Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-10-01
DEMOCRACY'S NECESSITY

Since Mr. Bryan came to Arizona, there has been decided tendency on the part of news papers all over the territory to flood the public print with a series of articles laudatory of that statesman to the practical exclusion of any really significant mention of Arizona's demo- cratic party situation and the figure that it is to play in territorial politics in the next few years.
 Now while fervid and lengthy panegyric in praise of Mir. Bryan as "the greatest common CT" Americas s leading statesman "the un- daunted representative of the people," and so on, may be in perfect good taste and altogether desirable from one point of view, yet all this singing of paeans to the worthy and noted Ne braskan is, after all, an evasion of the real is- sue before democracy in favor of one single, and by no means all-important, phase of polit- ical incident.
 Mir. Bryan, beyond the shadow of doubt, is worthy of great encomium, as statesman, a man of the people and an orator. He has long been the most prominent figure of democracy, honored at home and feted abroad as a repre- sentative American
 But even so, we have not therein sufficient reason for placing the man before the party, however great and noted he may be- Only the other day, one of the noblest grandest char acters that democracy ever elevated to eminence in this country passed we believe, to a greater reward than this world with all its pageantry and pomp can give. And yet with the loss of Governor Johnson to this country, what result ed? A mental shock that reached to the borders of the nation thrilled through every loyal, every sincere and feeling American. The adherents of all political parties were aroused to pity that such man should be taken from his country before his services to her were complete Like a tired traveller toiling burdened up a rugged road, he laid down his weight of responsibility by the wayside and passed into that long sleep whence no man, however great and honored, ever awakened to earthly existence.
 But, however deplorabe this fact may have been, did the great political machine that democracy has builded cease to run! Temper arily, the administrative structure of one state was shaken to it's foundation But it recovered And likewise, the democratic structure of the whole United States, though jared perhaps by this great mans demise, will not be keenly con- scious of its loss year hence. No Most es- sentially it is the organization of the whole par ty machine and not the temper of one of it's minute cogs that counts materially for political victory. If an individual is lost to the great cause of democracy, by death or otherwise, a hundred others are soon toiling up the heights to take his place. Though leader dies, the climbing toward political ideal does not stop. It is an immutabe law of life that where one perishes in the battle, another shall step for ward to fill the breach.
 So when we give perpetual prominence to a man rather than to the party of which he is the servant we are elevating detail to the place rightfully belonging to the whole political struc- ture. To be explicit, what democracy in Ari- zena, and in Gila county as well, is most in need of is effective organization. Forgetting for the present the individual, it is essential that steps should be taken toward working as unit, if democracy hopes for victory. Arizona is on the eve of statehood. The fact that the sentiment in