The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1900-10-27
THE YOUNG MANS STAKE In
THE ELECTION.

they realize the full extent of their own
personal stake in the result.
In our judgment there have been but
two national elections in the whole history
of the country which so deeply concerned
the first voters, the young manhood of the
nation, and meant SO much for their lr-
ture benefit or injury as the one now fast
approaching. Those two occasions were
the election of 1900, when Thomas Jeffer-
son was first chosen President, and the
election of 1860, when Abraham Lincoln
was elected
If in 1900 Thomas Jefferson had been
defeated it is quite probable that the issue
of imperialism would not now be awaiting
settlement All the aristocratic and anti
Democratic elements Of the country would
have triumphed in the defeat of Jefferson
one hundred years ago would have gained
such aseendency as would have enabled
them to create strong centralized gov
eminent based on wealth and class priv
lege The contest between Jefferson and
Adams was in its essence decisive con-
tiict between government by the masses
and government by the classes 1t deter
mined that issue, for a quarter of cen
fury at least, in favor of the many and
against the few The mass of young men
of 1900 saw plainly that Jefferson's cause
was theirs; that if they were TO have an
equal chance with the sons of the men
who, by virtue of larger wealth and social
prestige, aimed through the Federalist
party to control the Government and run
it in their own interest, they must vote
for the great statesman whose election
meant that the government should remain
republican in fact as well as in form and
name.
The second great national election in
which the young men just come Of age
had an enormous personal stake was that
of 1860. The catastrophe of civil war
was the immediate sequence of that mem
orable contest, and it was upon the Young
men of both sections that the awful sacri-
fees of that fearful strife fell with great
est severity.
The present campaign is another pivotal
event in our political history. The young
men who are shortly going 10 cast their
first Presidential ballots are, whether they
are fully conscious of it or not, the voters
who will have most cause in the years
ahead to look back at the result with pro-
found thankfulness or keen regret 1t is
parting of the ways for them. Old men
are passing off the stage, and the full
fruits of the verdict to be rendered at the
polls next month will not be gathered in
their time. 1t is to the young men, with
their lives all before them and the hard
problem of how to realize their hopes and
ambitions to solve, that the election of
Mr.. Mckinley or MIR. Bryan is of the
gravest moment
Between the party of imperialism and
the trusts and the party of human liberty
and equality of rights and opportunities it is
for our young men to choose. And as
they make their choice they will have to
reap the consequences. Those of them
who understand the history of their own
country and the principles on which their
forefathers founded its government cannot
fail to see that if they vote to re-elect Mr..
Mckinley, and thereby ratify his policy
in the PHILIPPINES and Porto Rico, they
will vote to nullify the Constitution and
commit the coming generation to a pro
gram of conquest, colonization and annex
alton in quarters of the globe far distant
from our own shores. And they are
themselves the coming generation.
That policy is not the policy of their
fathers; it is the policy which all the
greatest men of both parties have for one
hundred years warned us against adopting.
| 1t is a policy utterly alien to the old Amer
lean spirit. 1t denies all the teachings of
our history. 1t spurns the counsels of
Washington, Jefferson, Clay, Webster and
Lincoln, each and all of whom abjured us
to love liberty and justice, TO cultivate the
friendship of all nations, to give our sym
pathy to every people struggling to be free
and to Cypress none, and, above all things,
to be content to preserve our own freedom
and enlarge its boundaries on soil contigu
Gus to our own, and never, under any
temptation, permit ourselves to be drawn
into the affairs of foreign nations.
All these maxims, which have served
as the guiding stars of our foreign policy,
and which until Mr. Mckinley advent
enabled us to maintain ourselves as the one
great nation which, with the smallest
standing army and navy, was nevertheless
the one most secure against armed attack,
are to be cast aside if Mr.. Mckinley
new program of Asiatic adventure and
European ENHANCEMENT is confirmed by
the people And it is the young men,
the first voters of 1900, who will live to
rue the day that was done, if it is done.
They are the men who in the years that
are coming, if Imperialism is to prevail,
will have to bow their necks to the yoke
of military and naval expenditures as huge
as those that exhaust the energies and
and crush the liberties of the great impe-
rial fighting nations of Europe And it is
they, and their sons after them, who will
have TO answer the call of the Government
for troops for foreign service in increasing
numbers; for while 100, 900 may do just
at present, 500, 600 may easily be wanted
as our new Asiatic and European enter
prises are developed The blood tax and
the money tax both will have to be borne
BY the voters who are now going to the
ballot-box as young men. If they vote
for Mr.. Mr.. Mckinley now they must be
prepared to pay for the inevitable'series Of
foreign war dances to which his policies
will surely lead us.
And what of the first voters and the
trust issue? Does not that come home to
every young man as matter that con-
Germs him more closely and vitality than it
does any man of mature age? It will take
some time for the trusts to completely cor
raj every branch of industry and trade.
They have made startling progress in that
direction already, but they are not yet
completely masters of every line Of bust
ness in which honest young men may hope
by individual industry and perseverance to
acquire a competence and become employ
ers instead of employees All the avenues
of advancement are not yet barred agalps
| d. Al, x,,ll h3.s ~ Mr.