New-York tribune., 1908-01-10
DEMOCRATIC CONCORD.

We cannot regard as glittering success the
National Democratic Clubs initial missionary
dinner. The club started with the laudable
idea of clearing the way for the unihcation OF
the Democratic party by showing just why
that party is at present disunted. 1t has been
the common impression that the party of Jeffer-
son and Jackson is divided because its leaders
and thinkers cannot agree on either essentials
or non-essentials and because the rank and
file are never certain from one year to another
where they stand or what they stand for. THE
Baltimore SUM- made this offhand diagnosis
of the partys complaint the other day: The
Democratic party has always been the party
''of the people and there are so many kinds or
people that there are necessarily good many
different kinds of Democrats. But we looked
TO the missionaries of the National Democratic
Club for somewhat more exact and illuminat-
ing explanation of the contradictions In Demo
cratic doctrine and the rents in Democratic
unity. We cannot see that ex-Justice Morgan
]. O'Brien's address has helped the organlza-
ton TO any better understanding of its lapses
from orthodoxy its inability TO agree on a
code of faith or a programme of action
Judge O'Brien made his own task much too
easy hy saving at the outset that il was not
necessary ito repeat the aims and principles
of the Democratic party Leaving those aims
and principles to the imagination of his hear
erS. il was no great strain on the speaker
powers of dialectic TO demonstrate that the
party had failed when it departed from said
principles and had succeeded, or deserved to
succeed. when it adhered to them. 1t is al
ways easy TO travel in argument through the
blue empyrean. But to come down to solld
earth is highly dangerous. Judge O'Brien fell
into this unfortunate error at one point Wheh
he stated few propositions on which Demo
crafts are united or think they can attain unity.
He said in an apparently unguarded moment:
The Democratic party is united in favor of
currency reform: it is committed to just re
vision of the tariff, and that without delay; II
stands for the reasonable regulation of corpora
tions and the eradication Of corporate abuses; IL
is opposed alike to paternaliSm and socialism,
the guarantee by the government of bank de-
posits. the government ownership OF railroads
and all other populistic theories
Yet. while Judge O'Brien was taking chances
with this piece of positivism in New York the
Hon Melville E. Ingalls,, another distinguished
conservative" Democrat. pleading in Ian
caster. Ohio, for non-interference with the cur
rency system and the Hon. William j. Bryan,
toasting Jackson's memory in Chicago, was in-
Guiding among uptodate Democratic issues
the ultimate acquisition by the government of
all the instrumentaties of interstate commerce
and the establishment of a federal guarantee
fund for the protection of depositoTS IN state
and national banks. The Democratic party
seems. therefore. TO be united, as ever. on both
sides of these propositions, as it is on nearly
every possible issue in national politics. Judge
O'Brien we notice, laid a good deal Of stress
on the argument that the financial disturbances
of the last three months were chargeable to the
policies Of the national administration. But
Mr. Bryan has expressed many times an ex-
actly contrary view. The party can hardly be
more united. therefore, on that issue than it
is on the others supposed by Judge OBrien to
furnish a possible basis for Democratic har-
mony We fear that The Baltimore Suns"
diagnosis is sounder than that offered to the
National Democratic Clubs guests. There will
be different kinds of Democrats so long as there
is q Democratic party. Only the death of that
organization can still its dscords and quench
its passion for civil strife