Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-08

| bottles, inherently labeled. nnd buth
! empty. Recently n new bottle has been
! put up, labeled "Nonpnrtisnn" Into this
! has been poured the two most valuable
wines, TnriR aud Preparedness. what
IL left to no into the old bOttIcse There
are many things, and the dealers, the
politicians, must realize this Mt once,
LIVERY four years the citizens of the
IL United states come to the crossroads,
hesitate momentarily, read the signposts,
divide off and plunge heter-skelter down one
road or the other For four months, at least,
they dash hotly along the chosen path, cry
1naledictions upon those who have gone by
another way, make desperate efforts to keep
the country from the demnition bowwows,
and conclude their endeavors by eectng a
President and a part of Congress-or by fail
ing to elect them. Then for three and a half
years the country goes on before.
Most of these ardent laborers believe that
the roads lead to very different points. In
the past the signs have read, This way to a
strong centralized government" or ITO State
Rights, six miles," Later one sign pointed
to abolition" another to slavery" In more
recent times the stilrul sign-panters have
both used the same place name, prosperity
one directed the wandercr via protection"
the other via Free Trade" In the last cleo
ton there was a bypath to "Social Justice"
What will be the signposts this year?
The first thing to be noted is that the pro-
prietors OF the two main highways, the lead
ers of the Democratic and Republican parties
have painted out the sign on the Progressive
line and have each added Social Justice as
II suburb of their own. That is important,
because the bypath followed by many
to whom it was merely "thc road along which
1 CO." 1t led to Armageddon and other places,
but always in the company of the most
striking and distinguished personality of the
time. But more significant by far have been
the efforts made by the same leaders to
whitewash their own signs. The first stroke
of the brush was made by the leader of the
minority in the House, James r. Mann, when
he refused to allow the question of national
defense to be made matter of party dispute
and allied himself with President Wilson.
The second, the all but obliteratng str Ike,
was made by the President in his about-face
the question of Tariff Commission.
No, these splendid and patriotic actions
are not the immediate forerunners of
millennium. There are a number of gentle |
men still in either party to whom the |
thought of such a sacrifice of party is alb |
horrent. The standards of Pork and Priv |
ilege still hang high in the breeze of Ameri- |
can politics. But these new divisions
straws in the wind. American politics is |
beginning to blow straight to appointed ends. |
The wind IS still gusty but it is rising in
volume erhaps not this election, perhaps |
not at the next but eventually there will be |
no party division on the things which the
whole nation has decided to uphold.
What new divisions IJill there be? Unless
there are differences which correspond to
deep distinction among the citizens of the
country, then all this oratory, all these |
cigars and all the disruption Of civil life is |
worse than wasted. A mere disagreement
between the Ins and the Outs, politicians
rivalry with barkers stationed at each cir
Gus entrance is unworthy of a great people
The best thing about the new alignment
of forces, the joining of hands between Re-
publican and Democrat on certain questions,
is that it leaves them free for more mo-
mentous decisions still They are inevitably
as a sign of their devotion to the principle
of fair play, but preparing desperate on
slaughts as they stand. Their names may
not change, but the two parties will be
drawn inch by inch, reluctantly but finally |
into new struggle, in which their leaders,
by strange and ironic circumstance, will !
be Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jeffer-
son. For the irrepressble conflict of ther xt
generation Is the conflict of the ideals marked .
by these men, and of which the present age |
is seeing a bloody and desperate encounter
on the battlefields of Europe.
The relation of government to business, big
and little, is involved in this great problem,
and SO are all the many items of social well
fare which the nation may and may not take
on it's shoulders. When citizens think as the
voters of America are beginning to think the
existing political parties will have to lead
their thoughts or be discarded. strongly
government will be opposed TO a
loose, the service OF the State to the ind-
viduals will be opposed to the liberties which
the State can afford to grant. The compro-
mise between Order and Liberty will be made
in the alienation of parties representing one
thing or the other. The question which the
voter will be asked to answer will be in sim
pie terms. Do you want greater control of
the railroads or less? Do you favor a certain
type of tax? Shall Washington control Phil
adelphia or vice versa?
But behind all these questions VIII be the
differing impulses of men, and these new
impulses are the wines which must be poured
into the bottles Of our political parties Other
wise, the voters will turn elsewhere for their
drink.