The Cordova daily times., 1921-01-21
THE ALTERNATIVE TO RE-
 PuRLICANISM

The Republican party is now being lectured by some publications which, in many cases having given it a re- luctant support as @ sort of choice be- tween evils during the last campaign, now are disposed to hold it to very immediate responsibility for satisfac- tory performance of the work of na- tional reconstruction. Their admoni- tIons to Republicanism are coupled with the assurance that if it does not succeed in repairing all the damage that has been done during the past few years by the party in power, the people will be ready to turn to the Democratic party as an alternative in 1922 and 1924
 The Republican party may proper ly be held to strict accountability for an honest effort to supplant national chaos with national order. The task it faces is gigantic, and no reasonable man expects that it can be quickly ac- cOmplished. To halt many of the abuses,-'the waste, the extravaganza, the inefficiency, the neglect,-which has characterized the Democratic ad- mtnistration of national affairs, will in itself be a service of inestimable value to the American people. To put an end to the train of autocratic usurpations which have threatened fhn oviCtonan nf government at home and which abroad threatened to involve this re- public in complications that would have changed the whole trend of our national life, is service in itself of inestimable value to the American people. When a house is on fire, to put out the fire is something
 What is needed now from those who, either on negative or positive grounds, helped put the Republican party in power, is that they should help Republican leadership accom- plish the gigantic task laid upon it's shoulders. That will not best be &C., complished by querulous questioning of the motives of the leadership en- trusted with this duty, or threats of withdrawn support in case miracles are not performed. The new admin istration shows a disposition to well come advice and cooperation and SUD- port from all quarters, Democratic as well as Republican and Independent One of the most wholesome contribu- tions it is possible for the people to make toward the success of the new administration, is a general assump- tion that it is going to make good. The enunciation of the theory that the un- deriving motive of the next admins tration should be that of merely try ing to carry the elections of 1922 and administration should be governed only by the opportunism that would be affected by threats of opposition or promises of support two years or four years hence, it would be following in the Footsteps of an administration that has inflicted almost irreparable injury upon the country by trying to be popular rather than by seeking to be right, and therefore has failed to be either.
 But are these publications right in saying that if the Republican party should fail the people will turn to the Democratic party two years and four years hence? If the traditional Demo- cratic party of Tilden, Cleveland, Hen- dricks, Thurman and leaders of that type is meant, that is not true, for that party has perished from the face of the earth. Bryan began the work of its extinction and Wilson has com pleted it. If they mean the party of Wilson and Cox, they are wrong, be- cause the meaning of the last elec- tion, with it's two ito one vote of repu- diation, and the failure of the party to carry a single state where public opinion governs elections, means that the people have lost confidence in it. It will take a longer time than two or four years to forget sufficiently the record the present-day Democratic