Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-06
MIR. Olney's Letter.
BOSTON % Court st. August

Dear Sir: have yours OF the 12th uitlmo.
You refer to a previous conversation IN
which 1 had intimated my intention to vote
the democratic ticket at the coming presi-
Dental election and ask for the grounds for
SO doing. You urged at our interview that
such a decision should, as matter OF duty,
be accompanied by a willingness to avow
the reasons behind it. l recognize the force
of that view, and though 1t Is against my
inclinations and habits, I proceed to state
some considerations which seem to me to
Justify the purpose have formed.
1 need hardly say that Mr.. Bryan Is not
| the candidate I should choose could have
my way in the matter. and that entirely
dissent from parts of the Kansas City plat
form
But in laying his course upon the all-im-
portant subject of the presidency citizen
is bound to bear in mind that he is dealing
with a practical matter, and must seek the
best practical results through such legiti-
| mate practical methods as are available.
Parties cannot be ignored for example, be-
cause ours is government of parties: the
| real issue is which of them shall control,
and individual effort independent of party
must at best be abortive, while 1t may
further the success of the worst party in
| the field. So the choice between the parties,
one of which must certainly prevail, calls
! for the exercise Of the same sound common
sense. Perfection In candidate or plat
form is an idle dream, and infirmities in its
| creed and defects in its leadership will al
ways characterize every party. But they In
| signed part in the government of the coun-
try-from making up his mind what the
common veal demands and what partys
success will come nearest satisfying the de-
mand, and from using his influence and
| casting his vote accordingly. If one citizen
may properly withhold his vote, logically
all may, and all the wheels OF government
be stopped, while to decline voting because
| practically assured that others will vote
| is but to give the latter an undue share of
political power and to forfeit the right to
| complain of any abuse of it. The obliga-
tons of citizenship are avoided. not per-
| formed by standing neutral in an election.
| The voting power is trust which calls for
| use and is violated by the neglect to use.
There Is always choice between the con-
SEQUENCE Of one party's .ascendancy and
those OF its opponent, and therefore the
| true question before every citizen always is
| of the general attitude of party upon the
vital issues Of the day, and whether in view
| Of that attitude, its success is not the best
thing In sight. Such is the real issue now
| admitted that the democratic party. it's
| platform and its candidate are open to
! much just criticism, yet all things consid-
| cred, would not its triumph be the best out
| come OF the present presidential contest?
Excrescence ON Republication.
In my Judgment 1t would be. In my
| judgment nothing is now so important as
! that the American people should take this
their first opportunity to emphatically pro-
|
republicanism which may be called McKin-
! leyism-a term used solely for brevity and
| not because Mr.. Mckinley is largely re-
sponsihle for what it comprehends, except
as he has proved himself unable or unwil-
| ling to resist the pressure of political and
| personal friends or to Withstand the temp
/ tatOn of trimming his sails to every wind
! of apparently popular doctrine. 1t may
not be feasible to undo what has been done
the weakest and sillest of administrations
! involve N yac
/ from which the strongest and wtsest may
| not be able to extricate it. Nevertheless
| the evil courses pursued should be con-
! demned and not condoEed The future may
| be helped and safeguarded even IL the past
| Is remediless. while, so far the inju-
| rious consequences of past courses can be
| averted or mitigated, something may be
! hoped from those not primarily responsible
| for them. From their official authors and
| justifiers nothing but persistence in them
| can reasonably be expected, and, should
McKinleyism prevail in the pending cleo
| ton. who shall say-in view of the admins
| tration's proved capacity for reversing it.
| self-that We shall not soon find ourselves
| in the tolls OF a Chinese problem even more
| costly, menacing and insoluble than the
Philippine problem itself? Surely every ar
| gument urged in defense of our seizure Of
| the Philippines can be used a second time
| with even greater force. to justify our ap-
preparation of slice of China.
To support the conclusion to which have
| come 1t is only necessary to consider what
McKinleyism stands for-what Is the nee
| essary effect Of indorsing it-what it will
| record themselves as approving the Nc
| kinley administration and all its works
Presidency From the Capitalists.
First-It will mean that the American
| people sanction a syndicated presidency-a
| presidency got for the republican party by
| the money of a combination of capitalists
| intent upon securing national legislation in
aid Of their particular interests.
| Second-It will mean that the American
| people approve the legislation thus obtain
| ed and justify such legislation the Ding
ley tariff bill, with all its devices for taxing
| consumers and wage earners-that is, the
| great mass of the people-in exoneration Of
| accumulated wealth.
| Third-It will mean that the American
| people uphold the policy of greed and con-
| tempt for alien peoples whose retributive
| consequences are seen in recent events In
China; approve of our joining the ranks of
international land grabbers. and sanction
| the rapacity well as folly by which,
| while pretending to buy, we, in fact. forci-
| bly, expelled Spain from her Philippine pos
sessions and, without excuse either in the
| demands of national honor or in consider
atoms of the national interest, have sad
died ourselves with the gravest response
| bilities for some eight or ten millions of
| the savage or at best half-civilized brown
people of the tropics.
Fourth-It will mean that the American
people approve the tactless and brutal pol
| icy pursued since the Philippine acquisition
was made. whereby what was pressed upon
| the country as treaty of peace was, in
| fact. but the signal for another more cost
| ly. bloody and prolonged war.
Fifth-It will mean that the American
people approve the extraordinarily fatuous
policy or impolicy, or no policy at all, by
which the Philippine archipelago. many
thousands of miles from our shores. be-
comes an integral part of the United States,
while Cuba, the cause and inspiration of
| the war, lying right at our door. the key
/ to the Gulf OF Mexico, and absolutely es-
sential to our defense against foreign at
! tack, is declared alien territory and entitled
| to all the rights of an Independent sover-
| eighty.
| Abdication Of Power by Congress.
| Sixth-It will mean that the American
people approve an abdication of its func-
| tons by the national legislature which
leaves millions Of human beings outside
| the pale of any recognized code Of law and
| signifies for our new possessions for an in
definite period militarism of the most un-
adulterated sort.
| Seventh-It will mean that the American
people, having in their President the sole
representative Of the nation as a whole
| approve of national executive who fails