THE REMEDY. 755 



power, might say to the Democrats: 4 There is no use in 

 retaining your separate organization. Come into the 

 Republican party and help us to purify it and carry out the 

 necessary reforms. By your opposition you only make it 

 difficult or impossible for us to effect reforms in our party; 

 by going into a second party you only weaken the reform 

 forces. ' And if the argument holds against a third party 

 movement it applies with greater force against a second, 

 because were all the people to come together in one party, 

 there could, and would be a chance of obtaining reform. 

 But massed into two parties, almost evenly divided, with 

 party pride, party prejudice and party selfishness in opera- 

 tion to keep each of them solid and suppress independence 

 of expression and action, then, indeed, there would be very 

 little hope of reform. 



4 'Even admitting that political parties are necessary, 

 it is doubtful whether permanent parties are desirable. It 

 is almost impossible, even with the best intentions, to keep 

 permanent parties from lapsing into mere machines, man- 

 ipulated in the interest of stolid, selfish conservatism. The 

 chiefs and bosses, big and little, local, State and National, 

 obtain such an influence as to make the masses of the party 

 practically powerless. And each chief standing in the line 

 of promotion, and believing that, for years of party service, 

 he will be soon rewarded, is opposed to any change, any 

 progressive step that might imperil party success. And 

 party success is what he wishes, not reform. 



"When Samuel J. Tilden sent word to the St. I^ouis 

 convention, to make the platform as nearly like the 

 Republican platform as possible that is, as meaningless 

 and pointless as possible, so as to confuse and dupe the 

 masses he knew what he was after. It was not reform. 

 It was anything for success. Hence, to the practical 

 politician, Samuel J. Tilden was an ideal statesman. 

 There are many reform measures which the majority of 



