The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-08-17
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
7-7--ii5Ted from Fourth Page.


j., u hem now to play for advan.
10 more or less unfair, rules the
os- among contemporary ale-leaders
and party managers.
THAT which is true of the Demo
,-s,s i, equally and unhappily true of
ny republicans, ard the conditions
listing in Kentucky do not much
vsry from those existing in most of
the States.
we are living in an age of 'practi-
90, notifies, and too often practical
nortics' means double-dealing and
b.5.fattb. dark-closets and hocus-
nocus each for himself, the devil to
oct the hindmost. in every contest
from the highest to the lowest.
nTbe Courier-Journal is Indifferent
who FIJI the offices so that the people
control the electorate, whether the
electorate takes the form of the. old
fashioned Convention or the new-fash-
ioned Primary. On the whole, we
nrefer the Convention because we
think old ways are best. The Primary
under existing conditions is too COM
picated. It offers too many oppor-
tnities for the rich and INSCRIPTIONS
IN get in their work. One of these
DAYS the people will just rear back on
their hind legs and, when they do, the
practical politicians will hear some
thing drop which they will never for
get. AS a disinterested monitor, the
Courier-Journal again sounds a note
of warning. AS the enemy Of none
Of the factions, or the aspirants, but
the would-be friend of them all-that
is of all who are honest men and
true Democrats-it tells them that they
are travelling over uncertain ground by
devious paths; that there are sink
holes ahead; and that, unless they re-
establish themselves in the public
confidence, they will soon, Or late, fall
upon a ground swell
There is but one way to secure any
firm footing, and that is to do right.
He who sees this and acts upon it
will most of all in the long run COM
mend himself And so we say, with
prejudice to no one, down with the
piratical black flag of dog-eat-dog prac-
tical politics, and up with the banners
Of Democracy, both untarnished and
unterrifed bearing not the names of
greedy, selfseeking men, but of great,
enduring measures: the Restoration
Of the States to their proper place in
the National orbit and the stay of
the onward sweep of Federal Centrali-
cation and Absolutism; the total sub
lection of the Money Power wherever
it projects its head above the horizon
which justly bounds the fairly granted
franchise and protects the rights of
property to the law; the reduction of
the Tariff Schedules to Revenue
basis for the support, and only the
support of the General Government,
economically administered.
Put nc man in Office who sets his
ambition above these automatic doc
trines of Democracy, or who may be
suspected of preferring himself to his
party and his country. Let US upon
the threshold of whole-hearted re-
union of Democrats and return to
power as result of that reunion, re-
cur to first principles. There was a
time when no man could do shady
action in Kentucky and politically live.
There was time when the party law
was the will of the majority. Integrity
was not only at a premium, it was the
standard, and no aspirant dared sub
ject himself to SO much as the inti-
nation of unfairness. The field was
as clear as sunshine and as open as
the day. The people who still hew the
wood and draw the water and pay the
taxes and vote the ticket want to see
something more than personal self
seeking among their public men, and
their sense of pride in their public
men is not yet lost for the lack of the
wit and learning and genius and elo-
quence which once distinguished Ken
lucky in the National Councils, and
which they hope to see once again at
the forefront of the battle as in the
days of Crittenden and Clay and Har-
din, of the Breckenridges and the
They told it during the Senatorial