The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-03-21
THE Liberal WAVE.

The broad and general eXplana-
ton of political and social happen
ings is very often the true one; and
wherever it is even partly the true
one it is decidedly the one that is
best worth getting at. There are al
ways local and special causes OF
/ big political overturn and these are
( interesting and not to be neglected
/ but they sometimes obscure one's
perception of the main cause the
| widespread tendency, the national
or even cosmic impulse, that may
have been at work. In the election
last autumn there were particular
1 reasons why particular states went
democratic, and these reasons are
all worth studying, but hardly as inn
f.. portant as the reasons why the re-
public as a whole turned against the
republican party, which has been SO
I long in power and began to show
| favor to the opposition TO go a step
! farther in the search for the general
we may even feel that there was in
I the change something more than
( punishment of the republicans FOR
/ specific sins and follies The country
! did not merely rebuke their faults
I it withdrew from them, it showed a
change of mind about their policies,
/ it ceased TO accept what they histor-
cally stand for, and began to reach
out for something different for some
thing in many ways the contrary, the
opposite of what they stand for The
word which a good many people
would use to describe what the
country chose is progressive" that
word happens to be the fashion; but
an older and bigger and better word
is liberal" We had a liberal vic
tory last autumn and he drift is
still decidedly toward liberal ideas
and policies Neither of our parties
represents perfectly what the word
historically means, but in both the
parties liberal thought and senti- |
ment have been gaining and through i
both the liberal impulse has BEEN
working to its ends. Perhaps fair
measure of the degree of the ascen- /
dancy of that impulse in each is the
of support for reciprocity
with Canada.
1t is possible and reasonable to be
more general still to draw a still l.
wider circle. The cause for which
liberal" is the best word has been
gaining elsewhere. too; there has {
leen liberal revival all over the
world 1t is but few years since {
hings were very different; since the /
in England and the |
,tandpat Republicans in this country /
eemed to be firmly entrenched in II
power. since abEOluteism in Cen 4
many met with few effective checks; {
;ince even in France somewhat re-
dictionary forces we're perceptible, !
formidable. But within the last
lalf dozen years the truly self-gov-
arning people have regained lot of
and other peoples |
have struck hard for freedom Por-
tugal. Persia, Turkey, Germany
Mexico-the list is impressively long
and geographically still more re
markable 1t is quite enough to
! Justify comparisons with 1S4S. As
! is usual when such an impulse is
"trembling on from east to west.
old England avoids violence and eX-
tremes in her response; but England
has been going, for her. pretty far.
The .Lloyd-George budget was big
stride away from conservatism, a |
body blow to privilege; and now in a
single session of Parliament it is
proposed with confidence both to
altar the standing and functions of
the lords and to give ireland sub
stantial measure of home rule.
Both proposals are fought with heat
and bitterness but with nothing like
the heat and bitterness they encoun-
tered when they first began to be
made Concerning both the Nation
has undergone change OF moods, OF
standards OF horizon. In France,
meanwhile, the most genuinely intre-
pidly liberal of recent governments
| has shown extraordinary strength.
| I'm Germany. liberal ideas are not
merely making head against abso-
! mteism they are taking on form
that shows plainly their identity
with all the rest OF liberalism in the
world.
The good old cause is in a good
| way There will be mistakes and
plumbers and failures, of course, aud
no doubt. in the long run, a reaction
and some loss OF ground. But the
conspicuous fact just now is the fact
of gains, not losses-+and OF
strength and hope and courage. 1t is
Hf.fs,,
ment, a period Of victories for lib
erty. Harper's Weekly