Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1906-04-19
SPOKE 10 EDITORS.
Governor Folk and Senator Stone
at Press Banquet.
POLITICAL CONDITIONS DEFINED.
Parties Mast Stand for somethiniS'
the Name No Longer Counts
Stone Finds Bat One DEM
a. OORstio Daily.

1
~ oOrstio Daily.
Kansas City, April 1A.-Nearly every
county and democratic organization IN
the state was represented at the DEM
ocratic State Press associations Jei-
lerson day banquet at the Midland
hotel Friday night Governor Joseph
W. Folk, Senator W. J. Stone and Rep
resentatiye Charles A. Towne were the
guests of honor. The governors
speech in part follows:
/ The life and teachings OF Thomas
Jefferson are an inspiration to the
lovers Of representative government
everywhere. JefIersonian democracy
means the rule Of the people. not OF
any class, nor Of any clique, NOR OF
any special interests. Whenever tne
people cease to rule anywhere and
gangs of bosses govern instead, then
special privileges and corruption which
springs from special privileges as q
necessary consequence follows: Jeffer-
son announced the cardinal doctrine
of true democracy when he declared
for equal rights to all, special priv
ileges to none"
| That was one Of the first declara-
lions against what is known In mod
ern times as graft. Graft In Its analy-
| sis is a special privilege either exer-
cised contrary to law or one the law
itself may give.
An unprecedented political reviv-
al is going on in the United States to-
day on this subject. The next Few
years will be distinguished as the time
| in which the reign Of the special priv
ilege is brought to an end and the
doctrine of equal rights fixed In ma
tional policies and in the conscience
of mankind.
The old-fashioned ideas Of honesty
are being applied to the new-fashioned
business. The command, "Thou shalt
not steal" has again become binding.
This does not mean socialism, which
says to another, what is thine is
NINE" but 1t means an equal opportu'
nifty to all to have, to hold and to en-.
10y the fruits of honest labor and no
special privileges to class to prey
upon the rest of the people.
The time has come when the people
will no longer respond to mere party
names Parties must stand for some
thing and mean something, must be
a positive force, not a mere negative
quantity. Whatever may be said Of
the accomplishment Of any party In
days gone by, the question is now
not what the democratic party did 81
years ago, or what the republican
party did 40 years ago, but what they
stand for now and what do they pro-
pose to do now. The way to deter
mine this is not merely by reading the
platforms, but by finding out what the
candidates represent, whether they are
honest and courageous and whether
they are supported or fought BY spe-
cial privileges and the lawless ele-
ment. 1t is very good rule to fol-
low, to ascertain on which side the en-
emies Of the people and Of representa-
tive government are hghtinA and then
get on the other side and oppose
them. One may rest assured that he
cannot be far from right
In the beginning Senator Stone
spoke Of the great value Of the country
democratic press to the party in Mis-
souri, Among other things he said:
1--WE have three great cities in Mis-
souri,, within whose corporate limits
nearly one-third Of the total popula-
| ton Of the state resides. In these
cities there are eight or ten daily
papers published in the English Ian
guage, and two or three In German.
OF all these papers only one pretends
to be democratic; ali the Others are
republican, or at least anti-demo-
cratic. Every day these metropolitan
journals are making attacks in some
way upon the democratic party, It's
principle and its leaders, In the cities
there is, under present conditions,
but one way Of meeting these Journal
istic attacks, and that is by thorough
party organization and by bold public
speeches. In the country the local
democratic press must be chiefly re-
lied upon to fight the battles of the
democracy. II that fails us, then the
democracy will lose its strong right