The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, April 01, 1921, Page 11, Image 11
( lWJi t 1 The Commoner APRIL,-1921 u i . ;. wtffl iv. i !S mission is fulfilled, and I am ready to help io constructive reform worn. I wouiu hko to ?n a nfimonratiR nartv organized, that is really TOemocratic. The old party has been aristocratic concerning color, and sex, and commercial caste. (Mhether a World Democracy including indus gtm'alism, one language, one flag, one money, and fSjfe religion is practicable, will have to be con- Ldered before long, l enjoy Tne uommoner tery much. iTnhn "WntrihlA. Montana. You wanted to hear "from those that would assist you in reorganizing flthjg Democratic party. You can count on mo - .ipcJing all I can, as a private. I have been with flSSR since 1896. I believe the best thing that mSSs "e done is y an g commoner Bieau Dy every one. Itt w TTiflrcrlnhotham. Iowa. The newspapers " " Sort that you will start to reorganize the "''Bfaocratic party. I followed you three times '''JfSldefeat and I am still with you. No man haa '-Vffiurae more to build up the party and to bring .iSliSUt good government tnan you. l wisu you 'WKfill. K. tj t)nnff Qnntli Dnlrnfn.. T fin not. Want fivma" " ""'t - - - fttgllose an issue of Tne uommoner. we are neartily with Mr. Bryan in nis mans to reorgan zT the Democratc party along the lines sug 'lygested in your February issue. That he may 5Yucceea is our wisn. iou cun uepeuu uu u iu .'Hine extern, uj. uui uuni. WA. R. fioBsard. Texas. That the Democratic iiflSME--' -" . . - - . .,. .kiSnrfv hnn eiifffirfirt a crusnine aeieat, Eoes wim- IkRV. navincr. nor is it hard to locate the cause. No .uloutgoing administration has any right to dictate mKA nnrfv rmiioiAa nr to nnntroi tne convention. ft ii-s a A "F"X ... u 1. f . Wlnis will always cause aeieat. a ueraocrauc SSSgress gave us Judge Parker and we went KiSwTi in disaster. Taft tried it and the result Slalwell known. Nominations to be successful 4inu8t come from the people. The democracy Wm not be discouraged; we can pront oy tne it' history. The Democratic party cannot aie, R th np.nnlfi'a nartv. Let the Democratic IjSftty stand true to the people and the people restore it po power again. rva a tp fihirlev. Kentucky. I could not trntiir nf .dnincr without The Commoner. I heart- iHy indorse the political policies therein set " ''''MiAOr.tU. A W'OU .yvu muwu owx,"" vv " 'f . 'Reorganization. WM . . . ... Bi, J. Ledbetter, Mississippi. I neartny ap WW nf tho National Legislative Program as 8Tnted in The Commoner. With such a plat form of principles tno uemocratic party may ue sarestorea to even greater accuiuyuBumeuia iui "' iod to tne PePle tnan m tne P2181, uan we not ' 'Bevise some plan to put The Commoner in the -TSniPR of natriotic men and women who will IJJever give up the ship, and who will work per- llptently and intelligently until tne goai is ireached. In this hour of dismal gloom give us ibre men like the Bryans! m -re Ul .J- Tf r-m h& t M 1' m. h j. TCocrer. Tennessee. I procured six sub- lEiMnHnncj in lfiRs than an hour. I do not want Ho miss a number. . I heartily approve of your )6sitions, politically ana religiously, ana wisn Won great success. NEW YORK AND PROHIBITION rv n vnto of 81 to 62. the New York state fissembly yesterday passed three bills which, in RVm lnnp-nacfi of their proponents, "put the state lifehind the Volstead act." These measures are Mesigned to enroll on the siae or pronioition en Korcement the full police power of the state of jNew York. If the people Of the state do not wish So enforce the national act they may lessen the Kf.Hv?Hfl nf the nolice arid state constabulary. Wt they wish to carry through in prohibition en- Korcement they can unaer tms Din Dust passea fetop the smuggling of liquor over the Canadian border and stop other forms of bootlegging. It was noticeable that the Democrats voted solidly Iks a party against the bills, and thirty-one Re feublicans joined them, but the Republican party Imajority in tne assemDiy is bo large mat a Skmrr?n nf nlnateen remained. The question was Ibrought to a focus by Assemblyman Gage, rsponsor for the measures, wno sam, vve must fi-ip away the artificial distinction which puts the fcriminal who breaks the liquor law in a pre ferred class." This action by the New York assembly is an indication that notwitustanamg U-h on-oniififl reaction from prohibition the peo- Pple of the country are not repudiating the kigbteenth amejaament. xiix. Democracy Must Be a Party of tne People (From The Montgomery, Alabama, Journal.) I. Pulling itself together after the frightful cataclysm of November, 1920, is in order fortho utterly routed but still unterrifled democracy to discover "where wo are at," and what we are going to do. It was the. "safe and sane" democracy that brought the party a like disastrous defeat in 1904. It was that "wet" and a mixture of bad leadership and personal subterfuge that brought disaster to the party in 1920. Both have had their vaunted innings and the results in both instances; not only added noth ing to the Democratic party, but left it almost a total wreck upon the broad ocean of political activities, with neither rudder nor compass, neither helmsman nor pilot. The candidacy of Parker was forced on the party at St. Louis by the "safe and sane." The candidacy of Cox was forced on the party at San Francisco by the wots and discredited party bosses. II. The selfish subterfuge in each instance was born in the brain the first of the plutocracy of the east, and the second of the breweries and liquor interests and plutocracy of the east. Many delegates in each convenUon, honest and well-meaning, yielded their better Judgment to the will of the minority sacrificing judgment and principle to a hope for victory. Many news papers, honest and reputable, acquiesced but recognized that the nomination in each instance was merely a hasty makeshift, chosen , to dis credit the leadership of the man who stood for real democracy and who 3lad done more for de mocracy than all the politicians of his time. They fell easily into the trap set for them, and worse still, many of them permitted themselves to join his enemies i'n coupling their praise of the men thus foisted upon the party with unworthy abuse of a greater man, whoso magniflcient ser vices pulse yet on the grateful memory of the Democratic people. All of them cannot be charged with selfish or personal motives in the share of this colossal blunder, but the result amply proves that those responsible are unwise and unsafe leaders, too inexperienced, too restricted in scope, or too cor rupt to be trusted with the serious business of president-making or policy-shaping for a great and vital party carrying an essential mission of liberty and reform. Regardless of the personality of either candi date or their environment, as the nominees of the party, The Journal gave tnem hearty and unbroken support. To the extent of our capac ity with pen we did all that we could do. But with our ear to the pulse of the people we knew from the beginning what all men now know that the men who forced upon the party the candidates at St. Louis in 1904 and in San Francisco in 1920, gave us impossible candi dates and impossible platforms. The nominations in each instance were the questionable shifts of Democratic opportunists who were compounding the inftiortal principle of Jefferson for the expediency of coveted success. III. Well, the experiment has been tried in two notable instances. The test has been fairly made. All the Democratic newspapers, and all the Democratic leaders, east, south and west, with few exceptions, gave their support, honest, earn est support, and the candidates and the .plat forms had free course to be glorified. The Democratic party is writhing today among the debris and timbers- of the worst political wreck that has been known in the nation. And now, 'what are we going to do? IV. Well, in the first place we are not going to surrender or despair. The darkest hour pre cedes the dawn, and the avalanche of November may be forgotten and reversed in the next cham paign. The Republican party is entering now a fearful crucible of full respect at a critical period of the country's history. Its past prin ciples and practices, if followed by Harding, cannot commend it permanently to the support and confidence of the American people. It has been the party of special privilege and the party of autocratic discrimination. It is the party of the predatory interests and the party of the criminal trusts. It is the party of centralization, and the party of imperialism. It Is the party of sectionalism and the party of race agitation. It cannot, if it can be judged by its past record, long satisfy the wants and aspirations of tho American masses, and In tho very hour of He triumph and exaltation wo make the confident prophecy, if tho senatorial coterie of politicians control, of Its disintegration and defeat' a de feat as overwhelming as that that has come to tho Democratic party and a defeat equally de served. But this defeat of tho Republicans is depend ent upon tho reconstruction of the Democratic party and its policies if made such as to crystal lize about its platform all tho progressive ele ments of the people. And now there are indications that at least we are going to heed the lessons we have learned from our disasters and defeats. Tho democracy is going to bo reborn, reformed and consecrated to the constitution, to popular rights and liber ties of the people to bo controlled by privates in tho ranks, not self-constituted leaders sdeking personal ends. We cannot afford any longer to be a party of mere ndgation, a party Of posi tion, or a party of senile imitation of tho party in power. We are going to believe something, and we are going to do something. Wo are go ing to be a party of creeds and not merely a party of hungry desires. Wo are going to quit truckling like cowards to the shadow of a mere ly temporary success. We are going to quit crawling on our bellies before tho Juggling of power. And what is now made clear, we aro going to find and follow a real leader if wo have to smash every slate and annihilate every politician that has fattened upon our credulity and suffrage for forty years. We have already been given a platform, by one who has the con fidence of the masses of people, not of one but of both part'es, and upon whicn all honest men can stand. It is a platform that is an open op position and a bold challenge to tho standpat creed everywhere. If wo fail to ive to this platform a ready and honest response, wo are going to lose the confidence of the honest masses of the American people and we unhesitatingly add, if we fail to do so, wo will deserve to lose them. And who has given us this platform? Why the man who has been truest to our principles and most loyal to our faith, and tho man in whom the American people have absolute faith and confidence a man who has never betrayed a trust. Thank God, we have such a man, a man of incomparable leadership and unim peached purity and consistency which shine like a silver star In the midnight of our misfortunes, lie believes to the uttermost the things which wo believe, and he has the courage and tho char acter and eloquence to give soaring wings td our Democratic thought. Tho great masses of the Americans, regard less of party, were never so ready to follow tho man who leads in right lines, provided only that he leads against the common enemy. The mission of the democracy is for the- wel fare of the people all the people. Remember that! And the -people must now put on their own thinking caps and know what they believe and let neither politicians nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, separate them from their love of liberty and the hope of the masses, which is in the democracy. And we do not want any hesitation, and we must not tolerate any evasion. .We must stand for reforms, not in platitudes or Incumbered sentences that may be miscon strued, but in short and ringing words which candidates will find impossible to misrepresent or evade. VI. Finally, let the things for which the new and progressive democracy stands be definite and set. Give the people something to vote for and they will vote for it. Let the fellows who do not be lieve in the things for which progressive de mocracy stands go away to some other party. Do not be afraid to let them go. For every man who deserts tho party fighting for the people because it is fighting for the people, there will be a hundred to come in and fill the ranks. It has come to a time when we are compelled Continued on Page 13. tji -ti. ..! . . i.iL . -ii-lf!iMA-i., l i. - . i .fcl 1 it. A. 2i Juui-At -, .-tf..s.