Los Angeles herald., 1906-02-20
WATTERsoN'S FORECAST


Col Henry watterson has gone to
dreaming again, and in three
column editorial in the Louisville
Courier-Journal he reviews the present
conditions Of parties, under the head
ing, "Thick Political Weather"
His arguments are as interesting as
his conclusions are muggy and unsat-
isfactory. In his opinion all the politi-
cal parties are in "a fluid state" con-
ditions being never before so unixed
and uncertain He characterizes the
existing national Democratic party as
"the merest bundle of quiddities, a
monster without head, catching at
all sorts of straws and for the most
part reaching out blindly after the
impossible" He thinks he can foresee
the nomination of Bryan for president
and Hearst for governor of New York
the latter under a flying column of rag
tag and bobtall that represents moth
ing but opposition to Republicanism.
His forecast for the Republican party
Is freddy for a third term" and the
country face to face with a revolu-
ton more farreaching than that which
has just overtaken England" He con-
cludes as follows:
For my part, l am not much afraid
of the Monster without Head Much
more 1 dread the Man, or the Party, on
Horseback. Organized power is always
more or less dangerous to liberty. The
old Democratic Party grew so strong
that it was able to make it's exit the
signal for a bloody war. The Repub
lfcan Party has grown so strong that
It thinks 1t owns the earth and has
measurably lost the fear of God. The
people seem at length ripe for clean
sweep. But, they must be unified on
some fighting line and under some ade-
quate leader, who, whatever else he is,
we may make sure will not be a Con-
servative.
The doughty colonel must have
changed his mint beds or betaken him
sort of dope. He was not wont to
throw up his hands on the eve of
battle, but since the defeat of Tilden
in 1876 and the obscuration of his "star-
eyed goddess of REFORM" he has never
been quite the same. He should take
the rest cure for awhile.
For the fact is that while political
parties may be in "a fluid state" upon
some lines they are separated by old
that are fiercer than before
because the occasion is greater. The
national Democratic party may be tenn
porarily without adequate leadership
but it is "a monster" only in numbers
and size. 1t represents, as of old,
opposition to the Man on
Horseback, to the Capitalization of
power in the hands of the federal gov
ernment at Washington, to the in
of corporate wealth and
the dangers and desperate deeds of the
trusts. If the national Democracy
doesn't represent that much it has no
reason for existence. What it does
need, however, is adequate leader
ship" and that will come in the course
of necessitous time. And it will GER
tainly not be Hearst, although it may
be Bryan. 1t will certainly not be
Cleveland or Parker or Belmont. Who
ever it is he will be sane, aggressive
and progressive.
Teddy for third term is quite likely,
but if so it will Indicate a breaking up
into fragments of the old Republican
party, whose leaders in the senate are
already engaged in a fierce and des-
perate effort to unseat him from
political power. The party of Lincoln
and Grant and Blaine is dead as the
proVerbial doornail.