The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-05-21

u puOllO1Cy- II 10 Ill dSC VI ll4u1iy
The very times are formative. The
vital issues of fifty years of agitation
nave passed from the scene. The vi
tai issues of the coming fifty maybe
the coming hundred, years, are but
just arriving upon it. If the Demo
cratic party should, like the ostrich,
stick its read behind a rock, or bury
it il the sand-its body exposed to
view-it would realize the idea of
the criticism quoted above, but it
would win no battles.
Let us reason together. Unfortunate
ly the Democratic party is not a unit.
1t is not one with itself. In point of
fact it represents two branches, the
Radicals, so called. and the Co1serva-
tives, so called, of the North, project
ed from a huge runk known as the
Solid South. In three Presidential
elections, whilst the South has stood
firm to it's colors, the two Northern
branches have steadily refused to vote
for one another. Why? Because.
there have been serious, though not
now irreconciliable differences of op-
inion, put mainly because of frictions
some fanciful and some real, largely
personal in kind growing out of the
lack of discipline and fixity of purpose
inevitable to continuous disfeat.
1neSe sores may QOl .De SllChoO ONeI
with a bit of goosegrease. To be
reached and remedied they must be
probed down to the bone. Nor is this
all; the operation must be performed
in the open. 1t a not be relegated
10 a closet with any assurance of a
happy result.
Mr.. Bryan, himself is one cause of
dissension, and Mr.. Bryan is not guilt
less of his share of responsibility for
this. Yet. 4 N~ebraskan's leadership
remains intact and unchallenged. No
good end can be served by treating
him with reserve. He has no reserv-
es himself. and. whilst this circum-
stance might be a virtue in a private
it becomes a in a
public a and perhaps something
more harmful still in a party leader.
Leaders in politics like Generals
in the field, must win victories, not
lose them, if they would either vim
dicate the terms of their commission,
OF help the cause they serve. Neither
politics nor war, may be what is called
an exact science; but, on the otler
hand, neither is quite empiric. In pre-
Sence of he voters the party leader
quite as little afford to theoriZe
as can the General in the face of a
marching army. Each man must first
beat the enemy.
To change the metaphor, Mr.. Bryan
has seemed to us too mucn of a Doc
Tor and not enough of a Lawgiver;
md, as a Doctor, he has had to deal
too many prescriptions, perhaps
too many empty bottles. He is
1 public speaker and lecturer, who
to have set himself the Xam
pie OF John the Baptist-a1d, may we
say it without offense either way?
m hor ~ tol-n. n 1noCon nv tuC in |
;trenuousity and unguarded speaking
rom Theodore Roosevelt, He could
ess afford it, A warier angler would
he rather have given his trout plenty
If line aid have waited.
Enough, however, of the figurative
Bryan is a fine type of the best
lass of the average American. His
personality and his purposes are ev-
anywhere conceded to be above re-
This is a distinct and a We
y great asset. Whatever mistakes
he may lave made were honest err
'ors. They belong to the past. There
o answer for. What Democrats want
o know is this: Have we a Demo
party-or,. in case we have not,
only an apothecary's jar with a
label-can we recall the ele
nents that once constituted a Demo
party and bring these to think
like and to feel alike, s. as il 1908
o nov on the common enemy, wheth
r he be a Republican, Socialist, fav-
ring special privilege, or a Populist
socialist, favoring the commune, both
'qually at war with the spirit of Am
institutions as these are i'm
in the Constitution of the IN
States? If we can do this, we
nall carry the country, no matter
tho becomes our standard bearer. If
re can't we shan't.
When the Courier-Journal says
to the Constitution" we pro-
'ose no r~eSou1ding manifesto, no gilt
ering generalization, but a specific
nd itemized declaration of principles
nd purposes, wholly practical in
and in kind.
The trainers of the Constitution
not only sincere, wise and pa
riotic men, but they yer students of
They sought in building a Ma
ion upon the foundations of written,
law equally to escape the
fonarchiSm of the Middle Ages and
he Democracies of Greece and Rome. !