Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1904-01-27

IN government as so many years OF
forei~n wsr; that already we have
had forty years Of comparative peace
In It's COS 49, TO all this add the
nitrogen II vaaa's mental and phyeicat
makeup, ard here is a group of facts
to-suggest the profoundest ponderin.y:
facts that should stir us to the deepest
solicitude.
discomfort Is the Issue.
Here is suggested the one thing
that challenges the intelligence and
the patriotism on the editorial tripod
more persistentiy and more emphati-
cally than any other-discontent; not
the discomfort that is back of all pro-
gress; not the discomfort that, dissat-
isfied with self, becomes a spur to adj
ditional effort, but the discomfort that
looks outside of self for what must be
within or not at all; the discomfort
that looks to laws and institutions for
the elements Of success; the discon-
tent that expects of government what
no government can provide; discon-
tent already infamed to an abnormal
constituencies; the discomfort that
would tear down what we have in the
vain hope of building more success
fully upon the ruins; the discomfort
that sets forces in motion that after
ward it is unable to control; the dis
content that is ceaselessly demanding
additional rights and privileges and
seldom or never giving a thought to
duties or obligations.
Unquestionably the forces of disin-
tegration are more actively at work
in this country than they have been at
any other time since the civil war.
The dispatches say, for instance. that
the Nebraska prophet of silverism dis
claims being socialist. Names are
of little consequence, but it is true
nevertheless that the teachings of this
same man have done more to make
socialists than to make Democrats,
and it is a shorter step from Organism
to downright socialism than it is from
Organism to the principles of Andrew
Jackson. And for number of years.
whatever the individual voter may
think about it, the organization known
as the Democratic party has done
more to create and intensity a querrl-
lous discomfort than an eager, active
and hopeful Americanisrl and in the
minds of the people it has left more
communism than old-fashioned Jeffer-
sonianism.
Some Notable Tendencies.
And note the tendency Of things
for it is the tendency, after all, that is
most significant. For instance, the
significance of the New York election
two years ago is not that Governor
Odel was reelected by a few thousand
plurality, but that $4,000 American
citizens should stamp their approval
upon a platform that few years ago
would have been regarded as too frag-
lie for even a Democrat to stand on.
And the significance of Ohio last fall
is not that Tom Johnson went down
before a plurality of more than a
hundred thousand, but that Tom
Johnson should be able to control a
Democratic state convention and that
100000 Buckeyes should endorse at
the polls that kaleidoscope of isms
known as Tomjohnsonism-i that
a few years ago would have had no
consideration whatever. And now we
have the spectacle of the Democratic
national committee trying in vain to
run away from Hearstism; trying in
vain to escape the responsibility of a
natural paternity, for Hearstism is
simply the inevitable offspring of the
misalliance between Democratism and
Populism, sometimes miscalled Bryan
ism.
One thing is clear: This trend of
things must be met; it must be fought;
it must be fought intel1igently as well
as courageous1y; it must be directly
aimed at, and it is not sixty seconds
too soon to begin this just now. 1t
must be met and fought with conserv-
atism; not the conservatism of an in
dividual here and there, but organized
conservatism; not moribund conserva-
tism or hating conservatism, but pro-
gressive conservatism; the conserva-
tism that believes in progress but de-
c1ines to lose its head in this twentieth
century swirl of things; the conserv-
atism that believes in Improvement
but at the same time in the saving
grace of common sense; the conserv-
atism that stands for evolution as Op-
posed to revolution, but would quicken
the pace of evolution, just as the far
mer or the breeder by directing the
forces of nature accomplishes results
in a few years or in few decades
what nature left alone would require
centuries or ages for.
Where Is Conservatism?
But where in this country is to be
found this organized progressive con
servativism? The answer is in three
words-the Republican party. If the
Republican party is called upon to face
and cope with the forces of dissolu
ton it will not be the first time and il
it forsees the emergency it will be
only another case of history repeating