Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-02-08
Watterson on the Democratic Party.

Henry Watterson, the veteran editor
of the Louisville Courier-Journal, has
written over his initials, a vigorous
editorial descriptive of the position of
the Democratic party, which will be a
good deal in the nature of boiled crow
for the political turfmen in charge of
Waterson tells his political brethren un-
palatable truth relative to the status Of
the party. and he tells it with all the
| crisp freshness and spice that only vet
eran writer's of his experience and talent
in writing a use.
Watterson belonged to The Old
Guard" of American journalism that
made the newspaper Il real moulder OF
opinion, a genuine leader in the best
phases of political life. In that Old
Guard were Samuel Bowles, Horace
Greeley, Henry j. Raymond, Murat
Halsted. James Gordon Bennett, Charles
A. Dana, A. X. Mcclure. and perhaps
William Cullen Bryant, although the
%latter's affiliations with belle letters was
so marked that the walks of polite
literature might be said to have claimed
him in preference to the sterner life OF
the daily newspaper. The vigor and
pointedness which characterized the
writings of these master spirits has not
been surpassed, if equalled, by the later
generations of public writer's, so that
when Watterson spreads himself in his
old time editorial style, he is sure to
write something worth readig.
He plainly warns his obtuse minded
party leaders that if they continue along
the line of the policies of 1896, as they
seem at present bound to do, it will be
another case of the blind leading the
blind, both of whom are ticketed for
front seats in the ditch. The'Democratic
burro is being groomed fora repetition OF
the last campaign. W. Jennings Bryan.
silver plank and all with anti-eXpansion
added. But rather than commit this
eggregious error, Mr.. Watterson advises
the nomination of Admiral Dewey, even
though hislRepublicanism may not con
tain any alarming amount of Democratic
coloring, and intimates that if the
Democratic party could nominate Horace
Greeley for president in 1872, it certain
! y would be less of a strain to nominate
Dewey in 1900. Watterson calls the
sober attention of his party leaders to
| the still more sombre fact that since the
time of James Buchanan, the Democrats
have carried but two presidential cleo
tons, and one of these would not have
been successful but for that curious
combination of "Rum, Romanism and
Rebellion unexpectedly sprung on the
New York public by DR.. Burchard,
| which defeated James G. Blaine's presi-
Dental aspirations forever and forage.
The trenchant writer of the Courier
| Journal adds that all the Democrats got
out of Cleveland was the slaughter house
of the succeeding administration, and
the open grave which in 1896, William
Jennings Bryan walked into. And now, if
to the follies of the last campaign, an
anti-expansion plank is to be added,
there will nothing be left for the MOURN
ers to do after the sad, sorrowful inter-
ment, except to close the open grave,
and to set out flowers above the last
remains of the Democratic party with
the legend, "Gone to meet the Federals
and the Wings" and this touching in
scription added:
While he lived. he lived in clover:
And when he died, he died all over"