The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-04-02
AssAssINATiNc THE DEMO
CRATIC PARTY
DEMO


Ex-senator Joseph w. Bailey is go-
ing up and down the. state of Texas
accusisg the democratic party with
sheer wastefulness and wanton extrav-
agance; charging it with all sorts of
corruption and immoralities: impugn-
ing its want Of integrity and states
manship and lampooning it for aban-
doning principles once cherished by
it and which he claims are essential
to the preservation Of the republic.
He says:
IF you will ask the men you meet
whether they are satisfied with our
political conditions very large ma
jority of them will tell you that they
are profoundly dissatisfied.
Helping to bring about this dissatis-
faction. doing what he can in the way
of sewing seeds of discord, the ex-
senator pretends to be surprised to
find spirit of unrest and discomfort
within the ranks of the party to which
he claims allegiance and to which he
owes debt of gratitude for bringing
him into public notoriety.
May we ask: rs charging the
party with corruption: accusing it of
abandoning its most cherished princi-
pies principles which he claims are
essential to the preservation of the re-
public'-the way to harmonic it and
bring about unification?'
Ex-Congressman Thomas E. Watson
is going up and down the state of
Georgia making the same preachments
as the Texas ex-senator: Senator Reed
of Missouri, is covorting over the
country sewing the same seeds of dis
cord and discomfort; Gore, the sblind
senator in Oklahoma; ex-senator
Vardaman in Mississippi, ad infini-
tum, ad nauseam.
Senator Bailey was turned down in
Texas. He found himself discredited
by large section of his constituents;
he was accused of worshipping at the
wrong altar and they refused to return
him to the United States senate; Wat
son was turned down in Georgia; he
turned his back on the party and be-
came the shining light of the populist
propaganda; Vardaman was turned
down in Mississippi and almost nine
out of every ten who are parading up
and down the country making war on
the democratic party today, if at all
scrutinized, will be found nursing a.
grievance.
Is history going to repeat itsel
1t may be remembered that a very
large majority of the voters of the
United States, north and south, east
and west, in 1860 belonged to the DEM
ocratic party-yet those in high places
planned its destruction
and boldly carried their plans into
execution.
'The democratic party while in the
very height of its power says one Of
our best historians, was stricken
down by its own hand
Have we forgotten what followed?
1t was to the south especially cost
" assassination.
A great many pure. upright. Chris
tian-hearted people of the North,
shocked at the saturnalia of mis-
government in the Southern States
and the unsavory scandals facing the
administration at Washington, revolt
ed in 1872 and had it been possible
for the democratic party to have be-
come united. it could have again OBJ
tanned control, but under the mis-
direction of its leaders it permitted
the psychological hour to pass.
Following the leadership of such
men as Henry Ward Beecher, the
more conservative and purer and bet
ter element of the republican party
again reyolted in 1884, and happily
the democratic party being united,
again obtained control of the reins
of government by the election Of
Grover Cleveland as chief executive.
Mr.. Cleveland was again elected in
1892 but his party came to the part.
ing of the ways in 1896 and invited
defeat because4of party disloyalty.
The detection of ex-President Roose-
welt and his following and his organi-
cation of the 'bull moose'party in
1912 gave the democrats an opporIun-
ity to again regain national control
and if the party will act with any sort
of loyalty and exercise only ordinary
sagacity it will continue in control for
an indefinite period.
The men we have mentioned and al
number of others have done what
they could to bring about discord and
disloyalty within the ranks of the