New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1920-01-31

tics, The old party lines have broken
down so far as the rank and file OF vot-
ers arg concerned, and in respect to
principles both parties are bankrupt. AL
though the spirit of partisanship has
rarely been more bitter or more brutal,
and never since Secession has it been
more inimical to the welfare of the
country, the battle of these warning pol
iticians is fictitious conflict.
Mr.. Taft was Nh Wilson's opponent
for the Presidency in 1912; yet in so Ear
as fundamental questions of government
are concerned it would be difficult to de-
tect any important differences between
Mr.. Taft and Mr.. Wilson. Mr.. Hughes
was Mr. Wilson's opponent in 1916, and
it would be equally difficult to detect
any important differences between M.
Hughes and Mr.. Wilson. They might
disagree about this policy or that policy;
but in so far as their public utterances
of the last three years are an index to
their political principles, these differences
w1sld be personal rather than partisan i'll
any true sense.
And if one wished to carry the parallel
further he might we'll ask what there is
to distinguish Democrat like Attorney
General Palmer from a Republican ike
Speaker Sweet of the New York Assem-
bly,. Both of them have set forth to es-
tablish a new doctrine of Prussionism
which is a veritable crucifxion of the
spirit of American institutionSO
Abraham Lincoln declared in his First
Inaugural that -
This country, with its Institutions, be-
longs to the people who inhabit it.
The Palmers and the Sweets are seek
ing to set up wholly opposite theory,
which is that the Government no Longer
belongs to the people, but that the peo-
pie belong to the Government, and have
acquired a subject status under which
their most elementary rights and iber-
ties can be denied whenever the Gov
eminent itself undertakes to regard those
rights and liberties as seditious or inir1-
ical.
It is needless to say that when Dem
ocrats and Republicans can unite in the
advocacy of such a construction of the
powers of government under free insti-
tutions and when Democrats and Repub-
licans can unite in resisting such an in
vasion of American traditions, party
lines have become artificial and party
adherence has degenerated into mere
of prejudice, habit, self-interest aud
synicism.
This is not year for partisan cahdi-
dates in any sense in which that term
has previously been employed in politics.
Party labels there must be, because the
party labl has been established by law;
but when the Republican National Com
mittee is forced to offer a prize for a
platform, it is ridiculous to pretend that
there is anything which resembles a
genuine cleavage of public opinion along
party lines on the questions that con-
front the country. What is going on is
merely the manoeuvring of ambitious
politicians who are waiting to see which
issues are expedient and which are no..
Although the two parties are destitute
of principle, they still retain some Of
their former characteristics, and Mr.
Hoover combines the best of these char
acteristics in both parties. The Republi-
cans boast, and not without reason (ii
the record of the Sixty-Sixth Congress
can be ignored for the time being, that