The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-31
PARKER FAILS TO
ATTRACT VOTERS
Lack of Popular Interest in Cam.
paign Traced to Democratic
Leader.
BY w. w. Jermane.

BY w. w. Jernane.
New York, Aug. Slit is being !
widely remarked that the campaign
Is backward, that it is not showing
those signs of life which have usu-
ally characterized the latter part of
August in presidential year, and
that the trouble must be with the
people themselves, who are taking
less interest in national affairs than
heretofore.
But it is to the candidates them
selves that we must look for an ex-
PLANTATION. President Roosevelt is
following the unwritten law OF the
land. No president, candidate to
succeed himself is permitted by
our usages to take any part in the
canvass aside from his formal ad-
dress in reply to the committee on
notification, and his still more formal
letter Of acceptance. President Roose-
welt has made the address and the
letter. already written, will be given
September. His attitude Is entirely
regular and correct and meets with
the approval Of both sides.
If the campaign is showing signs OF
insipidity, therefore, and is failing to
awaken that interest which its impor-
lance demands, the fault must lie
with the democratic candidate, Judge
Parker. To the masses of the people
he is a complete abstraction. Since
the famous gold telegram to the st.
Louis convention he has done MOTH
Ing that has attracted favorable atten-
ton. His address of acceptance was
and it caused the New York Sun to
desert his cause. 1t was full Of plati-
tudes, and it's evasions and obscure
ties are almost without number. 1t
shows a lack Of capacity on the part
Of the writer for precise and definite
statement.
Parke1's Ambiguity.
One of it's antiquities Git appears
in the discussion Of the Philippine
question: he has undertaken to make
clear in a prearranged letter to John
G. Milburn. 1t may fairly be asked,
why should his language have have
been so ambiguous as to leave his
meaning uncertain? If he had posi-
tive convictions, why was he unable
to express them? These questions are
being asked, right and left, and the
replies they elicit show that Judge
Parker has suffered a loss Of public
j confidence since his nomination. He
Is a man Of much less force, of much
smaller intellectual equipment, Of
much more moderate mentality than
his friends had given him credit for,
and to this extent he is disappo1nt-
ment. He doesn't measure up to the
presidential standard.
porting him, says of the Milburn cor
respondence on the Philippine mat
ter: There is nothing either in his
speech or in his letter to Mr. Milburn
which would in any other than
needless anti-imperialist mind lead to
the conclusion that We're he in the
White House, he would pursue toward
our possessions in the far east poll
cy different from that pursued by
President Roosevelt"
Here, then lies the explanation for
the failure Of the campaign thus far
awaken general interest. The dem
ocratic candidate is a disappointment.
He is mediocrity personified, The
people of New York are beginning to
understand him, and after a while
that understanding will reach the
middle and the far west.
seclusion a Weakness.
The policy of having Judge Par
ker remain in ESopus during the cam
paign, making no speeches, not show
ing himself to the country, and in a
general way continuing that seclusion
which characterized the weeks and
months of the anteconventiOn contest,
will be a source Of weakness instead
of strength. 1t is doubtful if the
American people Will ever again elect
to the presidency man whom they
do not know personally, and of whose
ability and general fitness they are
not certain. They KNOW Roosevelt al
most as one neighbor knows another.
They don't know Parker any better
than they know the emperor of Ger
many, If they know him as we'll, and
this lack of knowledge will continue
up to election day.
A contributing cause for lack Of in
terest in the democratic side of the
campaign is the personnel of the
democratic campaign committees.
more notorious lot OF trust busters
were never got together by any pO-
( litical party than have been assembled
to manage the Parker candidacy.
They are owned outright by the great
corporations and their every,
thought and desire is In harmony with
corporation interests.
The American populace is aware of
the holloWness Of the pretensions of
these democratic campaign managers,
and the day of reckoning is almost at
hand.
Popular Interest Untouched.
In popular interest the present
paign Is very far behind the cam
paigns from 1888 to 1900, inclusive.
President Clevelands famous message
to congress in the winter of 1887 made
the tariff greater issue in 1888 than
It had been since the civil war. and
the campaign of education which re-
suited had all the freshness and zeal
of religious propaganda. The dem
ocrats were defeated, but the party
was left in condition of great vigor
and full preparedness for the struggle
of 1892. The off-year elections of
1890, following the passage of the Nc
Kinley tariff bill, paved the way to an
other tariff campaign in 1892, and
this time the democrats were success
full. The interest which was taken in
the campaigns of 1896 and 1900 is too
rRIDrer WAN ar nrrrp