Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-10
CLASS DISTINCTION


 Joyed wedding some days ago. There was nothing strange in the fact of the wedding. It was one of those inevit- able things to which families ar Iia- ble. Families with daughters in them are often thus disrupted, and families with nothing but sons are prone to be recipients of new members. Alr Hanna's wedding for his daughter showed the best side of him, and it prospered him in reputation, as fath- CTS are in the habit of winning com mendation when there comes to them the opportunity of revealing what they think of daughters. MT Hannas we'd ding, however, had a national aspect, and 1t is from the public point of view that we wish to consider it for a mo- msant.
 For the wedding was a great poiiti- cal event. Somehow the bride and the bridegroom disappear, and we see the president arriving, walking with MT Hanna in the cool of the morning, hear him call the statesman of Cleve- land Uncle Mark" and watch him, on his return, join with Uncle Mark" Senators Hale and Kean, and other gentlemen of good political fortunes, on the back piazza. The occasion was nothing; the event was everything. The pilgrimage of the president and of the other mighty men was the recog- milton of the festivity as that of the leader of the party.
 It was natural that republican poii- tics should drift into society, and it was appropriate that the Hanna we'd ding should be a political affair. It is doubtless pity, and it will be ex- ceedingly regretted, that the blushing bride and the strong bridegroom should so completely disappear What was obvious was the gathering of the poli- ticians and the character of the event became of secondary importance. It might as we'll have been a convention or q reorganization plot" as a we'd ding. However, that may be, the con- clusion is clear that, at last, the re- publican leaders stand apart as class and that their social functions are among the most important functions of the party. MT Hanna is not only the political but he is the social lead CT of his party. The president ought to be, but so far he has not been, and probably will not be, for the simple reason that he is not as rich as the practical leaders of his party. MT Roosevelt comes nearer to social lead ership than any other president, but that is because, unlike most presidents, he is used to the ways of society.
 The new phase is, in the end, that q republican society has grown up with lnonarchial limitations. It was cer- tain that this would be one of the con sequences of the fostering of a class. It has been the aim of the republican party, of late years, to breed and main tain class interest, and, in turn, it has depended for it's political fortunes on that interest. Tn it's early days the republican party was an organiza- ton with distinct moral purpose and very soon its leaders and its politicians were at the front in the great civil war. It's idealists died or separated from it, and its selfish sef-seekers re- ,mained. Reconstruction days bred vice enough for any two parties, but the tariff bred even greater vice, and, besides, built up a class. This class, starting from the foundations, be- came rich, and was then ambitious cf terror with which we inspired the mon COuLlhCAL OA A1utOpCy gave tO this class new impulses, encouraged half-concaled desires, bred a love of splendor in it's members; and so we have a new uniform for the army, pre- cedence for civilians, and politico- social life which is reminder of the ways of Mother England. Perhaps the fashion starts a little late on this side of the water, and perhaps the re- publican leaders are a little too much like the useless and inn potent "Old Wings of George ITS time, but we have the imitation, for good or i'll, and the class which the republican party has con- structed with money favors from the public treasury is now entering upon that social course which is still rem iniscence on the other side of the wa ter In time, we may see the presi- dent making the rounds of the coun- try houses of his party's social and DO litical leaders, just as the queen used to pay visits to the whig nobility when with Melbourne, or to the tory nobil- ity when she was exerting her royal influence for Peel when he was trying to repeal the corn laws, or against l Gladstone when he was intent upon looking after the affairs of England and upon leaving liberty to have her sweet way among foreign countries.- Harper's Weekly.