The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1904-10-29
DEMOCRATS OF TWO KINDS
Peculiar Combination with Which the
Malcontents Are Trying
to Win.

A wide chasm divides the two wings of
the democrats. One wing comprises 20
per cent. of the wealth of the party and
80 per cent of ats membership. These
are the radicals led by Bryan and Hearst,
says the Chicago Tribune. They be-
lieve that the government should take
possession of the railroads, the tele-
graphs, the coal mines, and possibly,
also, of the shipping, the oil fields, the
packing houses, and the rolling mills.
The other wing comprises so per cent.
of the wealth and 20 per cent Of the
membership. They describe themselves
as conservatives. They may be more
properly called reactionaries. They be-
lieve that the government should not
middle with commercial enterprises.
They hold that the trusts" (they al
ways use the word in quotation marks)
are the natural outcome of modern So
ciety, and that therefore it is both fool
ish and useless to attempt to interfere
with them, for the minimum of evil re-
sulting from the organization of capital
may be wisely disregarded for the max
imum of good which it brings. The re-
dictionary democrats are led by Belmont,
Hill, German, McCarren, and Thomas
F. Ryan. 1t Is solely due to the efforts
Of these gentlemen that Parker was
nominated, for he had no political
strength of his own. being unknown.
The democrats do not hope that the
gap in principle between the two wings
If hAir he I
is too wide for that. There can never
be agreement on economic questions
between Bryan and Belmont, or between
Hearst and Parker. What the demo-
Gratis hope to do during this campaign
Is to conceal the permanent divergence
Of principle under temporary political
truce made to last until November 9.
The common political ground which
the democrats find is denunciation of
Roosevelt. They attack him from d.
rectly opposite TANKS. The radicals
openly denounce him as trust slave"
The reactionaries covertly decry him
as a trust buster"
Roosevelt Is more conservative than
the radical democrats, and more liberal
than the reactionaries He believes in
government control He believes that
the abuses Of power so evident in the
management of the great industries
should be checked by national action,
and that the first step toward this re-
striction of abuse Is the enforcement
Of publicity upon the doings of these
great enterprises. In the light of pub
licity many Of the most frequent abuses
will automatically disappear. The rest
will become so apparent that the knife
can more easily be applied to them.
The other aspect of the economic
question Is labor. Roosevelt holds that
the organization of labor is the natural
and proper outcome of the organization
OF capital. He also holds that the abuses
OF organized labor should be checked
equally with the abuses of organized
capital. This position is reasonable.
The reactionary democrats, while
protesting that the organization of cap
ital is caused by the present state OF
society. believe that organized labor Is
false ard unnatural growth. And
while they argue that the abuses of or
ganized capital may be disregarded on
the minimum OF evil and maximum of
good" theory, they have strenvously
maintained that the abuses of organized
labor must at all costs be severely