, 1906-10-15

party is now n house hopelessly divid.
ed again itself an organization of
warning aud irreconcilabie factions. On
many occasions OF the past, this condi
tion has been found in political parties.
and when such has been the case they
have never endured very long.
The political situation in America
has been a peculiar II since the Civil
war. In some respects, the republican
party, though usually the winner in
presidential elections, may be said to
have fought against odds, for, on the
one hand, the democrats were sure of
the south; those We're so many votes
on which they could always count, no
matter what were the issues of the
campaign; while, on the other hand,
it needed only a few northern states,
in which a strong democratic organiza-
ton was always found, to win the vic
tory. The solid south was always
the fear that made heavy the republi-
cans heart. But n change has already
ome The democratic party of today,
a minority in nearly every northern
state, even when united, is now hope
lessly divided between the old radical.
ism and the new in the north, while
the south re%pudiates in toto the radi-
calism that would supplant the old,
Organism, Hearstism-call it what you
| willis hoIelessly out of joint because
the states that have been as the rock
of Gibraltar to the Of democra-
cy will have none of it, The few north
ern states, wen were New York in
cluded among their number, to which
the new radicalism may appeal, are but
as dust in the balance to what has al.
ready been lost.
The democratic party weakened it.
self hopelessly when it forsook the
principles that carried Mr., Cleveland
and itself to victory in 1892, and took
up with a new rallying cry. The world
may not love the principles Of a man
or an organization Of men, but 1t re-
spects the man or organization that
stands ~yaliantly by its principles with
out ninching. The principle of the
democratic party for v e a hundred
years had been individualism. That
was its inheritance from Jefferson. The
one dogma of rep~ublicanism which,
since the day Of the Civil war, it had
hated most was the policy of protec
tive tariffs. That policy the democrat
ic party had proclaimed again and
again to be a robbery of the people
and even an unconstitutional enact.
ment. With that slogan the over.
whelming victory of 1892 was o
And then what happened? With both
houses of congress, and the president
| of their choice, they not only failed to
take advantage of their opportunity,
but passed a tariff act that every de-
cent, self-respecting man in the old
country, whether protectionist or free
trader, despised; a tariff act that rails
ed duties, that lowered duties, that left
them where they stood before; a tar
if act so shameless that Mr.. Cleveland
would o sign it, though he did not
have the grace to veto 1t as he should
have done. Since that time, democrats
have not enjoyed discussing the tariff
question, yet with the passing of thai
question from the field of politics, the
democratic party lost its raison d'etre.
Today, the democratic party is moth
ing coherent; 1t is only a mass of n
archisms, and very loud anarchism at
that. Mr.. Bryan cries from the house
tops, but his democratic auditors in the
south do not applaud. Mr.. Hearst, too,
cries, and with a loud voice, but the
man who has proclaimed nearly all the
old democratic senators traitors can
only split his party the more widely
apart. His nomination by the demo-
Gratis for governor of New York was
an act of suicide, for the democrats of
the south will not look with kindly eye
in that direction. Already one hears
the call echoing in the southland, which
proclatms that the south is called upon
either to re-create the democratic par
t. or to destroy it.-Denver Republi-
can.