The La Jara chronicle., 1908-10-09
The Two State
Platforms
THE GREAT DIFFERENCES BE-
TWEEN THEM AND WHY THEY
EXIST.


forms adopted this fall by the Repub-
lican and Democratic parties. The diff
! ference is not a new one, but it is
more noticeable this year owing to the
remarkable accomplishments Of the
Republican party as contrasted with
the poor showing made by the last
three Democratic state administra-
tions.
The Republican state platform is Of
an optimistic character, pointing with
pride that is this time pardonable,
to a series of legislative accomplish
ments such as never before could be
claimed by any party in this state.
The platform further goes on to recite
the things It hopes the Republican
party will be able to accomplish in the
future in the way of amplifying and
adding to what it has already done if
the voters of the state see fit to con
tInue its officials in office. The eX-
prcssion of these hopes is not unjusti-
fed by what has been done and should
therefore not be regarded lightly by
he Colorado citizens and voters who
have their own interest and the inter
est of the state at heart.
The Democratic state platform, on
the other hand, is a very short docu-
ment. failing utterly to point out any
accomplishments of the Democratic
party in Colorado during its admins
trations Immediately preceding the
81. u al, fric
.rations of the last six years. What
there is of the platform is crudely put
and almost entirely of a critical nature
Its first sentence is sadly ungramma-
tical, showing clearly that it was not
devised by the kind of men who are
apt to understand the requirements of
great state like Colorado. The Or
binary student at a night school could
have drafted better document so far
as grammatical construction is con-
cerned
That however. is not the chief criti-
cism of the platform. which is of
negative character and cites few of
the familiar complaints of the Demo
cracy. These matters are not neces-
sarily unimportaut but they fade to an
obscurity that is painful in comparison
with the really important achieve
ments of the Republican party during
its past administrations.
The usual criticism of the Supreme
Court is of course made, hut this will
not be seriously regarded by the vot-
ers of the state in view of the fact
that the Democratic judicial candi-
dates are scarcely of a character to
remedy any defects that might exist
in that high tribunal. Furthermore.
the people of Colorado at the election
of two years ago, after a strenuous ed
ucational campaign in which the work
of the Supreme Court was thoroughly
gone into, expressed their favorable
opinion relative to that work and the
Republican party again stands upon
its record. believing that the voters
have had no reason to change the
views already expressed and wilt
again endorse the high character of
the courts actions in the past.
A brief paragraph in the Democratic
platform denounces the state railway
law, creating the new state railway
commission. This is not unexpected
as the Democratic members of the last
assembly fought the passage of the act
creating this commission. At the same
time, while the scope of the commits
sion's duties is not at present what
it may be at some future day, it is
now sufficient to be of great service
to the shippers of Colorado and there
has not been a moment since the pass.
age of the act when the railroads were
not vigorously fighting its legality in
the courts.
Then follow denunciations of the
government forest reserve policy, the
national administration of the public
domain, the attitude of the Republican
party in tariff matters, and other
things in which the Republican party
is wont to take the initiative and the
Democratic party is wont to sit back
and criticize.
There are three or four things en-
dorsed in the Democratic platform.
among which are municipal ownership
of public utilities and the perennial
candidacy of William Jennings Bryan.
The casual reader of the Democratic
platform misses some of the familiar
issues of by-gone days, but the note
of pessimism is still triumphant and
the tendency of the Democratic party
to run around in a circle still prevails.