The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-01
distinction in important sections of the

dlstinction in important sections of the Union.
 MT. Olney can rest with confidence on | his record as Massachusetts Judge, and as Attorney General and Secretary | Of State in the Cabinet of Mir. Cleveland s | second administration. The work he has done is now seen to have been well done. The positions he took made precedents which subsequent administrations have followed. He is an able, thougntful, a
 firm and a clear and cool-headed man. He lives in Massachusetts, an inalterably Republican State. and the. traditions or superstitions of politics would be against his national advancement in 1904, on tha t
 account. The habit has been to select nominees from States which they can as- suredly or possibly carry. But with near ly every Northern State in Republican hands, and with the negation of full and free voting and the handicap of remem-
 bered rebellion in most of the Southern
 States, the Democratic Party may have
 to ignore tradition or superstition of the
 sort mentioned in the selection of Pres
 idential candidate. MT. Olney is the lars
 est national Democrat today eligible {
 party consideration for the Presidencl
 With such 8 running mate as Governo
 Montague of Virginia or Governor Ay-
 cock of North Carolina, progressive
 statesmen, born since the war or children
 at the time of the war. Richard Oiney,
 progressive, would make a very strong
 nominee for the Democratic Party.
 We do not forget that Judge Alton B.
 Parker Is favorably spoken of. He de- serves to be. He is a man of more than
 average abilities, of clean and of gen.
 uine and honorable Democratic record
 and convictions. The Eagle wished that
 he would run for Governor ip 1902, when
 he could have been elected. His npmina- ton was prevented by his own inaction, and that reduced the measurement of his running strength to the figures of the election of 1897. Examination does nCt alr. frr S.l hI Fa.
 Examination of them was sure to De made, and, therefore, The Eagle made IF in advance of It's contemporaries, in or der that they should study Judge Barker under no illusions Upon Judge Paker shadow of David B. Hill. If that shadow can be diSpelled. the Judge will be the gainer by the fact. If it cannot, he will be hurt by the fact. MT. Hill does not possess the confidence of the Democracy of the State of New York or of the United States. Judge Parker Is entitled to a bet idweas of Cleveland Whitney, Olney and mind as MT. Hill's preference or candi- date. His best friends will be those who can abolish that classification.
 But The Eagle Is not, today, entering or retiring men with reference to 1904. It Is gratefully noting the disposition of the Democratic Party to recur to the Shepard. That recurrence should offset any tendency to compromise with Bryan ism, and any further tendency to take refuge in sheer opportunism under pro- fessional politicians of decayed repute. While Republicanism carried nearly ey- erything before 1t in 1902, it succeeded in several States by bare pluralities only. Happily Republcanism will be respon- sible for the national administration and for Congressional action. as well as for the government of decisive States for at least two years to come. That will show, as 1t is already showing. that the party Is scanned with divisions that Is failing to reassure, in important particulars. the conservatism of the country, on the one hand, while tentatively and teasingly toy ing with it's radicalism on the other This should inure to the advantage of the Democracy. But that party ought not t2 rely upon the blunders or confusing am bitions of its opponents so much as upon the wisdom-which is veritable neces- sity-of brushing its demagogues, plum derers and time-servers aside, and of re- curing to the advice and to thS leader ship of men who always brought to 1t victory with honor, when they were in trusted with the elucidation of its prin- cipies, the selection of It's candidates and tho projection of Its policies.