The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-12
with or without.

Mr.. ELrHU RooT, the new President OF
the Union League Club, proposes that that
socinl body shall again take q hand In poll
tics under the old flag Of Republican par.
tisanship. In his speech at the clubhouse
on Thursday night he exhorted his hearers
TO prepare for the election Of 1898 as one
Of crucial Importance in It's relation to
the tremendous conflict between the plat
forms of st. Louis and Chicago. The
"assault upon our national honor and
credit has been renewed" The President
of the United States has sounded the
clear note Of national honor and faith"
This year the people of the United States
are to say whether they stand with Nc
KINLEY and the House, or with TEL
LER In the Senate" At the next cleo
ton, II the country speaks for Nc
KINLEY and the House, 1t "must be by
the election of the candidates nominated
by the Republican party" And the d.
vision In the Republican party of New
York Is mot upon the great and over
whelming issue formed between the ma
tional parties" Within the Republican
body, upon every question to be decided
there is "a common principle, a common
~ blpoGhyt uL1o % III puA PooSs
The lucidity of clear understanding and
the force of strong and intensely partisan
feeling, for which Mr.. Roof is signally
noted, were never more conspicuously
shown by him h when, addressing the
members of the Union League Club, he
argued that the issue between Organism
and anti-Bryanism is still upon us and,
therefore, still unsettled, and hat the in
strument for determining it satisfactorily
is, as before, the Republican party. And
yet Mr.. RooT, although warmed again with
the fire Of 1896, failed to give to the SUI
preme national issue the immense impor-
lance, or rather the incompatible and un-
conditional superiority which rightfully
belongs to 1t.
Mr.. RooT looks to see the Republicans
of New York marching solidly to the sup
port of "MoKINLEY and the House" in New
York's Congress and State election next
fall II they can obtain a new primary law.
But without a new primary law, what
then9 We won't discuss the justice or the
soundness of the appeal for one. But is the
question of a new primary law to deter
mine whether any member of the Union
League Club shall support the national
faith and credit which every politician, like
Mr.. RooT, knows to be identified with the
candidates of the Republican party9 Is the
primary law that served for the campaign
of 1895 to be declared insufficient for the
campaign of 1898, or of 1900, essential
ly identical in its politics, and possibly
more difficult to make successful2 Is the
cause Of the st. Louis platform, SO far as it
concerns any portion Of the Republican
party of New York, to rise or fall with a
new primary lave Is that to take prece-
dence over honest money and govern the
campaign against Bryanism2
Let there be a dozen primary laws, If the
Republican party thinks best; but the adj
vantage of wiping out the combined faults
in the law existing Is not worth a moments
thought compared with the need of squelch-
Ing, overwhelmingly and finally, the effort
to make a law for the free coinage of silver
at the ratio of 10 to l, and to replace the
conservative order that has been the foun-
dalton, the history and the life of the
United States, with the social incendiar-
ism Of the Chicago platform.
With or without another primary law,
every sincere advocate of national honor,
and every genuine %upholder of the strength
and stability of law and order, will prepare
to stamp on factionism like a viper, and
in November next sink Organism again
under a smashing Republican victory.