody else.
Well, what do these leaders, who pretend TO
have the welfare Of the party so much at heart,
propose to do? They have not hesitated TO sac
rifce the party to their own reckless ambition
and greed OF power. Can they make no sacri-
hce themselves? Do they think that intelligent
voters, who have Just recorded at the balot-box
their hostility 10 these two leaders and their
utter detestaton OF the system they represent,
are going to flock back into the organization
which these two absolutely control just because
the organization promises not to call them
traitors any more. but TO admit them on equal
terms: Bosh. They know better. If they real
iy want union and harmony let them step down
and out and take themselves away. That would
be an olive branch, indeed. And why shouldn't
they do II? The history Of politics furnishes no
parallel for such utter and abject failures as
these two men. Their plain duty TO the party,
to themselves, to the country. is to step aside