Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-06-12
Political creeds and Platforms.

democratic creed, as we understand it,
and as Jefferson taught it, is very brief
and simple. 1t consists of these three
articles:
l. The majority rules.
2. Equal rights to all and special
privileges to none.
3. All grants of power by the people
to their government must be strictly
construed
A platform may not contain any of
these statements or their substance,
and yet all its planks may be state
ments of public policy which is de-
rived from one or more of them. Again
there may arise emergencies in which
none of these fundamental principles is
involved, and party must be ready to
meet these with declarations of public
policy for the promotion of the public
welfare. These fundamental princi-
ples,-the rule of the majority, fair
play, and the strict construction of
grants of power to the government, are
unchanging truths. They may not
solve every problem of government and
legislation, bur the party which adopts
them and fosters them candidly and
honestly is safe party to trust, for
these principles lie deep in the founda-
tions of republican government, and
frequently it becomes necessary to re-
affirm and apply them in order that
government by the people, of the peo-
pie, and for the people, may not perish
from the earth"
The rule of the majority, though a
democratic doctrine, must be the doc
trine, at least ostensibly, of any party
under a republican government, and
therefore it is the doctrine of all parties
in the United States The doctrine of
equal rights and no special privileges is
a doctrine which the democratic party
rightfully claims as distinctively demo
cratic, and so is the doctrine, no less
important, of strict construction of
grants of power by the people to their
government. If the people find out
that they have not granted enough
power to government, they can readily
remedy this by constitutional amend
ment and that practice is much safer
than the practice of submitting to a
Supreme Court questions as to powers
not expressly given, but which by a
loose construction might be implied,
for this will inevitably take away
powers from the people which they
have not given, and make the republic
sham and the real government
court, clothed with unlimited power,
and responsible to no one for its acts.
When a convention is held by demo
crats,-that is by men who know and
love these few simple and elementary
principles of democracy, the fact that
such convention is held by men who
know and love those principles, is a
guaranty that the platform they adopt
will be in accord with those principles.
When the democratic national conven-
ton met in 1896 at Chicago, it was a
convention of democrats, more unques-
tionably so than any convention of the
party that had been held since Tilden's
time. 1t adopted the sixteen to one"
plank. Immediately there was hue
and cry by interested and influential
men, claiming to be democrats, that
this was an innovation. Where had
democratic platform ever before pro-
claimed the doctrine of bimetallism at
the ratio of sixteen to one? 1t was
true that no democratic national con-
vention had previously contained such
plank, and many democrats more
well meaning than those who first
raised the hue and cry were misled by
it. Misled because the objection was
specious and sophistical. The demo
cratic principle which underlaid the
sixteen to one plank was merely Fair
play to all. Special privileges TO none"
1t was the belief of the democrats who
met in convention at Chicago, that the
gold standard inaugurated by the re-
publicans in 1878, and which Mr.. Cleve-
land, though elected By democrats, had
done all in his power to establish, was
a monetary system which did not give
fair play to all, laborer, merchant,
manufacturer, and capitalist alike, but
gave special privilege to the capitalist
to the injury of all others.
No one, democrat or republican, can
deny that the sixteen to one plank was
an effort to enforce the democratic doe
trine of fair play and no privileges
Democrats might say that it was mis-
taken effort, but they could not deny
the iateltion of it, for that was, and is,
as clear as day. 1t was an effort to
prevent the moneyed class from obtain
ing the special privilege which it was
believed the gold standard would give
them. 1t was plain case for submit
ting to the majority in an effort to en-
force fundamental principle of democ-
raey The majority may be mistaken,
and the minority always thinks it is,
but under democratic government the
mistakes of the majority must be sub
mitted to, and it is evident that the
majority viii make fewer mistakes than
the minority. So long as it is clear, as
in 1896, that the iatntion of the majority
is to carry out democratic principles,
there is no moral ground upon which