The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1902-07-31
PARTY REFORM
Can Come Only ey Fighting Outside
Party Lines.


Party Lines.
The I.inesville (Pa.) Herald, edited
by Hon. II. d. Lowing. recently con-
tained the following editorial, which is
full of good sense Mr.. Lowing was
formerly a Republican member of the
legislature, but of late years has re.
fused, like a great many other con-
scientious Republicans. to lend his
sanction to a party which no longer
represents his honest views:
Sometimes. perhaps, a party may
be reformed from the inside, but it
will be difficult for anyone to point to
a case where it has been done. 1t is
a vain hope which some good men in.
dulge in. Reforming a party from the
inside is like man trying to lift
himself out of the mud and mire by
his boot straps.
THE only way TO get rid OF rings
and political schemers is to turn them
down, even If you have to turn down
some good men with them. To do this
by forming a new party requires po.
litical upheaval amounting to revo-
luton.
Generally the only practical way to
accomplish any good is for the indie
pendent men, who care more for good,
honest government than they do for
party success, is to swing boldly over
to the other side; then one man counts
as much as two who by way of pro-
test, vote for a party that cannot elect
anyone.
THE men who always vote their
party ticket, right or wrong, are a
part of the machine as much as the
bosses who make the nominations and
shape the policy of the party. The
procession that follows the band
wagon wherever it goes are as much
a part Of the machine as those riding
in the box and doing the steering Re.
publicans are not voting now for
Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens,
Governor Curtin, John p. Hale and
Charles Sumner, nor for the principles
of self government and civil liberty
for all men. which those men carried
out.
THE Republican party is controlled
by men as unlike the patriarchs of the
Civil War as Jefferson Davis and
Howell Cobb were unlike Jackson.
Jefferson and Madison.
'In the ffties the Democrats and
Wings were not all pro-slavery fanat-
les and many of them stuck to their
old parties hoping TO reform them from
the inside, but those in office. with
the influence and money of the Cotton
Kings to back them, were too much
for all the good men when divided,
and pushed the people into war and
revolution.
while good Republicans are wait.
ing for reform on the inside those in
control are waging a cruel and wicked
war of conquest, laying waste the best
settled and best civilized portions of
the Philippine Islands, where the best
educated and most Christian inhabit-
ants are aspiring for independence and
self government. At the same time
they are in league with despotic Sui
tans, paying them out of the treasury
and supporting them in their slave.
holding imperialism.
rs the flag of liberty that floats
over the palace and harem and slave
pens of the Sultan ito stay put" un.
til the Republican party can be re-
formed from the inside?
Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts,
and one or two Republicans in the
house were the only Republicans in
congress who had the humanity and
courage to protest against the con-
tinuance of the unrighteousness war
upon those who had broken the Span
ish power and were setting up for
themselves.
Must this unjust war of subjugation
go on until these half dozen, or less.
reform the party from the inside. or
will men assert their independence
and break away from the control of
the bosses and support men in other
parties who believe that all men have
rights too sacred to be trampled under
foot by conquering armies"