The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-26

out for the republican party in the very
Gibraltar of democracy, the city OF
Boston. He is the acknowledged lead
er of the republican forces in the House
n every party contest. His qualifica-
tons for the position of speaker have
never once been questioned throughout
the campaign. He is aggressive, fear
less and professionally the sort of
man the party needs in authority to
Yitalize it. But because Charles r.
Saunders does not trim and dodge and
back and fill and vote both ways, be-
cause he is fighter, and because he
alone of all the speakership candidates
dared to stand up for the public inter-
est in opposition to the most powerful
corporate influence in the state it is
proposed to pass him by and bestow
the honor upon one who has done his
best to undermine the party, who has
declared in public that he does not in
tend to ally himself with either party,
and who has blown hot and cold on
every measure that has come before
him.
Is the republican party to allow the
Boston Elevated Railway, a corpora
ton controlled by New York capital
lists, to select the republican speaker
and punish the best republican fighter
in years, merely because he had the
courage, in the performance of duty, to
stand in their path? Newspaper sup
port mostly democratic, has been pur-
chased for Myers by the liberal distri-
button of advertising matter We have
ourselves received visit from an in
dividual in his interest, a fellow-mem
Der with Myers in the Reform Club
(note the word ''reform'D, who mis-
took our editorial columns for our adj
vertising ones.
Has it come to this in Massachusetts
that man, no matter how well quail
fed, can occupy high office at the
hands of the republican party only by
tapping q barrel or making himself
utterly subservient to the great inter
ests which seek special favors from the
legislature, and that man, no matter
how poorly qualified, can reach those
positions by these means? Are New
York methods henceforth to control re-
publican politics in Massachusetts? If
so, there are thousands of people at
present voting the republican ticket
who want to know it.
The republican leaders, if they think
it wise, can allow this thing to go on a
While longer. They can continue to
rebuke hard and unremitting work for
the party They can slap in the face
the republican ~ess which they are
only too anxious to WOO in times of adj
versity and peril They can appoint
to high state office men of the oppo-
site party and clen too proud to re-
member the party which has created
them. They can elevate to high fed
eral office men who have never done
one thing but fatten themselves at the
republican crib. These things they
can continue to do for little while
longer, but that is all. 1t is easy
enough by such policy to break the
party down. The difficulty is to build
it W again.
Republican leaders cannot longer
play the ostrich act in safety, claiming
that this fight does not concern them.
1t concerns every one of them vitality,
and all others interested in the well
fare of the republican party. Let them
awake at once, shake off their lethargy,
refuse to have men of Myers record
in positions of authority, and elevate
instead men of courage and backbone
who love the party. Otherwise, demo-
cratic success in Massachusetts is GER
tain, and that, too, earlier than most
people imagine.