The National tribune., 1908-03-12
"rHE National PARTY

The vast and spreading uncertainty
of the political situation is much in
creased by the announcement. of Will
liam R.sHearst that his party. will sup
port neither Roosevelt, Bryan nor John
son. While'fit is customary to deride
Mr.. Hearst. and his party, yet it is a
force to be reckoned with. He certain
ly polled votes enough in New York
City to makeithe' matter doubtful to say
the least, without admitting that he
had majority over Mcclellan, and he
polled a surprising number of votes for
Governor of NEW York He, has now
christened his organization the National
Independence Party, and proposes Ito
conduct it on broader and more ener-
getic lines than ever before. He says
that the Democratic Party has long out
lived its usefulness. and there is no
such a bitter division between parties
anywhere as there is between the sew
eral wings of the Democratic Party.
The conservative Democrats hate their
radical brethren far worse than they
hate the Republicans, and will fight
most bitterly against them. There, are
Free Trade Democrats and Protection
Democrats, Trust Democrats and Anti
Trust Democrats, and so on Most Dem
ocrats are such by heredity. while the
Republicans are such by tradition. Mr..
Hearst things that he evolved q plat
form which combines the principles of
Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and
Lincoln. If this were true, it would be
most interesting achievement, but
when he descends to specific statement
the melange is most startling one.
Imagine tracing back to Washington.
| Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln such
| cardinal principles as these:
Direct nominations by the people of
all candidates for office.
The election of United States Senators
and Judges by the people.
An income tax and the referendum.
The right of the people to recall pub
| lie officials from public service.
The immediate Government owner
ship of railroad and telegraph lines.
Emergency currency to be issued only
| by the Government.
| An eight-hour law for workingmen.
A law making blacklisting illegal.
An interstate commerce court to en-
force the rulings of the Interstate Com
| merce Commission.
| A ship subsidy for the development
of commerce. #rH
National postal savings banks.
| 1t hardly seems that these cardinal
principles" are sufficient to form a new
party upon them or that enough people
believe in them as an entirety to come
/ together in one party; that is, while
many men may believe very strongly in
one of these, they are liable to be op.
posed to others, and have not sufficient
attachment for the thing they believe
in to be willing to accept those to which
they are opposed. Still these are times
in which it is hard to say what mer
are going to do politically, but we still
believe in the old-fashioned Americans
who are not running off after vagarie'
i Of any kind, who are tremendously tired
of agitators and shallow thinkers of al
and hewgagd soundings. and demand
practical politics; that is, they ask ant
will have freedom from capitalistic
domination, real reforms of corporate
practices, actual honesty in great bust
ness transactions, honest elections ant
) home rule. To this class of people Mr.
Hearst and his National independence
Party appeal even less than does Mr.
Bryan.
The mortuary statistics show tha
5 everywhere in the Northern States tn,
death rate among the colored people i