Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-10-26
REVOLUTION BY BALLOT

T'HE country is facing political
revolution. For the first time since
the period OF 1s56.lsGo two vitality opposed
interpretations OF our system come to the
death grip. Is the one TO take lasting
hold OF the Imagination Of the people or
the other7
The one concelves the central govern
ment as driving toward free trade and
making up for the ensuing dislocations
and losses TO labor by enforcing higher
wages at the expense Of wealth stored up
for production. The other concelves
the central government as committed
by the known facts concerning the dif-
ferent standards OF living in the nations,
to a protection which shall nicely de-
termine the fiux OF trade 80 that dis
locations and losses will be avoided; and
II looks TO cooperation between all classes
OF workers and work leaders to retain
both high wages and the integrity OF
stored.up wealth.
These definitions do not sound so thrill
ingly empattled as the cries OF slavery"
and NO Slavery" which we fondly
imagine were the essence OF the tell
ing days In the decade preceding the
Civil War. There were no such battle-
cries before the catastrophe. The Lin
coln-Douglas debates were a web of the
most complex arguments on matters
which only touched slavery indirectly
Neither side for a long time dared to
come out openly for or against slavery.
Douglas was not pro-slavery enough to
suit the South; Lincoln was too moderate
to suit the North entirely. The leaders
always have to split hairs. 1t takes
keen nose to detect the atmosphere of
great coming changes.
In any case we approach a new era.
The war and it's unknown results, the
portentous realignment Of our parties in
1912, agricultural as well as Industrial up.
heaval and dlssenslon, bringing wheat,
cotton and milk into politics as well as
steel and leather, mark the steps toward
crisis to fix the color Of the new po-
litical thought that is to be. Already
we can see the combinations attempted
ing an alliance with the organized indus
trials of the great cities for a give-and.
take. The former would get cheap i'm.
ports and seek to allay the alarm OF the
latter over what cheap imports mean by
limiting at cheap and quick labor vic
tories through crisis-legislation such as
the Adamson law.
A Republican victory would prevent
this unnatural alliance-unnatural be,
cause 1t could only mean an extension
of agriculture at the expense of indus
try which is not our natural course. 1t
would be natural in tagging Russia, but
not in inventive America. The whole
history of our country is a change of sec.
,tion by section from an agricultural
regime to a regime of agriculture and
industry combined. With the symptoms
of protection growing in one wing of
the Democratic party, a Republican VIC
tory would clinch its hold on that wing
as well as on the Progressives. The
Democratic party as 1t is today would be
dead-it would not matter whether the
name survived or not, whether the two
new parties were called Republican and
Progressive. or Republican and Demo-
cratic. They would both be for protec-
ton and they would differ only as to
method and not as to principle.
On the other hand, Democratic vic
tory, meaning eight consecutive years Of
control. might fix for a generation the
accidental causes, like the present wa
or masterful personalities. blur the real
issue. What form the inevitable po-
litical battle-crisis would take. when the
technicalities were cleared away. one can
not prophecy. 1t might be Socialism"
or mo Socialism" II might be Exports
or mo Exports" But in any event. when
the disillusioned and impoverished In
dustriais awoke, and when the web of
complex argument was rent, the meat of
those battlecries would be the same as
those of half century ago. Slavery" or
mo Slavery"