The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-02-04

content that is ceaselessly demanding
additional rights and privileges md
seldom or never giving a thought to
duties or obligations.
PROFESSIONALLY the forces of disn-
.~tegration are more actively at work
In this country than they have been at
my other time since the civil war.
The dispatches say. for instance. that
the Nebraska prophet of silverism dis
claims being a socialist. Names are
Of little consequence, but it is true
nevertheless that the teachings of this
same man have lone 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 a 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 queru-
lous discomfort than an eager. active
and hopeful Americanism, 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, nj that $50, 900 American
citizens should stamp their approval
upon a platform that a 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 vent down
before a plurality of more than a
hundred thousand, but that a Tom
Johnson should be able to control a
Democratic state convention and that
$50, 900 Buckeyes should endorse at
the polls that kaleidoscope of isms
known as Observation-Disclosures 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 i~ntelligently as well
az cOurageOusly; it must be directly
aimed at, and it is not sixty seconds
too sooA to begin this just now. II
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-
clines to lose its head in this twentieth
century swirl of things: the conserv-
atism that belieyes 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 a few decades
what nature left alone would require
centuries n ages far.
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 il will not be the first time and il
1t forsees the emergency it will be
only another case of history repeating
itself. And comes now this army of
the press; these minute men already
summoned to the contest; this other
national guard, these men enlisted not
for three years only but for during the
war if it takes a lifetime; these men
enlisted not for the service of the
sword but for the more needful service
today of the mind and the heart and
the togue and the pen; these men
armed with the weapon that, rightly
directed, is more powerful than the
sword: the weapon that directed by
vigilant and intelligent patriotism may
remove the necessity for the sword in
this or in any other behalf.
And how? To attempt an answer
in detail would be infinite presump-
| ton, but a moment here. In to many
a household what we call out patriot.
ism is tucked away 1853 days in the
year in that dark o that nobody
wants to go to or to stay in; that room
where the shutters are closed, the sun
light shut out and where there is a
musty odor in the atmosphere. Let us
get it out of there every day in the
year and take it into the rooms we live
in, where the plants and the flowers
and the children are, and let us teach
the children to love it and to cherish
II as they love and cherish the other
plants and flowers. The tree in the
open spreads out it's branches in order
to present its leaves to the sunlight.
The tree in the forest shoots up
straight for the same purpose. The
tree derives as much vitality from the
sunshine and from the air as from b
earth, or more. Let us take a lesson
from the tree; let US turn the leaves
OF u patriotism to the sunbeams
every day; then the roots will 60 down
deep. deep in the heart and throbr with