The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-11-09
SAFE SANITY
TO The REAR
Radicals Will Now Assume Con-
troll Of the Democratic
-. Party.
LAMENTABLE WEAKNESS
OF JUDGE PARKER
Some of the Results that Will
Flow from the Tidal
Wave. ..
BY w. w. Jermane.

Washington, Nov. 9.-The "safe and
sane' democracy has been as great a
failure as the Bryan democracy, which
led to defeat in two campaigns. It
1904, and lost by margin that must
carry CONSERVATION into the ranks of
its thinking men everywhere.
The effect on the party, as a whole, Of
three successive overwhelming defeats
must be disheartening and demoralizing
the careful st udent of politics.
The party is not in nearly as good
condition today as it was after the
Bryan campaigns, for the stimulating
trend toward conservatism set in almost
Immediately after the 1900 election,
climax This year at the St. Louis con.
NVentlon, whose work it was hopefully
believed would bring about the perma-
nent rehabilitation of the party and
make, it once more a real factor in ma
t tic; "a affairs: Now, however. the
ism, with Bryan and Hearst as the lead
ers, and this may so discredit the organ
lzation as to undo the work of the past
four years, and bring about a fourth
overwhelming republican victory in
1908.
There is nothing in this prospect that
should invite the applause of any pa
triotic citizen, no matter what his po1it-
ical affiliations Broadly speaking, those
states are the best governed that are
the closest politically, and by the same
rule the general government, in the long
run, is best administered when the bal
ance between the two great parties is
most perfectly preserved.
What Dems Hoped For.
The leaders Of the democracy did not
60 into the campaign this year expect
t,,rr 10 rxr,n h,,E * h.
gin forward movement all along the
line. They expected that while Roose-
welt would be elected, he would carry a
number of states, republican, by large
pluralities in 1896 and 1000, by such
narrowed margins as to indicate a
that their own candidate would have a
plurality Of the popular vote. Such a
state Of affairs would have put the
democracy in fine form for the off year
campaign of 1906, and might have
given it the house of representatives in
it's momentum, and carried it with high
hopes into the presidential campaign
two years later. Judge Parker, of
course, would have been it's candidate
on the record he would have established
this year.
Radicals In the Saddle
All these expectations have been
dashed by the tidal wave that has just
swept over the country. The democra.
cy will now approach the campaign Of
1906 in hardly as good form as it ex-
hlb1ted two years ago, and in 1908, as
the result of the contest between the
radicals and the conservatives, about to
be renewed with increased bitterness, I,
will be rent and torn in a thousand
pieces. The existing party feuds had
their, origin eight years ago. A good
run by Parker this year, would have
buried them out of sight, but his disas
trous defeat will be the signal for thei1
revival. In the light of the election
results, nothing has been done this
year to bring about even a semblance
Of harmony.
If Parker had done as we'll as hi
friends had planned he would do, New
York, Indiana, West Virginia, Connec
tlcut, New Jersey and perhaps othe1
states of the north, together with sew
eral in the far west, would be found to
day in the democratic columns, the re
publican majority in the electoral col
lege would be small and there would b,
q. tremendous falling off in the repub
llcan popular vote, as compared witt
the Mckinley years. This would hav
insured conservative leadership in 1905
left the radicals no excuse for tryin
to stir up trouble, and made the outlooi
for victory brighter than it has bee,
since 1892.