The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-03-23
DlSCORDANT POLITICS
Editor the star.Independent:

Editor the Star-Independent:
Dear Sir-That there should be
marked lines of demarcation between
political parties opposed to each other
ON grave questions of public policy is
not at all an unreasonable assumption.
On the contrary, such hostile array of
the. adherents of political party
against those of its adversary, it must
be admitted, is entirely normal and
salutary. That very powerful party
organization may be subject to, faction
al disturbances from some of its pro-
fessed adherents is not to be doubted.
but that its numerically weaker op.
ponent should be> afflicted by similar
outbreaks among those protesting to
approve its principles would be almost
inconceivable were it not fact of con-
slant occurrence right here in Pennsyl-
vania. These reflections have been SUI
perinduced by statement made in the
public press by Judge E. G. Bonniwell,
of Philadelphia, in which it is asserted
that if the Roland s. Morris control of
the so-called Democratic organiZatio
in Pennsylvania be continued for an
other campaign the Democratic party
in this State will be reduced to the
fourth place from the third to which it
was relegated at the last election, or
words to that effect.
Judge Bonniwell is leading Demo-
crat in the city of Philadelphia, and
has had opportunity to observe the op-
erations of State Chairman Morris at
close range To an independent mind
his view might seem somewhat preju-
riSt 70
party manager consists chiefly in his
reliance upon the use of patronage of
the Administration at Washington
placed at his disposal and that of his
factional confederates. His fault,
therefore, was venial compared with
that of those "higher up" who made
him their agent. The people under
stood the matter very well when they
went to the polls last November and
rebuked those "higher up" not merely
in Morris bailiwick, but in the Demo
cratic States of New York and New
Jersey. "Oh what fall was there,
my countrymen!
BY the way, the anniversary of the
birth of Thomas Jefferson, the founder
of the Democratic Republican party"
(that was the name the Sage of Month
cello gave his party) the 18th of April,
is near at hand and organizations that
profess to believe in the principles
enunciated by Mr.. Jefferson propose to
celebrate that occasion in windy en-
thusiasm to be provoked by oratory
from those who have notoriously re-
pudiated the example set by the first
Democratic President. On February 2.
1901, after his election to the Presi-
dency by the House of Representatives
had become certainty, he wrote:
Zone thing l will say, that as to
the future, interference with elections,
whether of the State or General Gov
ernment, by officers of the latter,
should be deemed cause for removal;
because the constitutional remedy by
the elective principle becomes nothing,
if it may be smothered by the enormous
patronage of the Federal Government"
In September, 1904, in the midst of
a heated Presidential campaign, he
notified his Secretary of the Treasury
that "the officers of the Federal Gov
ernment are ineddling too much with
the public elections. VIII it be best
to admonish them privately or by proc