The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-09-22
Lest We Forget Nineteen Five and
Nineteen Nine.

NthCtccA NIhCs
Now that we know who are our can
didates for Congress, we may well in
qulre where these candidates, and more
particularly where the Democratic can
didates, stand on an issue which looms
up before the people of Maryland as it
did two and six years ago. In 1905 and
again in 1909 we defeated by decisive
majorities DISTINGUISHING amendments
to our State Constitution; IN 1911 we
shall have the same work to do all over
again. Will the Democrats who now
ask US to send them to Washington be
with US or against US in that work?
| 1t should be remembered that neither
the amendment so warmly opposed by
Governor Warfeld nor the amendment
so warmly advocated by Governor Gro
theirs received a ma ority of the white
registered vote of the State, and it is
more than doubtful whether either of
them would have :been Endorsed by
fairly conducted Democratic primary;
this is, to say the least, even more
doubtful as to the amendment on which
we shall vote next year. Moreover, it
was not the resistance of Republicans
or Independents, but determined pres
sure from Demonstration Democrats
as regular" as the easiest French
verb-which persuaded Governor Gro
Tiers, at the last moment, to undo what
had been done by the General Assembly
to force through the new amendment
without heed to law, decency or the
peoples will. So the mere fact that
any candidate is a Democrat by no
means tells US where he stands on this
issue. He may be, indeed. one, or tool,
of our local "Old Guard" which has so
often sought to thus make tighter and
more lasting its grip on its own party
and on the State; but he may well be
/ one of those Democrats There are many
more of them now than there were
once) who will follow such leaders in
such paths no longer.
For can it be question for a rational
mind whether the inquiry be pertinent
to the candidates. fitness for the post
he seeks, Thirty years ago Demo-
cratic candidate for the Presidency hap
PLY described the tariff as "a mere
local lssue;' but, so far as know, no
one, not even a Democratic candidate
/ for office, has ever described the su-
premacy of the Federal Constitution,
! the sanctitv of official oaths of ale
glance, the loyal acceptance of results
of the Civil War, as mere local issues. "
| What our Federal lawgivers believe of
these things interests the people of
Maine, of Michigan, of Montana no less
than the people Of Maryland. In the
words Of Justice Wilson, used in CHS
ohm VS. Georgia, the questions we must
determine, for the third time in Mary
land, next year at the polls may per-
haps be ultimately all resolved into one
no less radical than this: Do the peo-
pie Of the United States form a ma
/ tion?' Surely the people Of the Unit
ed States may reasonably ask us to find
out how a man will answer this question
/ before, through our votes, he shall be-
come their sworn and paid servant, en-
/ powered, with his colleagues, to make
laws which the whole Uuion must obey.
hope, therefore, that every Demo-
cratic candidate for Congress this year
in Maryland shall be publicly asked to
say, categorically and frankly, whether
he Will support or oppose the disfran-
chlsing amendment in November, 1911.
! Of course, there is no reason why Re
publican candidates should not be asked
the same question, if anyone thinks it
needful. When we know where every
man stands on this vital issue, we can
think Of others; we can ask what each
has to say about ''Uncle Joe, " or the
cause of the rise in prices, or the rates
on rubber goods. 1t is of great moment
that our country be not misgoverned,
that the American nation have worthy
public servants; but it is of greater
moment that we still have a country to
be governed either well or i'll, that the
people of the United States continue to
form the American nation.
CHARLES j. BONAPARTE,
Contributing Editor, Baltimore News.