The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-01-13
Great PARTIES
GREAT WORK
Senator Everett Gelby Tells
the La Sale sooiesg Men
Have Many Prcbllssas TO-
Solve
WE LIVE IN PREsENrNoT PAST
NO PARTY CAN AFFORD TO REST
ON ITS ACHIEVEMENTS, BU@
MUST GO ON ACCOMPLISHING.

The La Sale Society of Newark gave
its fifteenth annual dinner at Achkas
Stetter's on Broad street, Newark. Sem
ator Everett Colby was the speaker o.
the evening. He said:-
1t seems to me it is the missiom Of
political parties to work, to study and to
solve problems. and to do this they must
have conscience, brains. courage and lead
ership. Personally l have never been
able to enthuse much over parties that
did nothing and stood for nothing except
the principle of perpetual interest in pub
he office. | cannot separate my idea of.
parry from its works any more than l
can my estimate of a man from that
which he is and does | see no reason
why anyone should consider himself bet
ter than another because his ancestors
had done things, nor do | see why the
Republican party Of 1906 has any more
right to claim merit because the party Of
'64 saved the Union than | have because
my grandfather was a deacon Of a
church.
After all, isn't it fair to test a party
as you do an individual? Is it any coed
now? Does it do useful deeds and can it
be made to accomplish results? If you
apply this test to the political parties IN
this State, | think you viii find great
possibilities and SOME little consolation.
In my humble opinion both the Repub-
lican and Democratic parties have re-
Gently been as absolutely dead as two
afffr pn1yfA ho 4
The passing of a political party Is PEE
culiar; life leaves the body before the
appetite for public office. The Repubgs-
can party was in a comatoSe state Of
aesthetic lethargy, practically dead but
still hungry. However, the heart did not
cease to beat nor the brain to work, be-
cause 1t responded TO the action OF the
will. well-dehned and marked senti-
ment of the people. And it lives to-cay,
and | believe can be made an iDstrumenf
of great usefulness TO the people of this
State. IL | did not think so I should
quit the work as we'll as the party and
go at something worth while.
The reorganization of the Democratic
party is grand, noble thing. There s
an important and useful work for il to
perform, and if the earnest and respect
able members could keep it by any
chance out of jail, it's going to be a
splendid thing. | have said that po.iti-
cal parties must solve problems; that, to
my mind, is their great mission; they
We're originally formed to advance and
support great principles.
In 1888 the people of the country
split into two factions. the choice of in
diyiduals being largely determined by an
intellectual tendency toward centraIiza-
ton of the powers in the government on
the one hand. and towards greater free
dom of the individual on the other. This
principle Is seen operating in political
parties down to the reconstruction period
after the Civil War, but since that time
! can find no fundamental basic princi-
pie Distinguishing the parties or infiu.
encing their actions Hence. we are
forced TO conclude that associations.
training and prejudice are the elements
| that determine the choice of party atfiha-
ton. So long as this condition exists. we
shall have no party with rugged and vi
tai force.
'We have great organizations now II
| perpetuate themselves in power, but nc
| party bound together with ties of unsel'
| fish devotion to great cause or loyalty
to any fundamental principle. The
nearest we come to it is in indefinite
something we are after in following this
| leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. Hefs
the life, blood neart, brains and soul Of
| the Republican parry. ard without him,
| say with all fairness and honesty, the
| party at present is nothing and has been
nothing but Il machine for the past fozas
| years. 1t is this lost motive the liyinI
principle, that We must find and iRfust
into our political parties if we waM
! them to he features in human progress
and that brings ME to a subject upon
| which | have often thought
How does a party live and exist s.
hong without a principle? How is it pos
i sible for a great political organization Il
! be without motive when we see thu
conditions that surround rs? Here is
| man. honest. decent. strong and willing
to work. At certain fairy regular in
| tervals he can secure no work and hi
| family suffers Why is this? Again. VI
| fairly regular intervals the Western far
mer burns his grain, while the poe
starye in the East, and in the East greal
| st0rehouses are bursting with IN over
| supply of warf clothing. while the Wes%
| ern farmer shivers. Why is that?
Have you ever gone through. the pod
| districts of Newark OF New York AMI
seen the poverty and distress anG wand
| Why, in the midst of so much wealth
should there exist single soul why
should be in want, if willing to work.
| You will probably say that this qns&
| tion has been before the world for [
| thousand years. say It will be befo9
the world for another thousand wears !
politicians, statesmen and political pax
ties give it no more thought and tim
| than they do now. and if the Republicai
party doesn't take it up | get out.
/, it doesn't take up something worth whiA
don't want to waste my time any Ion
ger Here is the great motive. the "a
| luton of the problem of fair d.stributiu
and it can and must be solved. TIL
trouble seems to lie in the fact that poi
| itieians are gun-shy of a new idea. Tha
refuse to study and master any new sub
! ject for fear they may be discovered
knowing something and lose votes there
hx- ham
| ed to face the conditions as they exist
and then to apply to the statute book
| Of our State the ideas of those who wor
and study. The politica. party must
! the scholar and the student IN act or
with the determination to try and til
brains and persistence to achieve