The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1905-10-06

the Presidents request, he could direc
the militant forces of Republicanism II
the last campaign, has not been able
to even nOminally surrender the reins
| Of party management, although the
vast responsibilities of the Postmaster
Generalship devolved upon him at the
beginning Of this year.
1t was under the Hanna regime that
permanent headquarters of the Repub
lican National Committee were estab.
lished in Washington. Mr.. Hanna sci
the fashion Of the chairman of the Ma,
tional Committee settling quarrels be
tween warning factions, quarrels that
threatened so to disrupt the party be
tween campaigns as to seriously darken
its prospects in intervening State, Con.
gressional and city elections.
The Democratic National Commit
tees headquarters are nominaily in the
offices of Chairman I. T. Taggart, in
Indianapolis, though much of the work
of that organization is still done in
New York by August Belmont and VIM.
f. Sheehan, the leading members of the
Executive Committee in the last cam
paign. AS the Democrats have no Fed
eral patronage to dispense, the work
that falls to Messrs. Taggart, Belmont
and Sheehan is of a purely advisory
and supervisory character, 1t goes
without saying, of course, that the Hon.
William j. Bryan has very great infu-
ence in the decisions as to policies,
even though he is clothed with no Off
cial authority.
The organizations next in Importance
to the National Committee are the
State Committees. In each of the forty
five States both of the old parties main
tain central committees, whose func-
lions within their respective jurisdie-
tions are similar to those of the Ma
tional Committees.
The Congressional National Commit
tee stands next in the line of our mill
tant political system. These commit
tees are of comparatively recent origin,
and are logical development of our
party government system. Each party
in Congress selects its own committee
in caucus in Washington usually just
before the expiration of the Congress
then in session. Each committee in
turn selects its officers, who, as a rule,
are members OF the House. Both of
these committees have permanent head
quarters in Washington, from which
are LuOSG
struggles for control of the House of
Representatives. Attached to each
is a corps Of salaried assist |
ant secretaries, stenographers, etc.
City, ward, county and precinct COM |
State legislative and senatorial |
Congressional committees in
each district of the States, judicial dis
Lrict committees, not to mention the |
myriad host of political clubs of mush- |
room growth and others of stable life |
and permanent habitations, complete a
line of political organizations that |
ramify every avenue of our activities
and are in the wool and web of our ma
.ional life.
Nearly every candidate for President
Keeps always in his employ-rarely, of
course, avowedly-a well-organiZed ma
.hine, usually headed by one or more
ilert and enterprising press agents and
seconded by practical politicians rang
ng in the social scale from the highly
corporation president to the
ward worker. These pri-
rate machines are grinding from the
lose of one Presidential campaign to
he opening of the next. In a word,
70 numerous are the political organiZa
lOIlS, 81 NdIlSu are uuCLhOho, OO
lnceasing are their activities that the
american voter finds it virtually impos-
ible to escape surveillance.
With all this marvellous perfection of
'olitical machinery, however, it is
worthy Of note that at no time in the
ecent history of the United Staes has
he American voter shown more indie
of thought In fact, this is
ne of the reasons for the increasing
lbor and vigilance of party leaders.
% test public opinion, to follow popu-
ar sentiment in the making of plat
orms and the nomination of candidates
) one of the important functions of or
anization. The American voter is in
elligent, alert and independent. The
arty machinery of to-day is not Gre
ted for the purpose of driving men,
Ike sheep, to the polls or in the ex-
of hoodwinking the voters. |
t exists for the purpose of crystalliz-
lg and making effective a particular
official creed. 1t can do nothing more |
ian this.