The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-08-09
THE REAL ISSUE. Z
Put to Stay Put inthe Presidents
Notification Speech.

Put to Stay Put inthe Presidents
Notification Speech.
In his speech of acceptance President
Roosevelt has put with admirable pre-
icisien the real Issue of the campaign.
| AT bottom the choice offered the voter
! is one between the tried and the un-.
tried, between the known and the UNI
known. The appeal for power made by
| the Democratic party rests neither on
| its record nor on its platform. To for
get the one and minimize the other
| is the chief concern of the managers
of the Parker canvass. These managers
gravely ask the country to waive the
Democratic party's record of amission
and commission and to ignore the sur
renders and silences of its latest con-
fession of faith. They plead with the
Voter to take leap in the dark; for
any promises they make now are to be
Judged and valued in the light Of their
avoWed determination to treat past
promises as null and void In the last
analysis, therefore, Judge Parkers cam
didacy rests on the appeal it makes to
the mese political restlessness, to the
blind and shallow worship of change
for the sake of change.
But, as President Roosevelt conyinc-
lfngly argues, what single public pur-
pose is to be subserved by change for
the mere sake of change? sAssuredly.
he says, t'it is unwise to change the
policies which have worked so we'll and
which are now working so we'll" In
what respect is national efficiency to be
advanced or national prosperity to be
heightened by a shifting of power to
Democratic shoulders? Judge Parker
has promised, If elected, to maintain the
gold standard and to prevent the de-.
basement of our currency system. In
THAT he would be simply honoring Re-
publican policy by honest, If belated,
imitation Could Democratic admins
lstration hope to put our revenue and
tariff systems on q safer and more ad-
lyantageous basis? There is no more
unity of opinion among Democrats on
| the tariff issue than there Is on ques-
| lions of coinage and currency; but
whatever influence Judge Parker could
have, as President with his party in
Congress would naturally be thrown to
the b accomplishment of some such
scheme of tariff revision as the Wilson,
German act Of 1894. Is the country pre-
pared for another venture in ''perfdy
/ and dishonor,' for another tariff Of
Iillogicalities and deficits?
| Could Judge Parker's election be
taken as an earnest of a more vigorous
Exercise Of the Federal Governments
power to restrain Illegal combinations
and trusts? No one who noticed the
singular recrudescence Of State rights
doctrines in the Albany platform can
feel assured that the Democratic can
ldidate for President could bring him
self to violate his Jeffersonian theories
and lay rude hands on a State-Chart-
/ cred trust. Would not Judge Parker,
like Mr.. Cleveland be inclined to let
1.-THE offending corporation go undiscip-
lined and then thank heaven that he
had rid himself Of an embarrassing
prosecution? Could the Democratic
nominee hope to alter to national
advantage our programme in the Philip
pines, in Panama or China? Could he
on any single question, foreign or do
nestle, devise or enforce a change Of
policy likely in the long run to Justify
! itself to the wisdom of the American
people?
/ There IS no evidence that he would or
could Grounds there may be for wish-
| ing a change of administration. The
South's hatred of a policy which still
treats the negro as a citizen is one.
But, beyond that, what rational or suf-
ficient argumert-what argument touch
ling our broader national interests-can
he put forward for a shift in power?
Unrest, curiosity, change for the sake
lof change-these are the true forces
behind the Parker canvass. But the
choice they suggest is not one which
will move the Judgment OF the earnest
and the thoughtful of those who, with
out prejudice or narrowness, seek to
measure the duties of the present and
to discharge those duties with spirit
single to the nations good.-From the
New York Tribune.
4 =.