12 Conservative.
DISCUSSION OK A NKW 1'OMTICAL ,
I'AKTY.
A gontlcnmn of high character and
wcll-kuown in Boston for his business
ability and integrity writes as follows :
BOSTON , Dec. 3 , J898.
EDITOR OF TIIK CONSERVATIVE ,
Nebraska City , Neb.
Dear Sir : I note with much interest
the suggestion contained in your issue
of recent date concerning the need of a
new conservative political party in the
United States. A suggestion of this
kind emanating from so responsible an
authority should lead to careful discus-
.Mon , possibly with a view to organizing
such a party.
It certainly is true that there is today
a large body of intelligent , independent
voters whose affiliations with present
parties are not of a strong character and
who feel , to an ever increasing degree ,
that neither the republican nor the dem
ocratic party is entitled to their com
plete respect and sympathy , either in
the general principles which they advo
cate or in the practical way in which
they attempt to carry out the wishes of
the voters. There are , too , thousands
of men of high character who hold
themselves entirely aloof from present
parties , some identifying themselves
with independent movements which in
the main appear to be futile , while oth
ers shift their votes from party to party
according to circumstances.
There is a reasonable doubt as to
whether a third party would improve
the general situation , but it is possible
that a new party consisting of the best el
ement in existing parties would form the
nucleus of a movement which would in
time supersede one of the old parties.
Wo are constantly told that it is the
dut.y . of the citizen to identify him
self with one or the other great political
organizations ; that if ho desires to
bring about better conditions and a
higher type of statesmanship he should
apply his efforts for reform within that
particular party. I do not wish to deny
that this is a true method of reform and
yet there are many difficulties in the
way , because the constant and almost
irresistible tendency of independent
voters is to segregate themselves from
present political organizations.
If a new party could be organized
which would hold and concentrate the
allegiance of this large class of voters ,
giving us a fresh movement based upon
this growing desire for purer and better
politics , a largo and powerful organiza
tion might be built up which in time
would entirely supercede one or both of
the present parties. It seems quite con
ceivable that both the republican and
democratic parties , as a whole , have
through corruption , mismanagement ,
boss rule and incapacity to evolve vital
izing and purifying issues , reached a
stage where the process of disintegra
tion has begun or will soon begin.
If this bo true , I for one would like to
see the possibilities of the now party well
discussed. I should like to see in this
country a party which would truly
represent the honest and intelligent
voter , a party where the sole test im
posed upon candidates would bo their
honesty and intelligence and not the
particular opinions they may hold upon
current problems.
It has been somewhat disappointing
to observe a disposition among those
who have been looked upon as independ
ent leaders of political thought , to im
pose upon candidates arbitrary con
ditions as to the opinions they must
hold , irrespective of their personal in
tegrity and intellectual capacity , which
it seems to me should be the first and
only requisite. I should like to see a
party where candidates were not cate
chized as to their particular beliefs.
What you designate as the conservative
party should also be liberal. It should
be conservative in that it would stand
as a bulwark against ignorance , dem
agogy and corruption , but liberal in that
within the lines of honesty and intelli
gence entire freedom of opinion would
prevail.
We need unfettered thought. If the
men who exercise freedom of thought
and independence of action can control
any strong , progressive , dominating
party , they can save the country. It
seems almost impossible for men of this
character , except in isolated cases , to
exert the force and influence they
should through any of the parties now
seeking popular support. If the party
you suggest can give us what we want
let us have it !
Very truly yours ,
HENRY H. PUTNAM.
DISTINCTION.
of becoming a sen
ator from Nebraska to represent the
commonwealth in the upper house of
the national legislature is desirable to
only such men as may faithfully , zeal
ously and intelligently discharge all the
duties of the place with a sense of the
obligation of the oath of office and a
courage which consults only duty and
defies clamor.
Sometimes the election to the senate
is the commencement and the end of
distinction. Sometimes it is extinction.
The state of Nebraska was admitted
and Senators Thayer and Tipton took
their seats in the senate of the United
States in March , 18G7.
Since the expirations of their terms
Saunders , Hitchcock , Paddock , Van
Wyck , Manderson , Paddock , Thurstou
and Allen have been senators from Ne
braska.
Among them were efficient workers
for the material welfare of the state.
Notably successful in this line were
Hitchcock , Paddock and Mauderson ;
the latter having been , 110 doubt , the
most popular and effective senator
over sent from this state.
But the state was never by any sena
tor brought really into incandescent
notoriety until the U. S. senate was
awakened to the efficacy of Nebraska
ozone as a lung tonic and vocal invigorator -
ator through a fourteen hours' speech of
the Honorable William Vincent Allen.
That effort , which hurled words at the
senate , the galleries and the world with
catapultic endurance for more than a
whole legislative day , brought the cy
clonic energies of Nebraska oratory into
universal notice.
But the colleague of Mr. Allen is no
mute.
Senator Thurston is an orator with
bagpipe and brass band attachment , self-
adjusting and self-applauding. His
speeches for free silver and for free
Cuba have been saturated with tears
and his sonorous sobs in behalf of the
victim of the crime of 1878 and of sym
pathy for the victims of Spanish tyr
anny have penetrated every ear and
moistened every eye between two
oceans.
At times the continent has been con
vulsed , contorted , griped , as it were , by
the oratory of Senator Thurston and
many immediate auditors are reported
to have evinced all the symptoms of a
boy full of green apples and pain.
There is nothing more excruciating than
wind colic.
The mythological music and the hyp
notism of Pan , who charmed all the
gods and whose melody excelled that
of the mocking bird ' 'which among the
leaves of the flowery spring laments ,
pouring forth her moan , a sweet sound
ing lay , " are mere untutored noises
compared to the saccharine euphony and
vocal confections of Senator Thurston ,
of whom it is related , with candid cre
dulity , that speaking iu an autumn
afternoon , in the county of Buffalo , near
a field of corn and potatoes , he so
charmed both crops that every ear of
corn leaned towards and listened to the
speaker , while enormous potatoes crept
out of their alluvial beds , climbed upon
the tops of their hills and winked and
blinked with moistened eyes when the
senatorial spectacles and sonorousness
glanced full upon them.
For such a speaker , leader , philoso
pher and distiller of soft-summer-drink
eloquence what distinction is there in a
senatorial toga ? How can the fizz and
fizzle , the spark and sparkle , the flash
and dash and slash of impetuous and
eructatory oratory be enhanced by the
mere presence of a senate ? Is Niagara
bigger , its thunder louder when specta
tors gaze upon its glory l't
Perhaps Charles Dickens had in mind
a modern statesman of the Thurston
type of thunderers when in Domboy &
Son he wrote :
"Ho is , if I may say so , the slave of
his own greatness , and goes yoked to
his own triumphal car like a beast of
burden , with no idea on earth but that
it is behind him and is to be drawn on ,
over everything and through every
thing. "