Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-11-19

TO Roosevelt and gave INN a majority
which does not under ordinary circum-
stances belong to the republican party.
In other words, the personality of Mr..
Roosevelt and the unpopularity of Mr..
Parker's environment carried into the
republican columns vast multitudes of
men who under ordinary circumstances
would not be found there.
my own plans for the future en-
brace complete organization of the
people along the lines of Jeffersonian
democracy, the ,re-establishment Of re-
form and systematic propaganda of
sound principles, in order that in 1908
there shall be party of genuine oppo-
sition to the republican party and its
present policies. If political history
teaches anything it is that all parties
never accomplish any reform unless
they are irresistibly driven to it by pres
sure without. hope at least to be of
some use to my country in aiding those
who will apply that pressure. 1t is i'm
material to me who does the work
which the reformers want done, so that
the work itself is done.
81 have no faith what ever that re-
forms will be accomplished by the dem
ocratic party. 1t is discredited in. the
eyes of the people by series of crush
ing defeats, but it has been so vaccil-
lating in its course, it has changed its
prime iples so often, has run from one
extreme to another so recently, had
such magnificent opportunity in 1892
to work out the reforms to which 1t
stood pledged and made such wretched
use of that opportunity that it cannot
inspire the confidence which leads to
success. Since 1902 the democratic
party has almost entirely boxed the
compass in POLITICAL professions of faith.
1t has been for pretty much everything
until this year when it stood for every
thing or nothing, according to the in
depreciation which the voter choose to
put upon its ambiguous platform. For
the next four years the democratic creed
must remain with the st. Louis conven-
ton of 1904 and the machinery of the
party must remain in the hands of the
men who now hold it. The air still rings
with the eloquence with which Mr. Bry-
an endorsed the candidate of the st.
Louis convention, spoke of him as the
Moses of the democracy; spoke of Par
ker's ideals as his own ideals and pro-
claimed the sincerity with which he
was advocating both the platform and
the nominee of 1904. Mr.. Bryan will
himself remain for four years as much
bound by the action of the st. Louis
convention as he was when he made his
whirlwind trip through Indiana. The
election did hot release. him. He can
only be released by another national
convention and the national convention
will not meet till 1908.
''In short, the democratic party has
this hopeless situation: The Bryanites
can not drive out the plutocratic ele-
ment, the plutocratic element can not
drive out Mr.. Bryan. They exhaust
their strength with internal struggles,
leaving the party where its enemies can
always defeat it at the polls. There is
this further weakness in the program
of Mr.. Bryan. The plutocratic element
has shown that it can safely defy him
and combat him although he is the nom
inee, whereas he submits to them when
they put up a plutoeratic nominee.
From party so hopesly divided it is
the rankest folly, in my judgement to
expect any reforms. From year to
year it is a dreary round and round of
one faction fighting another faction,
each of which alternately whips the
the other and neither of which ever
whips the enemy.
81 should be only too glad to cooper
ate on parallel lines and honorable terms
with any Jeffersonian democrat like Mr.,
Bryan or Mr.. Hearst or George Fred
Williams 20 accomplish purpose which
is common to us all, and I believe the
best way to assure the final success of
reform movement is for us to build up
a party of Jeffersonian democracy on
solid foundations where unity of senti-
ment goes hand in hand with unity of
purpose and where, therefore, some
hope of accomplishing that which we
we wish to accomplish can be reason
ably entertained. Blythe time the next
presidential election coils around there