The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1897-12-09
HARMONY.

The address issued by the Demo-
cratic State Executive Committee
was in accord with the great rank
and file of the party and the respoD-
sive echoes therefrom indicate
strong and united fight next year in
behalf of good government.
The following comment by the
Charlotte Observer, which was known
not to be in thorough accord with
the Democratic platform last year,
does credit to the heart and head OF
it's editor. Under the caption, GA
Wise Nights Work." the Observer of
the I'd says:
"The Democratic party of the
State is to be congratulated upon
the action taken by the committee
at the meeting held in Raleigh night
before last. The re-affirmation of
the Chicago platform was to have
been expected and will be acquiesced
in by those who do not believe in all
that is in that document. This
declaration was discounted long ago.
That is one point. There are two
others: The one is that the idea of
entangling alliances found no favor
whatever with the committee; and
the other is that there was a round
denunciation of the results of legisla-
tive and administrative fusion in
North Carolina.
1t means, unless the action of the
committee is reversed, a straight
fight next year. 1t means that the
head, the heart, the conscience of the
people are to be appealed to. The
speak easy business is over with.
Ground has been found for re-
united party to stand upon"
In other words, the Observer fol-
lows the advice of Grover Cleve-
land to yield to ''the arbitra-
ment of the party declarations, :"
advice which Grover offered when
adherence to it resulted in benefit to
him, but adyice which he ignored
when his own interests would not be
enhanced and when only the party
that made him would be benefited
by loyalty to it's declarations, thus
exercising a rule or ruin policy, a
piece of treachery that will never be
forgotten. But Grover is now a
back number. Let him pass and let
us turn our faces hopefully towards
the future, trusting that a traitor
will never more become the leader of
the great Democratic party, and
that all those who were honest and
sincere in following Cleveland and
his ignus fatuus will, like the gifted
Henry Watterson, wash their hands
of the past delusion and return to
the Democratic fold and help to
fight the battles for good and honest
government in both State and
nation.
Commenting upon the withdrawal
of Mr.. Watterson from the so called
National Democratic party, the
Observer, among other things, makes
these pertinent remarks:
''But the vast majority of those
who gave this movement their coun-
tenance and were responsible for it's
being, deserted it and went bodily to
the Republicans, using the name of
the National Democratic party as a
cover under which they might pass
across the lines. They could not
stand isolation; they had not the
nerve to stand with q hopeless
minority; they had no just apprecia-
ton of that noble sentiment of the
Prohibitionists: ga vote which is
cast for principle is never thrown
away"
Mr.. Watterson did well to quit any
such flag. So good man as General
Buckner may well be ashamed of
those who pushed him into leader
ship and deserted him at the polls
Of the remnant the leadership is
mercenary, and of the whole move
ment it may be said that the play is
over. Ring the curtain down."