The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-13

/ mOcracy has been not merely beaten,
| but demoralized. 1t has been stricken
| with deadly paralysis a has been
| helpless in the face of such opportu-
mites as an insolent and reckless dom
/ lnent party. drunk with power, never
! offered to an opposition before? How
are we 10 diagnose its disease.
Perhaps the trouble may be described
as fatty degeneration OF harmony.
Harmony is good thing in modera-
| ton. but the Democracy has had too
| much of it. 1t has sacrificed too much
of principle, of unity, or heart. and of
! lighting energy, in holding together
men who do not belong together. 1t
| has lived in abject terror of split.
A split is what it needs. The party
will never be larger until it is smaller.
When it sloughs off some of its dis
eased tissue it may hope for a healthy
growth.
American Politics and American
Issues.
Until the campaign of 1SS0-the time
when Republican politician said that
| there was zone more president in the
bloody shirt" - American politics
turned on purely American issues. The
parties were coherent and energetic be
cause each held a definite position on
those issues, acceptable to the bulk of
its own members. The questions IN
dispute being purely political, not So
cial, farmers laboring men and cor
poration magnates could and did be-
long to either party without any sense
| of incOngTuity. But from 1880 on
( ward American politics underwent a
revolution. 1t gradually aseimilated it
self 10 the politics of the world.
Now. in the civilized world of the
! twentieth century, there are two fun
damental parties. more or. less con-
scioUsly organized in the various states
the conservatives, or reactionaries, on
one side: the liberals. or progressives,
on the other. The Republican party
I in the United States has found its place
in the world movement. IL has def
nitely ranged itself as the american
conservative party-the party of reac-
ton, of class privilege. of government
for the profit of special interests. II
has converted, frozen out or silenced
! all its liberal elements. 1t has made
, former free traders like President
Roosevelt talk protection. 1t is a def
mite, coherent entity. under complete
command AS Secretary Hay happily
said: THE Republican party is the
ship"-a pirate Sship, it is true-''all
else is the sea"
But while the place of the conserva-
tive party is thus filled. the opposite.
the Liberal place, is still vacant. Ii
belongs naturaliy~to the Democracy,
but the Democracy has not yet ven-
tured TO take it. The close of the war
and reconstruction epoch found the
Democratic organization loaded up with
many men who would have no place
in a liberal party-who would never
have joined such d party If modern is
sues had been at the front when their
political affiliations We're formed. Many
! of these men We're and are powerful
| in the Democratic organization. In the
long years OF opposition their lack of
sympathy with the logical tendencies
of the party had caused no great dis
turbance. 1t WAS easy enough for all
kinds of Democrats to fight a force
bin, or even to denounce the war ia
riff in general terms, without saying
what they would put in its place. But
as soon as the party came into COM
plete control of the government. as il
did for the first time in 1898. it was
necessary TO carry out a policy, and
then the trouble began. No sooner had
Cleveland swept the country on a plat
form OF radical tariff reduction than
Senator German tiptoed TO Washington
and said that the party must be CON
sentative" Ex-senator Davis insisted
coal mines. Senator Murphy looked
out for collars and cuffs. Even Mr..
Cleveland, through Secretary Carlisle.
warned congress that it would be well
to be just a little cautious about sugar.
The Democratic party was badly dis
| credited by the WILSON, German tariff
episode. but it could have been gradu-
ally worked into a healthy condition
but Cor frightful blunder on the part
- \
pressing for a truly liberal policy, as
opposed TO the reactionary policy of
the Republican junkerbund, they al
lowed themselves TO be led off upon
a free silver sidetrack. Now, free sill
| yer is no part of a liberal creed. II
has no connection with progressive re-
forms. In Europe bimetallism is. or
was when it was alive. the fad Of To-
ries, Agrarians and Reactionaries. The
Liberal and Radical parties have OPP
posed IL. Its adoption by the Ameri-
can Democracy as once split the party
In precisely the wrong way-not by
cleaving off those inharmonious ele-
ments that properly belonged on the
Republican side. but by driving away
great part Of the brains and consci-
ence of the liberal movement. The par
~ has been trying for eight years 70
live down that mistake, and il has not
yet succeeded. In the attempt it has
| submitted again to leadership of the
un-DemOcratic elements that betrayed
It in 1894. and naturally the results
! have not been inspiring.
What next?
First, the fact must be recognized
that America has entered the world
movement, and that here. as elsewhere.
the politics of the twentieth century
will turn on social questions.
Next. Democrats must clearly realize
that there is BOOM for only one con-
sentative or reactionary party in this
country. and that the Republican party
has definitely secured that place. There
never could be a more conclusive test
of that fact than we have seen in the
campaign that has just ended. Theo-
dore Roosevelt was detested by the
privileged financial interests. In nom
mating ticket recommended by a
member of the Belmont Morgan bond
syndicate. with a multi-millionaire pro-
tectionist for vice president and men,
Der of the sugar trust at the head of
the New York state committee. the
Democrats made the strongest posi-
bic bid for Wall street support. But,
after a moments hesitation. Wall
street realized that the Republican par
~ was its own party, and ii accepted
il, Roosevelt and all rather than risk
an unexceptionable Democratic ticket
with what It described as ''the Huns
in the background" After that there
can be no crazier rainbow-chasing than
20 try 10 undermine the Republican
party in the affections of high
finance" The Republican party. is part
of 1.-The system and there is no more
use in grumbling at the fact than at
the procession Of the equinoxes.
Since it cannot he The conservative
party, wat is the logical thing for the
DenlocracE to do2 Obviously. to be the
liberal party. TO do this il must rec
nIt.ile iIsalf To tho loss &c cert :. r,