Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-01-06
The Milwaul e, Journal in an
editorial headed Teach us Democra-
cy, (" dise0urses as follows


TEACH Us DEMOCRACY.
The Wausau Pilot says that the spirit
OF the Chicago convention of 1896
snatched Democracy from its deathbed
and infused INTO it new life Was it De-
mocracy which the convention snatched.
or the Democratic party2 Was not that
convention, in the language of its nonIi-
nee, captured by outsiders? Democ-
racy, if VIE have it pat. does not die, and
cannot be ssnatched' or captured
The party's quite another thing: the
name, Democrat, will not save it when
II IA any wise departs fr@I Democracy
But the PILOT has a grieyan &c: it is Gro
yer Cleveland! lteveD charges that Gro
yer defeated tariff reform. Such was
the blnBdercommitted by Mr.. Cleveland
dnrin0 hi~ asst administrator in ignor-
ing and preventing tariff r, ,rm, al
.i.,s.s.u a.. as ehetcu upon that issue'
What nextg The idea of charging
Cleveland with the defeat Of the Wilson
bill and the adoption Of the mongrel bill
# the senate combine which he refused
to sign, is the most absurd thing out
And all the more so when Cleveland's
course is compared with the milk-sop
tariff policy called for by the party which
the PnOT commends The PILOT laws
great stress on the value of campaign
funds: 1t asks which party is to get the
next big campaign contribution from the
trusts, implying that his party may be
bought that way. Is it not then time
that the Democratic party stripped for
the fight, casting off all that weak and
corrupt material which in The PILOT's
opinion clings to it? That material Ger
talnly Is not the Cleveland Democracy
which he ACCUSES of having gone over
TO the Republicans and which certainly
has no control of the party now
But the beginning is TO determine
what Democracy Is; then put the party
on that ground, so that the party name
and the party principles shall have some
reasonable connection. Nosuch steady
coordination has existed as fact for
long time The party has wavered
backed ard filed and evaded on almost
every question for thirty years, till il
jumped clear of Democracy in 1896
falling into the Populist field 1t in-
deed time that the wreckage were
cleared up and the party once more set
on distinctive and solid Democratic
ground Why should The Pilot not
help in finding that ground, instead of
Scolding Cleveland and berating those
who are trying to find the way out?
Whether it was the democratic party,
or democracy, considered as a political
creed, that was saved by the Chicago
convention makes little practical difftr.
ence. Democracy does not die" says
the Journal True; bat of what use is
it, as mere abstraction, with no party
to fight for it, The Journal says, in
effect that the democratic party has not
had democracy for thirty years If
that is true, Of what nse has democracy
been during that thirty years The
Journal might have said, with as much
correctness and as little purpose, that
democracy existed during the middle
ages, or exists in Darkest Africa De-
mocracy must be advocated, and prac-
ticed, or il amounts to nothing
Never mind about Grover Cleveland,
any more, we have our opinion, based
upon facts as to his action concerning
tariff reform, and we can not revise it,
because it is drawn from the facts, and
because national convention of the
democratic party, understood AID in
terpreted the facts just as we do.
The PII.oT lays great stress upon the
value of campaign funds" What the
PnoT said would not warrant an accu-
sation that we are sorry the party had
no campaign fund during the last two
presidential campaigns. The cam
paign funds of the republican party
beat us, to be sure, but it was better to
have lost than to have had hecampaign
funds, at the price paid by the republi
cans. Those two magnificent battles
without campaign funds were some
thing to be proud of, though they were
lost. They were object lessons to the
country, of what could be done without
campaign funds, as against party
whose campaign fund was measured
only by its askings. Let us have plat
form of true democracy first; then if we
can't get campaign funds, let us go into
the hight without them.
Teach rs democracy" says the
journal. We have been trying to teach
democracy, according to our light, to
the best of our ability And we will
keep on trying. But if every one who
calls himself democrat is going to bolt
the party because its platform does not
exactly agree with his own private
views of what democracy is, there is
very little use in any one teaching de-
mocracy The Cleveland democracy"
set us a very bad example in that re-
spect But it is not well to follow bad
examples