New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-12-27
WHY DEMOCRATS
LOST, AND WHY THEY
Will LOSE AGAIN
CONDITIONS WITHIN THE
DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF
STATE AND NATION ARE
UNSATISFACTORY TO DE.
MOCRATS
to State Record -

Special to State Record:-
(The following communication i
from a Democrat who has long bee
active for that party in New Mex
leo. but who has evidently tired o
the mismanagement and inefficienc
of that party, He is Representative
of hundreds Of Democrats in thi
state who think as he docs.--Ed)
The democrats lost the congress
sional elections in November, an,
will. in all probability, lose the com
ing presidential election of 1920. an'
the state and national leaders of tn,
party are frantically searching fo
| reasons for the defeat which will no
reflect upon their leadership. Moth
ing these leaders, both state and ma
tion, can now do or say, can cause
the real democrats of the nation to
follow blindly into the painless wild
| erness of governmental policies ii
which the democratic party now find.
itself.
1t may be, as is contended by some
that the arbitrary methods of dis.
tributing the best offices to them.
selves, and the appointment OF mer
of the Miguel A. Otero and Ralph
G. Ely stripe to places of profit
and honor through the recommends.
ton of the democratic state leaders
have lost to the party many votes
in this state. This contention can
not be we'll denied when any res
pectable man will admit to himself
if not to the world, that these mat
ters have been mistakes, but at the
same time it is certain that the dis
satisfaction SO general in the dem
ocratic party is caused by the mis-
takes of the national administration
and that dissatisfaction extends to
every state in the Union. That dis
satisfaction caused the repudat on
of the present democratic admins
tration by the voters Of the nation,
and will send the democratic party
down to defeat in 1920. 1t is now
too late to change this inevitable re-
suit.
From the very start the democrat
ic national leaders repudatci the
national platform upon which they
were elected in 1912. This repudia-
ton here referred to is not the one
term plank, which was repudiatei,
but other planks. All the way
through these democratic States.
men" have acted as men who believe
platform is to get votes with. and
not to live up to. As an example.
A few years ago Senator A. B.
Fall, of New Mexico, introduced a
resolution which had to do with what
was alleged to be the foreign policies"
of the administration The demo-
cratic senator's, recognized by the
administration as the leaders of the
party. violently assailcd the senator
from New Mexico, charging him with
all kinds of selfish motives in con-
nection with the resolution. denounc-
ing the resolution as vicious, des-
tructive, un-American. and about
everything else they could think of
that was mean, and then killed it
by a party vote. Just imagine the
ridicule which has been heaped upon
the national democracy from that
one affair. becluse it then was dis
closed that the resolution introduced
by the gentleman from New Mexico
was simply an exact copy of one
plank of the national democratic
platform of 1912. The democratic
leaders of the United States senate
had not only refused to live up
to their platform promise. but they
had denounced it in every strong
term of language permitted by the
ethics of the senate. The only ex-
cuse for this action yet advanced
is that these democratic senators
did not know the resolution they
we're denouncing was a part of the
democratic national platform, which
is no excuse at all-simply indicat-
ed the possible number of blooming
bone heads in the senate who arc
posing as statesmen and democratic
leaders. With that kind of leader
ship is there any wonder that the
party has gone astray?
The same platform democratic
national platform of 1922 declares
I'VE believe in the preserva-
ton and maintenance in their
full strength and integrity of the
three coordinate branches of the
federal government-the execu-
tive, the legislative and the ju-
dicial-each keeping within its
own bounds and not encroaching
upon the just powers of either
of the others"
How have the democrats kept this
principle of government, which was
he one thing that Thomas Jefferson
ried the hardest to impress upon
he minds of his intelligent coun-
rymen? We find President Wilson,
BECAUSE of advice given him, no
loubt. trying to dictate to the voters
# Wisconsin their senatorial choice.
.ater he attempted to dictate the
Election of Henry Ford, in Michigan.
md the democratic party of that
tate so far forgot its democracy as
o accept the presidential dictation.
fortunately for the democracy and
he nation the attempt met with fall
ire.
Still later the President came out
With a strong appeal to the voters
# all the states TO elect a democrat
c congress, in direct violation of all
he teachings of democracy, and also
n contemptous disregard of the de-
larations of the platform upon
which he was elected to his office.
We know that these violations of
emocratic teachings have been ex-
lained as necessary under war con-
itions. which is not true. because
our form Of government is not 4,
efficient for any emergency, then Il |