Year: 1874

local seIf-Government as n Party


Issue.


The framers of the platform adopted by
ecent Democratic State Conventions have
'Vmced no great sagacity in presenting local
en-government as a leading political issue.
Inc democratic party can succeed only by
'niisting voters who have hitherto acted with
he republicans, and there is no evidence that
epuotcans are dissatisfied with their party
or 'u failure to recognize local rights There
a' present no deeply felt specific public
S''e'ance which local self-government would
'nooy and Americans are too practical
poopie 70 change their politics on mere the
''e''cai abstraction. The things which most
een'V need reform are admitted by demo-
@ W De within the proper scope of federal


The great question of the cur


ior example, has not assumed, and is
!. os ''heiy to assume the form of contest
state regulation and federal regula-
.on Ihe democrats in Congress have not
=, ior restoration of the old system


o pahks as they must logically have


uiey attached any great importance to


.oiPs OF local regulation. However it


De with few individual demo-


'.' country at large is not


W complain of Congress for un-


W regulate the currency, but only


incompetency in a business which
H. eo to be within the scope of its


Nooody believes that thirty-seven


isia'ures would manage the currency


la--kka..sese a--k..ee Is no good reason to sup


the Legislatures of the Western and


States would show more wisdom on


ect than their Senators and Represen-


Congress, and if Congress should re-


currency to local control the probable


bnce would be o great crop of wild


INKS in the West and South. 1t is


10 grievance to be saved from such


local self-government. The democratic


Fould be disastrously beaten if it should


the next Presidential election pro-


g local control of the currency as it's


issue. What the country demands on


bject is not that the power of Congress


ailed, but that it be more wisely ex-


A swarm of wildcat banks in the


established by local authority, would


recated by sound public opinion.


1t, then, is the sphere within which the
Bdracy demand refrigeration of local
@ers? Not in tariff legislation, most
ertaih hly; for nobody disputes that the rates
If duties on imports should be adjusted
~ Congress and not by the States.
When the democracy put forward local
as leading political issue
hey are bound to show a list of practical
wills, or at least some one existing practical
Evil, which the application Of their principle
would redress The only thing of much con-
sequence to which they can point is the i'm
position of negro suffrage upon the South.
But they dare not 60 before the country with
he repeal of negro suffrage as party issue.
It would be political suicide to array the party
against the Fifteenth amendment, and since
hey acquiesce in the permanence of negro
suffrage what can they expect to gain by
raising o cry for local self-governnent? The
South itself would prefer military rule by
federal authority to such self-government as
exists in the States where there is large
negro vote. They have local selt-government
in South Carolina, and it is their worst afflic-
tion. There has been recent experiment of
local self-government in the District OF Co
Lumbia, aud the scandalous result is TOO fresh
In the public recollection to make the country
very much in love with the principle. There
is local self-government in Philadelphia, which
is ruled by as corrupt ring as that which
has been recently overthrown in Washington.
Mayor Havemeyer and his convicted Police
do not shed very
attractive lustre on local self-government in
New York We need honest government we
need wise legislation but honesty and wis
dom are alike wanting at the national capital
in the State Legislatures and in the NUM-
cipal governments. Until the local govern
ments are shown to be purer and better than
the federal the country will not be persuaded to
seek relief by jumping out of the fryins-pan
into the fire. Until the party which makes
local self-government one of its chief issues
can lay its finger on some practical grievance
which the application of that principle
would remedy it can gain no republican
recruits by presenting SO empty and barren al
issue.


The only practical thing which the demo
cratic party can ask Congress to do in tn
interest of local self-government is to repea
the federal Election law. But as that Law
only applies to the large cities the mass o
the people care little about it, and voters VIII
have hitherto acted with the republican part
will not dissolve old ties for what they woul
deem so slight reason. If the federal Elec
ton law were really regarded as an impo1tan
grievance the States could easily redress
by separating the election OF local officer
from that of members OF Congress. Th
L