Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-09-20
VIEW FROM NEW YORK.
Editorial Writer of that City Com.
plimentS the Citizens" Course
in Advising Virginia Democrats.

EDITOR VIRGINIA CITIZEN:
DEAR SIR:-The enclosed MSS is sent
because your editorial. as the New York
Sun reviews it. shows that YOU have the
right idea of what the duty of the
Democratic party is.
EDWARD LISSNER.
1t is a pertinent question on the
threshold of presidential campaign
when leaders and issues are in the
making, whether after being for more
than ten years dominated by spirit of
radicalism, which has bred dissension
among the rank and file and disaster at
the polls, the time has not arrived for
the Democratic party to change its
spots. Let US add to this, if the party
can honestly do so. For such conser-
vatism as the radicals allowed to domi-
nate its campaign Of 1904 will not avail.
These are times when voters look
beyond the platform, when they decline
to close their eyes to the insincerity of
panks adopted solely for the purpose
of. catching votes. If, therefore, the
Democratic party owes duty to the
country and which when performed
shall earn for it the confidence of the
mass of people, and as result has a
destiny that ought to mean victory and
renewal of power, those who are its
guiding spirits had better consider care
fully the question propounded at the
outset. This situation is rapidly de-
veloping in the East and bids fair to
sweep the country. 1t is reflected in
the desire on part of many for an or.
ganization pledged to honest and eff
cient government and fearless enforce
ment of the laws, without seeking over
night to make such departures in our
system of administration as will reverse
traditions of more than one hundred
years back, and give inspiration to
propagandas, that in strength would
prove a menace to the country. The
supreme question is whether the Demo-
cratic party will rise to the occasion or
is it still the same old party described
by General Grant as always to be de-
pended upon to do the wrong thing at
the right time.''
To urge crusade inside of the Demo
cratic party for a return to conserva-
tism, to go beyond this and ask new
National leadership which shall elimi-
nate Mr.. Bryan, as dominating factor
in 1908, these are the objects of this
article. That both are dangerous to
advocate in such times as the present
goes without saying. For to political
leaders, big and little, who believe they
have their ears to the ground, the idea
prevails that no party can hope for sue
cess WHICH does not enter the next
as one of advanced ideas. In
all that has been done on the subject
of railroads and trusts by the present
administration, the friends of Mr..
Bryan see vindication of the radical
policy which he forced upon the Demo
cratic party. To cast it aside at this.
the eleventh hour, might appear to some
not unlike turning aside from victory
at the moment when it is within the
grasp of the party. That many, there
fore, may not welcome such a sugges-
ton we may readily assume.
The idea, however, that just because
Mr.. Roosevelt has fought the railroads
and other trusts and favors an income
and inheritance tax, the voters will re-
member the platforms of 1896 and 1900
and as matter of vindication elect MIR.
Bryan in 1908 is open to grave dispute.
The present. not the past, will influence
their ballots. A better forecast of the
situation is that with but six months
from the next presidential campaign
there looms up the possibility of the
voters being obliged to choose between
two parties, both of advanced ideas.
Upon what theory despite the fact that
Mr. Bryan was radical before Theo-
dore Roosevelt, they will declare a
preference or rather enough of them to
enable the Democrats to displace the
Republican party is not satisfactorily
explained. Nor do the friends of Mr..
Bryan or William r. Hearst tell us how
the party is to succeed if it appeals to
the radical spirit of the mass of voters
with the record of the present admins
tration in its fight against trusts, for