The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-08-14
VOTERS SHOULD READ AND IN.
VESTIGATE.


Every voter, therefore, before he casts
his vote, should investigate the past
history of all political parties, their
present policies, and then cast his vote
will be for the good of the whole coun-
try. To such an Investigation the Re
publican party invites the voters of
this nation and this state, and is conf
dent that an impartial Judgment would
result in its favor
The first distinction that an impair
tial inquirer would observe between
the Republican and the Democratic
parties, as developed by their past his
tory, would be the conservative, retro
gressive policy of the Democratic par
ty, as against the live, vigorous and
aggressive policy of the Republican
party. Every forward step that this
nation has taken during the last forty
years the Democratic party has been
vigorously hostile to, and yet its his
tory teaches us that after the lapse of
five or ten years, after it has opposed
any political policy, it would commend
in its party platforms the very poll
cies that it so vigorously opposed years
before. Its history shows that it has
always camped on the ground occupied
by the Republican party years before,
and has seemed really to enjoy the hu-
initiation of having to acknowledge
that the policies and even the men
they had formerly so bitterly opposed,
were right.
A notable instance in this regard is
the reverential way that the Democrat
lc party and its leaders have, at the
present day, of speaking of Lincoln
and Grant, and commencing the ac-
tions ard the policies of these two great
Republican statesmen, and yet the old
cr citizens can remember when the
Democratic newspapers and the Dem
ocratic orators, with vituperation un-
known in the present day, constantly
denounced these men as being corrupt
enemies of the nation, while their party
platforms condemned them in as vigor-
Gus language. 1t will be observed that
the Democratic party is beginning to
praise Garfield, and occasionally it has
a word of commendatiCn for Blaine, the
great Republican leader. Ten years
from now it will be praising Mckinley
and his administration. AS the voter
reflects upon these facts they ought to
be convincing proof to him that the
Democratic party is wrong and unwor-
thy to receive his vote.
that is, the Democratic party has no
longer in its columns any great men.
No leader in any of the states can be
found in the Democratic party who, in
ability and strength of character, can
be compared with Tilden, Thurman,
Randall and other great Democratic
leaders of the past. The places of
these men are now filed with such
men as Croker, Lentz, Altgeld and Till
man, and others of like character and
ability. The Democratic party is, there
fore, Il party with mediocre leaders,
and if placed in power, as 1t was IN
1892, it would be found, now as then,
to be unequal to the situation. Unable
to administer the government in time
of peace in business-like manner, we
would again suffer from financial ran
ic, and witness the humiliation of this
government having to issue bonds and
oil hnY o.,
of providing for the current expenses
of the nation, as we had to do under
the last Democratic administration.
The voter Will find that the same in
capacity is manifest in the discussions
of the current problems of the day The
Democratic party opposes the policy
of the administration, and yet suggests
none to take its place. 1t tries to en-
barrass the administration on every
proposition, and yet is not statesman
like enough to propose n better policy.
The present incapable administration
Of our own state government is an in
stance of the inability of the Demo
cratic party to manage governmental
affairs. Outside of the office holders of
the present state administration, where
is there a word of commentator for
it? False to its pledges for home rule
in the city of Denver false to all its
promises of reform, we find that the of
ficials of the party, whenever they are
in the state, are engaged in petty squab-
bles as to who shall be county chair
man in Arapahoe county, instead of at
tending to those duties they were elect
ed to discharge
The government of this state and the
city of Denver has demonstrated this
incapacity to such an extent that the