Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1908-11-10
SHALL THE SOUTH LEAD THE PARTY?

cratic party is concerned
The Journal says
E"rime after time we have gone before the
people with platform embodyng the fundamen
tai principles on which the government was found
ed, and time after time we have met defeat. Must
the Democratic party abandon its traditional poll
ces in order to meet new conditions, or shall we
continue TO pursue the course which leads us sue
cessfully to defeat9
"And if, in spirit of desperation and despair
it seems necessary to adopt another policy, what
shall that policy be'
eve know that the essential principles OF the
Democratic party are those on which the govern
ment was founded. They are principles which
must and will prevail if the republic is to endure.
If this is to be government for the benefit OF the
many and not of the few if this is to be the rule
of the people and not of the powers of wealth and
privilege, taxation must be on the primitive prn'
cpe that it is imposed not to enrich the prlvileg
ed few but in order to provide revenue for the ex'
penses of the government 1t was never intended
by the fathers of the republic that the great ma
chinery of the tariff should be used except to raise
revenue for the government and that at most the
protection should be incidental.
t0Tho sentiment of the people as expressed at
the polls under Republican influence would seem
to have drfted far from this conception of the tariff
and yet no impartial student of economic history
can deny that the Democratic contention represents
the will of the men who built this government on
foundations broad and deep.
'"The sophistry and confusion of partisan ad-
vocacy cannot obscure the great truth that the re-
served powers of the states must be upheld. The
danger of Capitalization was as thoroughly under.
stood when we were first emerging into natlonal
life as it is today. The battle was fought out IN
the formative period when the constitution itself
was taking shape and it was decreed that thestates
alone could divest themselves of any portion OF
their sovereignty. There was to be no twilight
zone''-as Mr.. Bryan has so felicitously called it
where the boundary between state and federal
authority becomes vague and dim that 'sjudicial
constructions may be found by which the states
might be deprived of their perogatives without
their consent.
"The three departments of government must
be kept separate, and especially the executive
must not encroach upon the judicial or the leg
isative branch of the government
ssThese and other elementary principles Of the
constitution have become so closely interviewer
with the warp and wool of Democracy that the
party cannot be destroyed without destroying the
fabric of the government itself. We may discard
minor issues with the shifting changes of time
issues which grow up with the hour-but these
essential principles of Democracy cannot suffer
change.
"And yet in one campaign after another we see
them defeated at the polls. We see the policy of
high protective tariff endorsed, because the bene
ciaries of that tariff haveso entrenched themselves
in power that it is impossible to accomplish their
overthrow. They grow on what they feed upon,
and become more powerful, more inveterate every
year. Every new trust mOthered by the tariff be-
comes flial defender of the institution which
gave it life and strength.
'"The radiating threads of executive encroach-
ment legislative usurpatiOn and judicial construc-
ton are drawing closer and closer year by year
towards Capitalization. The right Of state to
try it's own courts is Denied and the attorney gen
eral who attmepts it is fined by federal court for
contempt. Federal judges paralyze the very ma
chinery of sovereign state, and the highest court
of the land upholds the act of oppression.
''Conditions like these are intolerable. The
Democratic party az it exists seems powerless, and
yet if it's principles allowed to die much of the
best in the republic must wither"
Continuing, the Journal draws its conclusion
in which it asserts that the South must come into
it's own and henceforth lead the Democratic
party instead Of being the AFFECT follower of
the East and West. Since the South furnishes
the bone and sinew of the party, the Journal