The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-08-16
CONTEMPORARY EDITORIALS.
- wa. ana !. Democratic.

Washington Post
Tho indianapolis News means to be fair
in rs treatment OF all questions, all par
tes and all factions. 1t sets high stand
ord and generally lives UP to 1t. But lis
zeal In a good cause sometimes LEADS II
into error. one OF the good things for
which the News contends Is the gold
STANDARD but the News Is often uncharit-
oh,s N the advocates Of free coinage In
speaking OF the efforts of Hon W. j. stone
octinc chairman OF the democratic nation
al committee. to harmonize the warning
factions in Kentucky. the News says;
"Tbere is this to be said, and that is
that schism is -perpetuating, and that
for the great schsm which has rent the
democratic party in twain throughout the
country Mr.. Stone and his friends are
wholly responsible. They forced on tne
pariv principle which was not demo-
cratic. made 1t the test of party loyalty,
and by this action drove out OF the party
thousands of men who unlike the lew cow
ards who surrendered their CONVICTIONS
and abandoned the real party ialtn, were
unwilling to support a doctrine that they
knew TO be both vicious and un-ue"-
ocratic." ~
1t is quite in order at this time, when
efforts are being made to reunite the req
ulars and boilers of 1896, to restuuy the
history of "the great schism." II is mol
true that the coinage plank Of the Chi
cago platform of 1896 was or is un-aenp-
cratic. 1t is a fact that a declaration for
the gold standard would have been un-
democratic Was the fiat money plank OF
the democratic platform Of 1868 undemo-
cratic? Did 1t create schism? On the con-
trary was 1t not accepted as the talth anu
policy of the party? Who looking at that
tenet of the democratic creed of 1868, VIII
venture to assert that free coinage oil s'l-
yer, at the old ratio was heresy In 1876
For twenty years prior and UP TO 1880
the democratic party in all the reliably
States had been stoutly con-
tending for free coinage. On every posi-
BILE occasion majority of democrats IN
congress voted tor free coinage. There
never was a mere copsisten record of the
fidelity of a party TO a cause than is pre-
scented by that long list of roll calls in
showing a majority of the demo-
Gratis in both houses have been uniformly
for the free and unlimited coinage of both
gold and silver at ratio of 16 to l. In
Mr. Cleveland for second
term, in spite of his we'll known opposl"
ton to silver. the democratic party made
a surrender of principle, and, as is usual
in such cases, the punishment came in the
shape of party Generalization and disrup
ton. When the silver majority in 1895
forced free coinage into the platform 1t
simply declared for the doctrine that had
succeeded the greenback tenet of 1868, and
had been for twenty years growing in the
confidence of the democratic masses. II
there is any use in parties, if they are not
a fraud and menace. they must be rep
resentatives of the principles and policies
in which they believe. When there are
disputes, the majority must decide Far
the majority in 1896 to have surrendered
to the minority would have been a base
OF the fundamental demo-
cratic idea.
Old issues are changing and new issues
are arising from year to year. Settled is
sues are dropped and new ones are taken
up in National platforms The tribunal
that decides what is democratic, what is
republican, or what is populistc doctrine
Is the National convention. IT, therefore,
the free coinage declaration of 1896 had
been new ISSUE instead of well estab-
ished democratic policy, majority vote
in the Chicago convention would have suf-
iced to put it into the creed and make 1t
democratic,
No man is bound to vote against his
The egress of a political
home is az free OF access as the ingress.
But democrat, or republican, or a
member of any other party, who bolts ma
iority decisions has no right to charge
he majority with infidelity. Whatever
majority of the democratic convention puts
INTO the declaration of faith is democratic.
The Post has no doubt that many of the
democratic boilers will return to the fold,
md if our indianapolis contemporary will
watch the returning wanderers, we ven
ure to predict that it will find them hum
ply accepting the dictates of the majority
against which they rebelled four years
Ego.
Imperialists After the Press.
irish World
The imperialists, having captured the !
republican party, are employing the re-
sources of that political organization for
he purpose of familiarizing the public |
with the policy of imperialism. They
nave begun by trying to capture the press
by furnishing it with extremely cheap
'eading matter Here is the bait with which |
hey hope to catch editors
To Editor
Republican Literary Bureau, WASH
ington, d. c., Room 6, Glover Build
ing.-Dear Sir Please find below col
umn OF political paragraphs which |
should be pleased to have you ex-
anime and see If a regular weekly
service would not be useful to you
/ VIII supply you this matter at the
nominal rate of % cents per week,
with the explicit agreement not to
furnish it to any other paper in your
city.
II you desire, make trial OF 1t for
one month. Very truly yours,
Guy Il. Mitchell.
These political paragraphs" that cost
nly quarter Of a dollar a week are in
ended to help on Imperialism, The
eader finding them in the newspaper he
; accustomed to read, has no suspicion
hat they are furnished by the Republican
Literary Bureau. On the principle that
drop of water constantly falling on a
tone will wear 1t away it is hoped that
vi ~ nf doll