The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-14
PARKER Walls.
Late Democrat Candidate for
the Presidency
Addresses Jefferson Day Ban
quet in New York.
HE BLAMES MR.. BRYAN
For Creating a Hopeless Division
in Party Ranks.
Knew He Would Be Defeated
From the Start.
He BLAMES MR.. BRYAN

New York, April 14.-Seven hun
dred Democrats attended the Jefferson
day banquet of the Democratic club of
New York at the Waldorf-Astoria last
night. There were many there of ma
tional reputation, and chief among
these was former Judge Alton 3.
Parker, Democratic nominee for presi-
dent last November.
In the banquet room portraits of
Jefferson were conspicuous. In add
ton to Mr.. Parker, the speakers were
United States Senator Newlands, of
Nevada; Mayor Mcclellan, of New
York city; Congressman Henry T.
Rainey, of Illinois, and J. J.. WilIet,
of Alabama. Senator Carmack, of
Tennessee, was the only one of those
expected to speak who could not at
tend.
Mr.. Parker was the first speaker.
and he was enthusiastically received.
Frequently he was interrupted by ap-
/ plauSe. The speech was on the future
of the Democratic party and was re-
Dlete with suggestions for harmony
and urgent appeals against sectional
ism.
Mr.. Parker said:
Says His Defeat Easy to Predict.
I do not come here to make excuse
or explanation about the past, to pro-
mote any personal purpose or am
bitiOn for the future, or interest. I
am moved solely by a desire to COM
mune freely with my countrymen who
believe that the time honored doc
trines of the Democratic party, as de-
duced from the great policies defined
by the man whose birth we here COM
memorate, and established by the
founders, are still true, still alive, still
worthy of acceptance and devotion.
and still necessary. if our Institutions
are to be maintained in their early
vigOr and purity.
easy to foresee and predict. 1t was
preceded by division and faction in
ranks owe a period of eight years,
n they have done their worst. 1t
mental power for partisan purposes,
by the reckless and unprecedented
expenditure of money, and by dem
agogic appeals to interests as wide
apart as the poles. We have left to
US only the smallest a 0f power
in either house of congress-, we have
lost states whose confidence we had
long commanded, and the number of
governors and state legislatures under
our control is surprisingly small.
Meeting New Problems.
When we come to consider the politi-
cal conditions and times, we find that,
when new problems are to be met, it
seems hat the fashion has changed. It
is now thought necessary to devise new
ways. The old are not sufficiently strik-
ing. They lack in the drastic quality
required. In our early days it was deem
ed a virtue when the government, like
the individual. minded its own business.
But this is out OF date, so the proper
way for q government to dc things is
by interference or meddling. This takes
the form of dealing vigorously with for
eign countries. 1t is applied unceasing-
ly to states until it is now insisted that
the general government must tax and
manage all corporations, must oversee
insurance and trust companies, and
must either own the railroads or die
tate to their owners the minutest details
of their business. It is thought neces-
sary to interfere with capital on the one
hand and with labor on the other, and
to define h relations they must bear
to each other.
One of the most popular of all these
processes is interference with elections.
States must organize and control the
police of the city and dictate even the
smallest of the policies, while cities and
towns must enter into competitions of
business. AS the process goes on down,
interference with harmless personal
customs and habits seems to be only
natural and logical.
It will not only be our duty to resist
these stTang tendencies, so clear as to
show the method that is in them, but
we nave more work to do, more far
reaching reforms to promote, more mo-
raj issues to meet, than we can know
or realize. until we begin to look the
situation fairly in the face. In spite of
the hypocritical claims so freely in
dulged, the prostitution of our free civil
service to a degree never before known:
the use of money in elections. whether
presidential or state; the belittling or
the misuse of the judiciary; the inter
ference with the duties and powers of
the states; the maintenance of a vicious
and unfair taxing system; the raising
again Of the race issue in its worst
form, and from the basest partisan
mOtives-aIl these must be understood.
and understood they must be met
with hrmneS and perseverance until the
abuses which surround them find pop
ular recognition and b reformation.
Some Problems to Be Solved.
If we are to deal effectively with these
various issues, whether in opposition or
IN power, 1t Will be necessary to have a
real party with real followers, attached
to real and recognized principles. It IS
not enough that it shall have a coIlec-
ton of fads-many of them useless and
some of them dangerous and opposed to
the prehistoric position of our ~organiza-
ton. We have already had too many
of these because it is safe to assert of a
policy that if it is radical it is not
Democratic, if it is Democratic it is not
radical.
1t is necessary for US to remember
that We have principles and traditions
of our own and that every departure
from them has landed us in defeat. Nor
can we take anybody else's policies.
ASduy ulduSs however StfonS may be the
outward clamor. They must square
with our own principles. What NAV
seem to be popular demands are some
times not popular, but mere momentarv
crazes which sweep over the
ty only to sink faster than they rose.
For many years, in certain parts of the
country, the politicians in both parties
kept their ears so closely to the ground
that they heard h rumble of a green
back whenever this sound was given a
party voice.
We found the same thing true on a
larger scale and with greater and more
permanent loss, when we took up the
silver question. And yet. of all single
questions thus far in our history pre-
scented as party issues this was the most
seductive