The daily sentinel., 1906-07-19
PATTERsoN,s CoARsE WORK.

Senator Patterson is well carry
ing out his appellation of trouble
maker" when he thus early starts in
to head a movement which can have
no other effect than to do injury to
the party to which he claims alleg-
lance.
1t is neither patriotic nor polite.
Neither he nor Speer is the keeper
of the Democratic conscience of
this state. As a gentleman today re-
marked, they should be put in room
together, the door locked and be
forced to settle their differences with
out gloves, and the fight be made a
finish one.
The Democratic party in this state
can easily win without either.
The factional fights in Denver have
weakened the party, and the dis
reputable crews attached to both self
assumed bosses have cast odium on
the party. In the name of party
purification, Patterson presumes to
cast out Speer and man the works
alone. In the name of party regular
ity. Speer proposes to hold the fort
and by his machine wipe out the Pat
terson crowd at the primaries.
That Speer turned traitor and
proved false to his party at both the
last state and municipal elections in
Denver seems too plain to admit of
doubt. But who appointed Patter-
son as Speer's executioner? That
task belongs at a higher and better
source-the' recognized organization
of the party to which each claim to
belong. If the party be not COM
petent tc settle its own internal diff
ficulties it is not fit to have being.
Senator Patterson possesses a large
following in the state-mostly for
mer populists, along with socialists.
He presumes on this to bend to his
will the Democratic party, to which
he has never given allegiance except
at such times as suited his conven-
ience. When most needed he has
been elsewhere.
The aggregation which met at his
instigation at the Albany hotel last
week was not such as to inspire con-
fidence. The cleanest and best of
the party among them could be num-
bered on ones thumbs. To those
familiar with the names of election
manipulators, of Speer recalcetrants.
of cheap politicians who have done
the dirty work for both parties, the
list at that gathering reads strange
ly familiar.
1t is charged and not denied and
the burden of proof points to the
IacI, lnat senator Patterson is eX-
plotting a movement whose object is
fusion with the disgruntled portion
of the Republican party. This the
Sentinel considers nothing less than
infamous, and the Democrat who
lends himself to such an unhuly al
lance should be allowed no claim
to the party which he seeks to des-
troy.
The Democratic party cannot fail
to win this fall if it hews to the line.
For four years the state has been
disgraced in every department of
government. The rights of citizen
ship have been taken from the peo-
pie and the supreme court has AFRO
gated to itself powers unknown since
the great charter was written. The
corporations have named the legis-
the laws and handed down the court
feseurvs' sssstecu scne' ozxsscurfve, wnfrten
decisions. A change of such des-
picable conditions must come. and
the Democratic party is expected to
meet the emergency.
In doing so it cannot afford to be
handicapped and harassed by Den
ver's political feuds. If Patterson or
Speer get in the way they should be
run over.