Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-11-14

leading-and for long time. however
prodigal and iniudicious that party
leading may be-need not be told any
thoughtful American. We are upon
the ascending. not the descending.
scale OF national development. But. it
must ar length be conceded that the
world-power idea. joined TO the com
mercial spirit. has taken complete
possession OF the popular fancy.
The younger voters are with the
snowy Roosevelt. not with the sober.
substantial Parker. They would rather
go ont in quest OF adventure and
trade. with the big stick" for a point
er. than stay at home. leaving well
enough alone. listening TO the voice
OF tradition and cultivating the do
nestle virtues. The warning OF his
tory. the admonitions of the Fathers in
Israel. are Greek 10 them. They want
riches. and they are not very squeam-
ish just how they shall get riches
either for themselves or the nation.
Let us not deceive ourselves. For
veal or for woe. the plutocracy. so
much dreaded. is in the saddle, and
until some new conceit advances 10
the foreground, or some dire convul
sion overtakes the people. it is likely
To hold its own. Placed by this cleo
tion in position greatly to strengthen
itself. to entrench itself, as il were.
in power. We may take il for granted
that il will not fail to- do this: for the
money devil is unrelsnting and repub-
licanism is his vicegerent. Having
Icase-hardened. if it has not debauched
the masses TO very loose notions about
money-getting through the pension
system and protective tariff. why
should il not proceed TO barricade its
majority in the congress and the cleo
toral college by reducing the represen-
tation of the solid south under the pre-
tense of an alleged constitutional re-
quirement equaliZing the suffrage?
Every sordid interest will demand
this: and having its own platform
pledge for it's authorization. we may
be sure that will be the first leading
measure OF the republican program
under the new dispensation.
The south. let us hope. will be able
to outlast even a reopening of the old
sectional agitation, whether this as
sails its racehood. or it's representa-
ton. From Theodore Roosevelt we
ask no quarter and expect none. He
is infinitely a worse enemy of the
white men and women of the south
than many of the radical leaders of the
past. because not only that he enter
tains certain crude experimental ideas
about the negro, the testing of which
will prove hurtful both To the blacks
and the whites. but also because. per
verted by the sense OF being renegade
to- the southern blood that courses in
his veins. there burns within him the
blind intolerance of the bigot. keeping
alive and warming the hatred of the
man in the wrong. Infinite harm he
has done already. More of the same
sort we expect. Ii is. however. Il long
lane that has no turning. and. used
to evil influences and Injured TO i'll
treatment. the people of the south
will more than ever turn to the de-
velopment Of their material resources
throwing themselves back the while
with simple, child-like confidence up
ON the wisdom of that God of whom il
hath been said that whom He loveth
He chasteneth.' who can rise up as
He hath come down. and who doeth all
things well,
There will be perhaps some criminal
ton and recrimination among the
democratic party managers TO account
for this defeat. and we will be sure to
have number of quack nostrums To
cure IL. The CourieT-Journal at least
viii take no account. nor any stock in.
any factionism. There was an I'M
doubted lack of firmness in the demo
cratic grasp upon the situation from
the first. and all along. In the outset.
Judge Parker tried TO mend this by
his famous telegram. In the end. he
tried vainly TO recover il by his
speeches. One steady. consistent. unit
ed onset upon the republicans. begun
At St Louis and kept up until the
close. gaining volition af the campaign
advanced. might have availed: but the
quibbling. incertitude and self-ex-
ploitation OF the eastern press-which
probably could have been held to no
definite line of policy. however sin
cere and enlightcned-would have
beaten the ticket. and accounts for
the ground-swell in that immediate re-
gion
Happily the world does not end with
this election. There shall still be
crackers and cheese. if not cake and
ale. Myriads of Americans have but
an abstract interest in politics: the
concrete things are mainly for the poll
ticians. We have come. indeed, to a
certain parting of the ways. The odd.
simple beliefs are gradually but surely
fading away. Electricity has annihi-
lated time and space. Even politics is
run by machinery. and money runs the
machine. The dynasty in power
recks not the landmarks made by the
path-hnders of liberty, nor heeds the
blazing of the sages as they passed
through the primeval forests of their
bucolic republic: but. under the ever
specious plea of progress" they are
headed for the golden fleece HAVING