Birmingham state herald., 1897-07-30
THE WAY IS PLAIN.

Under the above caption the Opelika In- dustrial News prints the following edito- rial. which is the ablest argument yet adduced since the question of party unity by the ignoring of ma tional issues in state polH:ics has been agitatsd by the press of the state The argumen- is unanswer- ahle and tells the story in smooth and even tempered way:
 The News is ever ready to concede to everybody the right to vote as their con science and beuer Judgmeh dlctate' e nave no stones to throw a those Who 'boltsd the nomination Of MT. Bryan ldst year, save on the ground that they went into ahe par&y primaries knowing full well that if the Chicago convention de- clared for the gold standard ana CleVe- tandism, they would expect and demand that the advocates of free colnage who went into these primaries stand by the result.
 Having taken that step, we thought then and think now, that honorahle men who bolted the party subjected fhen!- selves to cri icisrn and forfeited all thelr risht to the claim that they were loyal palLy men. It was for that aeT, the act Of boiling that he News thinks they are to be censured. We are reasonably sure that had these in Alabama who polted mad known beforehand that the Chicago convention was going to l'epu 1iata CieVe- 
 abstained from participancy in the pr.- inardes, but they could not see. Su Dllnd- " were they following MT. Cleveland, that an overwhelming majority or the democrats of the country had r2SoiNed 10 usver permit MT. Cleveland 10 merge the democratic party, the party of Jefferson and Jackson, the party of the people, into an agency for the gold barons or the world.
 Cleveland following. in Alabama the Chicago convention turned up in the hands of the free coinage anti-Cl@Veland Gemecra ts by the handsome majority or two-thir6s or more. That convention re- pudiated Cleveland ard Clevelandism, adopted a genuine democratic platform and placed at the head of the ticket the greatest living democrat. Notwithstand- ing this, those who voted in the party primaries and favored Cleveland atd Clsvefandism were entitled to their in- dividual convictions. They had a per feet right to entertain the opiriion that the party had made great mistake, but they had no right to say so until after the election, and they Were in honor bound to support the ticket and platform. Why? Because they had entered in:o the contest in the primaries ard by that act pledged themselves to support the out come of the national convention. what ever that might be. regardless of which e.sment won.
 This many of them did not do, and for that the News contends they eubsected themselves to criticism. If they had come up squarely and said: You have defeated HIS in the primaries but we are going t0 stand by the result just as we would have expected you free silver peo- pie to have done had you sustained de feat We are going to vote for the ticket and give 1t our hearty support. but when inc polls close you may understand that wa are done with you" Then they wou q have been where no man or newspaper wnlld nave had any right to criticise or condemn them.
 There is no question or earth about where the party stands now. where it will stsud next year and how it will declare when it again assemblies in convention, both state and national. Everybody knows that the regular democratic party in every state in the union will indorse the Chicago platform when the orportu- ntty presents itself. Every state that has acted since the Chicago convention has done so. Everybody knows that there have been. many changes since the last rational election. and that those changes have been from gold standard advocates