Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-29
DEMOCRATS At SEA
Looking for a Presidential
Candidate.
GORMAN OR CLEVELAND
OPPOSITE POLICIES REPRESENT
ED BY THE TWO MEN.
Judge Parker is Negative Quantity
Westerners, However, Are sus-
picious Of Him.
CORN AN OR CLEVELAND

At this stage of the game Of presidential
politics people talk principally about can
didates and personality counts above policy.
A little later, when the situation becomes
more exigent they will get away from dls-
cussion of men and talk about the meas
ures those men represent. Especially Will
this be true in the case of the democrats.
Up to the present time the democrats are
very much at sea regards measures ana
have not been able to find safe hafpor W
ing up alongside of any man Ihe repuo-
licans for their part have found their man
and 1t happens that in so doing they nave
united upon their party policy as wen.
The republicans occupy essentially
stand pat" position. They stand pat on
their candidate. their minor office holders'
their financial. tariff and other legislative
policies and upon their foreign prosrail H.
They saw I'VE are in. we want 10 stay III
and we reckon we will just keep on ooihs
business in the same old way at the same
old stand as. long our customers are as
satisfied as they seem to be at presen,
The democrats looking over the neio IoI
available candidates, hnd tneir a;ot,na c.le
nolicies which those men represent heie {
are SO many factions in the democ!a.lo
ranks so many to please ina! soniHN NJ,
their leading men think IL may oe 80. &c
ments which make up the once io'
and powerful party.
German and Cleveland.
II thew consider Mr. German they must
draw the platform to suit his we'll known
,,;a,,s or else commit a political solecism.
They know that Mr.. German will stand 1or
everything conservatives: no sweeping re-
duction of tariff. no attacks upon corpora
tions no leaning toward socialism, no single
tax no government ownership, ana many
democrats have, a hankerlhs iot .iose
things Is the great democratic par
ready to clip its soaring pi1loas as. an o,nse
scend to sober and STEADY hgnl cioso
To the grass? Mr. German. they say, mas
wide experience as statesman, a nation,
al acquaintance with democrats Oh aii
shades of opinion and is man y. iiias t1o
leaders But his views on puplc ponSies
are fixed, and the democrats know that
they will have to conform TO them III lheii
platform if they take him.
in advance that they will have TO go 70
the other extreme Of tariff policy, almost
to free trade Since he sent ms memo,apie .
message to Congress In 1891, IN WHICH ne
said. but our present tariff laws, the Vlc-
ious. ineuuitable and illogical source OF un-
necessary taxation, ought to be at once
revised and amended he has never ceaseu
to recommend the throwing down OF tne
the inditng of his letter to MY Dear
Catchings," In which he complained OF the
efforts of the conservative democrats 70
save something from the wreck which the
Wilson bill promiSed-and later 1ulnlleo-
Mr. Cleveland has never ceased 10 De the
uncompromising foe of protectlon
So the democrats. after their first hurry
of admiration for some of the attributes
of character with which they endow him,
come to the cold cosderation of what the
tariff plank must be if they choose Mr.
Cleveland. They know beforehand II must
be an onslaught upon existing tarln law
and remorselessly followed the enactment
of the Wilson bill. Many of them are
Indicating disposition to balk at free trade
and ClevelandiSm.
If they consider man entirely accepta-
BILE to Mr. Bryan, they know full well what
that will mean in the platform. Not nee
essarily reaffirmation of 16 to 1; that buga-
boo is laid, not soon TO be revived: but
they know the class Of men who Will I'M
mediately troop to the front under the
leadership of distinctively, Bryan man,
and they are familiar with the mental pro-
cess of that class. The southern demo-
Gratis loudly protest against the Tom john
sons, the Tom Watsons, the socialists and
the government ownership crowd.
Talk of Judge Parker.
These considerations have led, it is said,
to a great deal of the talk in favor OF
Judge Parker. 1t is pointed out that there
is a man who has no well-defined record
for or against any of the great policies
He has a record for ability of the highest
order for political acumen so far as the
limited opportunities of his position have
enabled him to demonstrate 1t and for
probity of character.
The argument in his favor most often
heard is this: Here is a great big man; /;
he is a democrat and has voted with his
party even when his personal views differ
ed from the party enunciatiOns He WILL II
elected carry out the wishes of his party.
He will make an able and an honest Presi-
dent and will come into office free from
entangling alliances with any faction.
'If we nominate and elect him we can
do 1t on a platform of broad democratic
principles, not pledged to free trade nor to
the opposite extreme to which some demo-
Gratis would take u.s. We can go into Con-
gress and shape our legislation according
to the best judgment of our own people,
Thus far the only murmur uttered
against Judge Parker has come from the
bryan wing. 1t has been but a murmur, a
breath of distrust, not an utterance de-
clarng anything tangible The Bryanites
profess to be afraid of him because of his
association with New York democrats.
Westerners Are Suspicious.
1t is fact known to some democrats that
President Roosevelt thinks Judge Parker
would be the most formidable candidate the
democrats could put up against him. In
stead of that view commencing Judge
Parker to the westerners they see in it a
cause for suspicion. They think Judge
Parker must have some secret understand
ing with the plutocrat, which makes him so
formidable to the trust-busting republican
candidate
Many thoughtful democrats of the east,
and especially of the south, think that the
solution of their present difficulties of selec-
ton will be found in the choosing of can
dilate of Judge Parker's kinda man who
has no avowed leanings toward any of the
specialties of the democracy, but who Is
sound democrat and could be depended
upon to carry out whatever policy the DEM
ocratic party threshes out in convention
and in Congress.