The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-11
SENSE OR SENTIMENT.
Shall the Democracy Bring National
Politics Into the Local CampaiGn9

Shall the Democracy Bring National
Politics Into the Local Campaign?
To the Editor of the Globe
Your editorial statements and arguments
have for period of many months been di
rected toward demonstration that our pres
ent municipal administration was not in
harmony with the best ideals Of city govern
ment; that change of administration was
absolutely needed; that to the Democracy
was committed the sacred task of local mu-
nic1pal REFORM You have thus defined
condition and suggested theory. Now, as
Stunning that you have correctly analysed
and described existing political conditions,
and that you have designated, with entire
propriety, the proper agent to effect reform,
Plain Facts is decidedly disconcerting. The
sum and substance of your admonition is that
the Democrats who labored in behalf of
the candidacy and principles of William J.
Bryan in the year 1896, and who constitute
nneteen-twentieths portion of the cleo
torate referred to by you as "the local De
mocracy," must. in the convention wherein
they nominate candidates for municipal of
fees stife all impulse for making frank
expression Of their distinctive political sem
timents, adopt a reserve amounting to po-
litical hypocrisy and attempt to win the
control of municipal administration by tao
tics closely bordering upon false pretense. In
case this policy of indirection be observed,
you guarantee success in the next local cleo
ton. You not. however, much inter-
ested in redeeming the city from what you
are pleased to term misrule as to lend your
cooperation to those who retain, profess and
proclaim their attachment to the principles
and purposes advocated by William Jen-
nngs Bryan. No matter how gross the
abuses to be reformed, no matter how emf
nent for intellect, craftsmanship, aptitude
for public affairs, personal integrity and
clarity of purpose may be the candidates
proposed by the Democracy, you prophesy
defeat unless they consent to follow the re-
cent example of the Tammany Democrats
of New York city and forbear the express
sion of general political principles. I shall
not seek to promote acrimony by charac-
terizing your latest editorial as threat,
but beg to call your attention to the threat
ening conditions that will be realized were
the plan of political negation to be adopt
ed. AS the candidacy of Henry George has
become one of the plain facts" in the
Knickerbocker campaign, so, in our city,
failure to identify municipal nominee and
the party nominating him with the princi-
pies of the Chicago platform would evoke
protest and an Independent candidate. The
forces led by Bryan last year are so zeal
GUS in the popular cause so earnest IN their
desire to relieve the people from the gil
gantic wrongs of trust domination, govern
ment by injunction and misunderstanding
finance, that they cannot countenance cow
ardice nor even hesitancy in the avowa al, OF
the principles for which they contend. They
are sincere. They will not allow counsels
of eXpediency to silence the oracles of re-
form. They prefer defeat to INCONSISTENCY or
inconsistency. Therefore, the Democracy,
instead of welding itself together by adopt
ing, in the municipal campaign, declarations
non-committal regards the Chicago plat
party and the Silver Republican party and
would behold the ruin of its prospects in
the candidacy of a man who, like Henry
George, dwells in the temple of conscience
rather than in the tent of lshmael, and pre-
fers the lean provender of private frugality
to the flesh pots that console the victim of
Egyptian bondage.
In studying facts, plain and not so plain,
it seems to me that the Democracy should
mark learn anu inWardly digest the fact
that to allow the Palmer Buckner fragment Of
10 IN Djnptehn-
twentieths of the party a surrender of prtn-
ciple. would be dishonorable and suicidal. A
party is an association of individuals profess
ing the same be.fefs and actuated by desire
to administer government in accordance with
such beliefs. AS a party the Democracy has
creed. If it had no creed it would not be a
party. If it ignores its creed it does SO
either through shame or by reason Of that
coWardice often systematically termed ''eX-
pediency." Let us not be ashamed of our
principles. Let us not be lacking in the cour-
age of conviction. If any citizen shall prefer
to foster a baseness and inefficiency Of LEGAL
government about which he complains rather
than to unite with those who are prepared to
supply remedy, such a man Is not desirable
as an ally nor formidable as a foe.
/ hope that the next Democratic municipal
convention will, after stating the policy of the
party with reference to the government OF
the city, prCmu.gate declaration to this et-
feet:
ITO execute this policy and to institute
these reforms, we advance, clad in armor of
a righteous cause.-the great cause OF bl-
metalIsm. We reaffirm the Chicago platform
of 1886. We recognize as the chteftain OF De-
mccracy, as the worthy successor of Jefferson,
Jackson ara T1ldsn that heroic patriot and
popular tribune, William jennings BRYAN
There is a magnificent moral to be learned
from LowelIs glowing lines:
''Then to side with Truth is noble when We
share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit and It's
prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the
coward stands aside,
Doubling in his abiect spirit, till his Lord is
crucifed''
Respectfully, john W. Willis.