TEE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 549 



fur clothes. It was inconceivable that any self-respecting person should be a 

 Democrat. There were, perhaps, Democrats in Lighttown; but then there were 

 rebels in Alabama, and in the Kuklux Klan, about which we read in the evening, 

 in the Cincinnati Gazette.^ 



Party loyalty within reason serves a useful purpose. It gives sta- 

 bility to public policy. It holds the party together for future contests. 

 It may mean devotion to principle, if the party stands for some great 

 cause. None-the-less, a blind devotion to party has been the bane of our 

 politics. It has introduced the extraneous issues of national politics 

 into our state and municipal contests. It has kept the unprincipled 

 leader in power. It has countenanced alliances between political ma- 

 chines subservient to the same sinister influences. It has acted as the 

 catspaw of the interests which participate in politics for private gain, 

 the most consistent of non-partisans. The growing independence of 

 the electorate is consequently a hopeful symptom. The greenback and 

 populist movements helped to break the crust of habit in voting, what- 

 ever one may think of some of the vagaries for which they stood. The 

 gold democrats in 1896 helped to save the country from free silver, and 

 the independent democrats in New York City, Baltimore and Mary- 

 land have repeatedly saved the cause of good government by breaking 

 with their party. The independent republicans in Cincinnati, Cleve- 

 land and Philadelphia have done a similar work. The independents in 

 all parties in Toledo and Chicago have greatly improved the tone of 

 municipal government. The results of the referenda in Ohio, Oregon 

 and other states show a disposition on the part of the voters to discrim- 

 inate. Party organizations give coherency to political action, but the 

 influence of the independent voter is necessary to keep them within 

 bounds. 



The increase of the Socialist vote is exerting a wholesome influence, 

 however much one may dissent from some of the cardinal points for 

 which the party stands. It forces people to reexamine the foundations 

 of their political faiths. It obliges the leaders of other parties to revise 

 their platforms. It gives large numbers for the first time in their lives 

 a political cause worthy of their devotion. Some news-dealers like to 

 sell The New York Call for the sake of the cause which it represents. 

 Many corner and bar-room loafers, now that they have become Social- 

 ists, are no longer purchasable on election day. A man who handled 

 large sums of Senator Stevenson's money in Wisconsin testified that no 

 money was used in the strong Socialist wards of Milwaukee. 



The moral is clear. The remedy for our political ills lies in quick- 

 ening the general intelligence and in appealing to the idealism latent in 

 the people rather than in a narrow suffrage. The latter will not save 



is Brand Whitlock, ' ' Forty Years Of It, ' ' The American Magazine, January, 

 1913, p. 18. 



