The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-04
A WASTED OPPORTUNITY.

A WASTED OPPORTUNITY.
Since 1893 the Democratic party has
played duck and drake with it's oppor-
tunities. 1t began by permitting
scurvy gang Of towards and traitors
to play false to the pledges on which
the party had been commissioned to
put the tariff branch Of revenue on
purely economic basis eliminating all
paternalism. To that was directly
traceable the outcome of the Chicago
convention. That was the expression
of two sentiments, one of wrath at the
betrayal and of desperation caused by
the realization of the potency of the
forces that had caused it; the other
that stiffness of mere politicians VINO
consult expediency and foolishly i'm
agined that the issue of 1892 was dead
and a new one must be found.
The momentum of the folly of '96
continues in localities. Iowa is the
most striking instance. Never did a
party organization confront cam
paign so we'll ammunitioned by their
adversaries as did the Iowa Demo-
Gratis. Nothing but state questions
was involved. Not even a representa-
tive in congress was to be chosen. An
election of state officers, of state leg
islature that would have no senator in
congress to choose, left the parties
without touch with any federal ques-
ton. The Democrats named as their
candidate for governor a man who
took a very prominent part while in
congress in the discussion of the tariff.
Mr.. White made one Of the few re-
markable speeches delivered during the
pendency of the Wilson bill. So strong
was it that millions Of copies were
used as a campaign document. Mime
sofa was fairly strewn with it, trans
lated into several languages. He is an
able and an honest man; but what his
views were On the tariff or the cur
rency could be of no possible account
il elected governor.
The Republican party, that had con-
trolled the state since the retirement
of Gov. Boies, had made a record for
misgovernment that is rivaled only
by that Of the same party in Pennsyl-
vania Investigations made by the
legislature revealed an astonishing
corruption in the state offices to cover
which hardly any pains were taken.
The department of public printing fair
ly reeked with robbery. The legis-
latures had been so recklessly eXtrava-
CANT as to transform a surplus of $48S,-
O5S, left in the treasury by Gov. Boies,
into a present deficit of $622,000. The
appropriations more than doubled In
addition to this the Republicans had
shiIly-shallied with that old, chronic
difficulty of theirs resulting from their
paternal attempt to control human ap
petite, too cowardly to either face the
matter boldly or to avow their error
and correct it, sneaking hypocritically
behind mulct act that made the sale
of liquor a crime and condoned it with
a fine that was really tax.
The Democrats had thus a magnifi-
cent opportunity to fight their oppo-
nents on purely state issues, on which
the latter were defenseless. Instead
they permitted themselves to be sent
into the fight handicapped with plat
form that moaned over financial dis
tress that had vanished before the
echoes of the convention had died
away, and made the national issue of
'96, already vanishing specter, the
slogan of the state campaign. The
campaign managers are evidently try
ing to retrieve the error, and speakers
are vigorously attacking their oppo-
nents on their vulnerable record but
their state convention had put an i'm
plement of attack in the hands Of the
Republicans that they are using art
fully They are saying very little Of
state questions and much of national
ones, bowling about danger to the cur
rency that will result from Democratic
victory, and throwing dust in the eyes
of the voters to hide their own weak
ness and delinquencies. If Mr.. White
is defeated this year it will be because
of the initial blunder of his convention
and not because of the strength of the
Republicans; and in politics as in war
bIunders are crimes.