Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-24

OJ O1 4lSII gain. 1t must have a character, for character is as essential in party as it is in an individual. No one will trust an unstable man or one so with out principle that his position upon any moral question cannot be guessed in advance. Neither will the people trust a party that is willing to write into it's platform anything that prom
 ises to catch few votes or strike out of it's platform anything that will al- 1enate few votes. Even if it de- sires to do so our party could not com pete with the republican party in the
 use of money in campaigns or in the deception or coercion of voters, be cause large campaign funds can only
 be secured in return for the promise of favoritism and our people are not III position to coerce. Our party
 must have principles and proclaim them, it must stand by them and de fend them, relying upon it's faith in the righteousness of those principles and upon it's faith in the intelligence and patriotism of the people.
 The struggle between human rights on the one side and greed on the other is an intending one. Our party must take part in the struggle, but that struggle cannot be permanently set tied by this generation or by any fut- ure one. As the children of Israel,
 wandering in the wilderness, could not store bread for the morrow, but, were compelled to gather mamma each day, so the citizen finds it impossible to rest upon the achievments of yes- terday or to frame a government that will run itself. He must labor to-day, tomorrow and while life lasts if he would be secure. He must meet each new problem and examine ench new proposition that is submitted to the people, but in doing so he will employ the same purposes and apply the same general rules. He cannot tell what temptations he may have or of what immediate gain he may have the promise if he will but surrender his manhood, but he knows, if he is an upright man, that he will endeaVor to resist every temptation, and he will determine to forego every advantage that requires a surrender of his man. hood.
 So with our party. We cannot tell what issues we may have to meet; we can only determine to meet them in democratic spirit, to apply to them democratic principles and to take the peoples side always. In 1892 the par amount issue was tariff reform and the democratic party boldly asserted it's demand for tariff for revenue only. 1t fought the campaign and 1t won, but it's majority was so narrow that a few senators, disloyal to the party on this subject, defeated the yer dict of the people rendered at the e.,;1 <Nf4 41l6Nr rs1-xTsf n do all that it promised would not have been so disastrous but for the fact that the Wilson bill, unsatisfactory as it wasftog tariffgreformers, had to bear the sins of a republican financial sys- tenn whichrwas supported by our ad- ministration against the protest of an overwhelming majority of the voters of the party. The defeat of 1894 was more disastrous than any that the par ty has experienced since and it was due to the fact that the administra- tion deserted the people on the money question. In 1896 the money question had forged to the front, made para mount not by the action of the major ity of the democratic party, but by the attempt of a minority of the party to aid the republican party to chain the country to an apprecfating dollar. Without abandoning its position onl the tariff question: the party met this. issue and took the side of the people, In spite of the deseFtfon of many for,q merly conspicuous in it's councils the democratic party boiled million more votes than it had ever boiled before. and would have won but for the in- defensible methods of the republican party, whose leaders held nearly all the protectionist republicans by de- claring the tariff issue to be para mount, notified the wrath of most of the free silver republicans by promis- ing international bimetallism, and won all the advocates of the party to adopt a European financial system. But even then we could have won but for the fact that borrowers were coerced and employees intimidated
 In 1900 the action of the republican party in turning a war commenced for humanity into war of conquest, compelled the consideration of an- other question-a question SO far reaching in it's consequences that our party rightfully declared it to be the paramount issue. Without abandon ing it's position on the tariff question or on the money question it again es- t'SSNh'ONA sue. That it did not win that year was due to conjunction of causes any one of which would have been irlsuf- ficient to have accomplished defeat. The administration haing carried on a brief and successful war feI heir to the enthusiasm which usually attends a victorious conflict; an unexpected increase in the supply of new gold and an unexpected influx of European gold. 1 due to large crops here and famine increased prices. relieved the stress of hard times and gave to the people the benefits that always flow from growing volume of money. While the advantages which followed a large volume of money vindicated the principle contended for by bimetal. lists they were appropriated by the party in power, and those who were influenced by conditions, without at tempting to realize the conditions, gave the republican party credit for an increasing prosperity.
 The protected manufacturers, of l course stood by the administration which had given them Dingley law. Trust promoters and trust magnates, recognizing in the democratic party an