The Washington herald., 1914-11-12
Third Parties.

I The Chicago Tribune indorses the statement o.
Mr. Davenport the defeated Progressive candidat.
for governor of New York, that the country favor.
two-parH system and prefers to better condition.
| by disciplining one party and then the other The
Tribune adds the comment that "a third party in.
terferes with or destroys the effect of discipline The
Progressive party made il certain that the Repub-
Iican party would be disciplined u IoIa Now the
effect of its operations is to protect the Democratic
party from discipline"
All of which is true, and yet few third parties
have been organized for the purpose of merely dis
ciplining the party in power. They have generally
been the result of propaganda for single idea.
and often idea which is foreign to politics They
have come with waves of hysteria over some imagi-
nary danger and they have as rule, promoted the
cause they bitterly opposed
The first of these demonstrations resulting in
third party was that against the Masons and was
known as the anti-Masonic party, which expanded
and denounced all secret societies. Il gathered in
the Protestant churches and through that influence
made war on the Catholic Church as well as Masonry
with the cry of "No Popery and no Masonry" The
Inconsistency of combining as twin evils two forces
that were antagonisSic to each other, in time made
that third party ridiculous But under the attack,
both the Catholic Church and Masonry waxed strong
and dissensons increased in the Protestant churches
until they split into many sects, and the era
of good feeling" ended in the churches even
more than in politics.
The seeds of that anti-Mason movement have
never been entirely destroyed They brought forth
another crop Of antagonism to all foreign-born and
to the Catholic Church. in the organization of the
American or Know-nothing party which scored a
few victories in States, but was without effect on
national politics. except to insure the death of the
Wing party and bring into existence the Republican
party, with the modified demand that slavery should
not be extended instead of the demand for its aboI-
lion as advocated by the Wings under the influence
Of Know-nothingsm
The Greenback party and the Populist party both |
lad positive instead of negative issues but they were
10Th more or less sectional and did not last They
10Th gathered in the hysterical extremists for time
md then disintegrated. Then when the era of good
ceiling had been restored the seeds of anti-Masonry
which had lain dormant for many years, sprouted
nd produced the A p A., which had no constructive L
'ans for government, but only animosity toward
egious body. 1t thrived by hysteria for year or
wo. and was forgotten.
The Progressive party, like the PopuIist party,
entralized the hysteria for time but in the cleo
ion last week, the different kinds of hysteria again
ettled into groups and in New York, Mr.. Sulzer,
ibtonists polled double the number of votes poIed
y the Progressive candidate The old anti spirit t
as revived in other States under the names of Anti
aloOn League and Guardians of Liberty, and with
le same old effort to array class against class and
Iurch against church. 1t is not complimentary to
lie Progressive party that it should, in two years.
sintegrate into sections, none of which have con-
ructive idea but all inspired by animosity toward Il
,me other class of American citizens -
1t is also reflection upon the political sagacty
those who guide the churches, that just at the
me when they trying to get closer together in
e great work of the Master those antagonisms
ould find lodgment again in that place of brotherly
and that they should be anti-regiou more than
t-polticaL The result of third parties may be to
scpline the party in power but the history of such II
ovements does not show that they were constructed
r that purpose that they had any real reform in
ew. They parties of negation