Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-10-16
How the Party Has Made Good, Told
BY the Sun.

both interesting and profitable to look
back over the past seventeen months
Of Democratic national administrn
ton and take account of what he
country has gained or lost under the
new regime. A dispassionate and
phliosophic review of that period
cannot, of course, be founded on the
claims Of the Democratic campaign
book, nor on the criticisms of the
opposition. But we think, without
any disposition to exaggerate, that
the present furnishes one of the few
political instances in our history in
which the claims of the dominant
party agree very closely with the
facts and with the conviction of the
country. The summary of the Will
son administration made in yester-
days Sun, by our Washington cor
respondent is so similar now to
everybody and so much n matter of
everyday knowledge that we fail to
appreciate how much it really means
and how great is the change in party
as well as public thought and view
point which It indicates. Had any,
one prophesied such results seventeen
months ago, even the most optimistic
Democrats would have been inclined
to doubt the reliability of such pre-
dictions. The truth is that the DEM
ocrtaic party's record has as far sur
passed It's own expectations as it has
dumfounded its opponents. The
majority of the party as represented
by the delegates to the national con-
ventlon was not originally for Wood
row Wilson. He was nominated onlv
after bitter and stubborn fight.
which left many elements of the
party angry and left many others
doubtful as to the wisdom of what
J had been done. lie was practically
forved upon the party by sentiment
outside of its delegates, by moral
influences which surged up after the
primaries had been held and which
swept machine and bosses along with
it.
10 the conservative there was n
suggestion of hysteria and wild inn
pulse about the Wilson triumph that
was not rcassuring, and the wise
acres shook their heads with gloomy
forebodings. In point of fact, how
ever, Mr.. Wilson's nomination was
due to very logical processes in the
public mind. What he was and what
he stood for, his strength and his
possible defects, were obvious; but
the more these were contrasted with
what other candidates sttod for. their
strength and their known weakness
cs, the more certain the masses of
the party outside of the convention
hall became that he was the most
available presidential timber. So the
party representatives, yielding to the
| pressure from without, did what they
did not intend to do when they came
together, and nominated the man who
was not their first choice.
what has now come to pass has
in it the appearance of political
miracle. There have been a dozen
rocks on which the party ought in
fallibly to have wrecked, atcording
to all previous experience and rules
OF navigation. 7 here have been a
score of issues on which it ought
to have Numbered if it had acted
as 1T often had previously acted. There
have been half dozen sharp diff
fercnces of opinion which ordinarily
would have been irreconcilable and
fatal. Yet the party has avoided the
rocks and blunders and has remain
ed solid, in spite of freedom of
of thought and expression. And now
that it faces a congressional election
1T has little to apologize for and lit
tie to regret.
This unusual and unexpected situa-
ton in the second year of an admin
istration which had to deal with so
many difficult and delicate questions
is due, of course, in large part to
the initial step in the right direction
when the party selected Woodrow
Wilson as its leader. 1t builded more
wisely than it knew when it finally
chose him, but the very fact that it
was itself converted to public view in
making that selection showed change
OF the heart and outlook of the party.
Had the party midn remained I'M
| changed Mr.. Wilson would have been
almost helpless. But the new presi-
dent found new spirit in the party
to work with him and his new spirit
has grown stronger with every month
of the administration. There has been
not only n Jeffersonian President in
the White House, but Il Jeffersonian
majority in Congress. No such CO.
operation as has been witnessed
would have been possible had not
congress received the same baptism
I