Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-12-19
THE FUTURE OF NATIONAL REPUBLICASIsM

arty is proceeding slowly. and II" activ" steps
ill be taken for ;rt least Il year, it is apparent
rom mainland advicr>.
This does not Llcan that the Republicans of
he B0rah, Mrtiov..rn and HadIry type are dis
outraged over the defeat of Mr. Taft. They must
ave known almost from the beginning Of the
ampaign that he leading Il forlorn hope
he present quiet in Republican ranks is not the
tun of defeat but tire maturing of plans cvOlvcI
rom long consideration of.the situation.
The recent conference of Republican govern
rs betrayed no uneasiness as to the ultimate
organization of the party, but it is admitted
hat the Earty must be reconstructed, If not from
he bottom up, certainly from thertOp down. The
DundatiOns of the party as secure as ever,
he great m.,ss of American voters are still Re
ublicans, as was shown even in the last election,
ut the great mass of voters were not given an
pportunity to show their Republcanism in a
tay that appealed to them us right and consist
Mt
In the reconstruction of the party such men
S Murray Crane, Root, Penrose, Barnes of New
Eork,-in short, the "big interest men,-must
Inevitably be cast asi de. Rightly or not, they
lave earned the reputation of serving a master
ther than the people. y Their leadership is pass
he Instead, the Republican standard has been
eized and will be carried forward by men of the
Borah and Hadley type, young men, active men,
dalwarts burning with he desire to distinguish
themselves as servants of the people. They are
ambitious, Of course, personally ambitious, too,
but Borah at least has often put his own ambi
ions aside to champion the rights of the people.
far
hructing the party seem likely to be carried out.
)ne is a re-draft of the party rules before the
Iext national convention to provide for con-
Eention so chosen that there can be no question
aised of it's representative character The
chicago convention of last June probably never
viii be repeated. The stigma of some of the
Kings done in that convention i'm the name of
RepubIicanism was more potent ffhr the last cam
baign than any vivid Rooseveltian epigram or
hispassionate Wilsonian analysis. AS can be
told BY some of the Hawaii delegates who at
ended that gathering, there was an adherence
Eo technicality, in order to secure the necessary
Taft majority, which defeated the will of the
people that sent some of the delegates to Chi
agc. ="
1t is not unlikely that the Republican party
rules will be redrafted to provide for the adop-
ticn of primary systems for the selection of del
egates to the national convention. Should this
be the case, Hawaii may have no more territorial
Conventions of the sort that upset the Republic,
an party here last April. The bitterness of that
cpnyention was partly responsible for Repub
lican defeat in Oahu in November
The Republican party is not doomed to pass
out Of existence in spite of the dire prophecy OF
the Bull MooSprs 1t must undergo reconstruc
ticn, of course; it must be moulded to the will
of the people, for party not responsive to'pop
ular will cannot endure.
The point to remember is that the basic prln
dcipleS of RepublicaniSm are cOgent as ever
as applicable to conditions now AS ever they
we're, but that some of the party's later methods
need change The 'Stran-roler in tn" convcn
ton should he impossible, and it should be i'm
possibIc for president to control his own re-
nomination merely through his control of FEEDER
al patronage and a machine built up thereby
The election of delegates through the direct pri
mary will largely eliminate this.
Instead of regarding the party with a s"nS
Eof disappointmcnt bccauSe'it WAS not successful
in the national election, Republicans should ~
Eioice that there are ready at hand hundreds o
thousands of brilliant and earnest young mel
Ito carry through Il reorganization of party meth
Eeds that will rcaffirm the aim of RephhIicanlSll
no be the will of the people,
PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE z@ 3