The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-04-09

IenCc between the platforms of the two
opposing parties i'll the last campaign.
How are we going to get together:
Now this, if ever. is time for plair
speech and definite understandings
There is no need for any man to be
afraid to speak his mind. The next cam
paign is three years away, and this inter
val must be filled full with the frankest
and freest agitation that a great party
has ever known.
| Faithful are the words of friend
and that Democrat is most loyal and
most worthy who does not hesitate in
this vital period to criticise to challenge
and to demand. If the Democratic party
has any chance in the next election. it
lies in the complete separation of itself
from the Republican party. with which
it has grown to intimate And we can
not separate from the Republican party
until We separate from the Republican
Democrats who have led us into bad
company.
Let the fellows who do not believe in
the things for which Democracy stands
go away to some other party. Don't be
afraid to let them 60 For every man
who deserts the party of the people be-
cause it stands for the people there will
be found a hundred who come in.
We are now compelled to separate the
democratic Democracy from the pluto
cratic Democracy. Oil and water can
not any longer survive half-plutocratic
! and half-democratic
1t is high time for reorganization Of
parties in the Republic, anyway. There
are Democrats who ought to be Republi-
cans, and Republicans who ought to be
Democrats. Let these men find their po-
litical level. Let them seek the camps
to which they belong. Don't be afraid.
Go where your convictions lead you. If
you are not a Democrat don't be false
to your political conscience. but go right
on to the Republican camp. If you are
not Republican, and your interests lie
with the Democratic party. come right
in to the fellowship of your real faith
and your evident welfare. The curse of
all parties is the compulsory loyalty that
comes from environment or heredity.
The Democracy and the plutocracy have
a great battle which must be fought out.
Let us fight it honestly and let us have
no half hearted Or lukewarn followers
in either camp.
There is no use to get mad about it.
There is no way to drive the Republican
Democrats out of the party. The only
thing to do is to commit the party to
principles and platforms so essentially
Democratic that their fellows will have
neither motive nor excuse for remaining
We will never have real Democratic
party representing the majority of the
American voters until these fellows go.
We can never sail into port until we
unload this ballast
have sometimes asked myself wl1eth-
er the Democratic party must die before
lit can be born again.
| might find it easy to quote history
to prove that no party so radically dl-
!vided as ours ever came into effective
harmony again without a burial or a
revolution. 1t was so with the Free
Soil party 1t was so with the Demo
cratic party which split into fragments
at the Charleston convention of 1860 and
never came together until civil revolt
ton had washed away its antagonisms in
blood.
But we can not afford to die now The
South is held intact by the shadow of
negro balance of power, real or lmag-
mary. The party at large is held to-
gether by the fact that the real Den1oc-
racy is essential to individual and pop
ular liberty. and because no other party
of possible relief looms upon the horizon
except in creeds so radical that the
thought and judgment of the people is
not ready to receive it.
And we must not die now. The Dem
ocratic party is worth fighting for and
worth living for. Its principles can
never die. and its organization along nor
NAL and traditional lines is too vital to
the people and their interests.
Least of all can we who love the grand
old party stand by and see it go down
to even temporary disintegration without
a brave and honest effort to reform its
broken lines, to redeem its drift from the
faith the fathers, to bring it back to
the old creeds of the people, to rebuke
its enemies within its ranks, and at the
cost of all the truth. and all the cour-
age. and all the criticism which its er-
rors may require, to rally once more the
great people who are its faithful follow
ers, and to carry it once more to whole
some and glorious victory
JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES.
MODEL GARDEN AND TRUCK
FARM y