Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-25
PARTY MEMBERSHIP.

ments of the political world, the Ana
conda Standard is usually an astute rea-
soner and able logician. and it's facile
pen commands the respect and confidence
of intelligent men. But when forced by
the exigencies of a political situation to
reverse all presidents and hew out a new
path for itself, in order to win it's point,
it grows l~amentably weak in the head and
unsteady in the knees.
This is c~onspicuously true in It's present
effort to read one wing of the democracy
out of the party. 1t overlooks the essen
tial features of partisan fellowship. The
Standards wing of the party can no more
force the Clark men out of the organiza-
ton through the adoption of a resolution
in the city convention. thar the Clark
their political Affiliations by resolutions
affecting their integrity as men. Person.
al character is not an issue in party fell
lowship.
If n political party sought to purge
its ranks Of the membership of men whose
integrity is not beyond question, it would
be assuming a function that properly be-
longs to the church or to the fraternal or
ders. Besides, it would go hard with the
party. Think Of the democratic party in
this state starting a movement of that
kind! And yet this is precisely what the
Anaconda Standards wing Of the demo-
cracy is attempting to do in one case,
and, mark it, only in one case. 1t is not
trying to establish a new test of party
fealty, namely, honesty in political life,
which it would apply to all. Oh, no. But
it wishes to lay down a new rule to be
applied to one man alone, and force him
and his friends out of the party on that
issue.
It's ability to pass a resolution accusing
a man of having bribed a democratic leg
islature does not carry with it the ability
to eliminate him from his political affilia-
lions. Control of the local machinery of
a political organization by one set Of men
or another is merely a matter of tempo
rary concern, and has nothing to do with
the application of political principles. If
this We're not true the compliment Of
reading rivals out of a party would be-
come reciprocal, and degenerate from a
party pastime into a most ridiculous
farce through which all political cohe-
siveness would be finally lost.
Conventions have the power and the
right to indicate by resolution a change of
heart as to the treatment Of issues with
in the purview of their authority, but
they have no right to read out of a po-
litical party any man who is professedly
true to the fundamental principles of the
organizations. A republican primary, for
instance, might essa the role of a fly on
a bulls horn and pass a resolution read
ing the president of the United States
out of the party, but it's authority would
receive no recognition outside the little
local sphere of political pomposity in
which the resolution originated. So, too,
a city convention may attempt to read
out of a political party a man who has
been elected to the United States senate
by the Legislature Of a state, controlled
and dominated by the same organization
but its authority In such matters abso-
lutely amounts to nothing, and no court
in the world would sustain it's action
were 1t to become a question for legal
consideration.
Inc purview of a city convention, from
a legal standpoint-and a legal stand
point means plain, common sense-is
limited to municipal affairs. 1t cannot
soar beyond its heights as a political
body and make the acts of a Ieeis-
lature OF its own political color
the grounds upon which to read
men out of the party to which it belongs.
II therefore follows that the attempt of
that wing of the democratic party in this