Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-11-25
Neal Brown Discusses What Wis
conSin Democrats Should Do.

cOnSIH democrats SdOuLQ DO.
From Mil Journal of Nov 18TH
To the Editor of The Journal: You
ask me for my opinion as TO what the
Democratic party in Wisconsin should
do to prepare for the next campaign
/ am not specially fond of post morfem
Investigations, aid | fancy that what 1
may suggest as 10 our future course
may seem trite. Our party should not
adopt any merely opportunist policies
We should adhere to the axiom that the
people cannot put political party in
power by large majorities with the
assurance of practically an unlimited
lease of power, and expect good gov
erlment.
We cannot have good government
from any political party very long I'M
der such conditions We have had bad
government in this state, and it is likely
to continue. for the leaders of the Re-
publican party are apt to assume that
The endorsement the party has received
sanctions alike It's good and its bad
policies. Our campaign from now on
should be waged against extravaganza
in the expenditure Of public funds,
against the prostitution of the public
offices of the state through the organi-
cation of state officials and employees
into corrupting body of political
heelers and thimble Triggers, and
against the gross abuses in the system
of accounts andlin the receipt and ex-
penditure of public funds that have
grown up In every branch of state gov
eminent We should emphasize the
difference between the economical adj
ministration Of Gov Peck for four
years, and the present lawless and ex-
travagant administration of state
affairs.
The large increase in the expenses of
certain departments of state govern
ment shows conclusively that sinecures
have multiplied, and that the party in
power, intoxicated by repeated sue
cesses, believes that it can remain in
power no matter what it may establish
in the way of bad government.
Our party should continue to adhere
to the doctrines of equal and just taxa
ton announced in the Milwaukee plat
form the present year. The silly propa-
ganda of one faction of the Republican
party that it has discovered and is en-
titled to a patent on this doctrine should
be met with our sturdy protest. Their
attitude is a perverted usurpation of a
principle which has the support of all
good citizens We should favor con-
Sentative and reasonable primary cleo
ton law, not conserving, however, to
any impracticable law proposed by
closet dreamers or by self -seeking poll
ticians who may design to use such a
law to build up their power.
A primary election law must OF neces-
sity be tentative in its beginnings and
proceed along conservative lines until
| trial and experience have finally per
fected it.
We should proclaim with undated
vigor the fundamentals of our creed on
questions of national policy, and oppose
the present excessive protective tariff,
and all subsidies and bounties, or other
form of special privilege. The effront-
cry of Republican leaders in charging
the responsibility for the panic of 1893
to the Democratic party should be met
in argument, with the facts of history;
with the fact that the way for that
panic was paved under the Harrison adj
ministration, by the passage of the
Sherman silver law, by the unprece-
dented exports of gold that took place
all through the year 1892, when the Re
publican party was in power; with the
fact that imports of foreign goods were
greater under the Harrison administers
ton than they We're under the Cleve-
land administration. We should make
of the Republican argument on this
matter two-edged sword, for if the
Democratic party caused the panic of
1898, then the Republican party caused
the panic of 1878 which came when that
party was n power and under a high
protective tariff, a panic which lasted
five years, and that was in all of its
aspects almost an exact duplicate of the
panic of 1893 Both of these panics
have demonstrated that high protec-
tive tariff will not save us from panics
or from hard times.
NEAL BROWN.