Show democratic HOME RULE home rule is one of the shibboleths of the democratic party north and booth south it pretends to ba be the guardian and conservator of the home rule role principle lat let ug us look at a few of the states whose government baa has recently been in democratic hands and see bow how the principle baa bag been carried oat ont 1 in new york last lost winter for the first time in many years the legislature was democratic in both branches thanks to hill and maynardi May narda theft of the sanate senate and the governor was also a 11 democrat the session of the legislature le was by the passage of bills which imposed oa on the people of troy ol 01 rochester and of other cities against their will and in spite of thair their protests charters which were designed for purely partisan ends and which to a large extent deprive the people of control over their own local affairs As for new now york city far from granting to it any additional measures of home homs rule a partisan election law was passed taking away equal representation in the board of election an excise masure measure was passed against which most earnest protests were nude made and the infamous huckleberry bill was enacted which absolutely roba robe the city ol 01 valuable franchises and against which even tha the mayor of the city raised bis his voice 2 in new jersey the governor and both branches cf c f the legislature legisla tui re have been D mccratic for two years within that time the keople of the state and of the several townships cities and counties thereof have been deliberately and systematically robbed of home rule in several beveral most important the privilege of voting upon appropriations for town purposes baa has been taken away from the people of this several townships fio go that now they have no acice in the levying of taxes for local purposes the very cit citadel adelof of hone bonne rule in the northern elates the town meeting has thus been stormed and the people are deprived of a right for which their ancestors ance would have fought and died rather than surrender it the local option law passed by the previous republican legislature and by who whose e provisions several whole counties and a large number of townships and email small municipalities bad banished the saloon from their borders baa has been virtually repealed anda law passed which places in the bands hands of the governor the appointment of excise commissioners for every county who may grant licenses to cell 1 liquor anor at their pleasure and in total defiance of local sentiment new charters have baen baert imposed upon the cities of newark patera PA teran in and passaic designed to take away from the people of those places the control of their own local affairs and ofil off leera cera elected by the people have been turned out to make way for legis legislative lativa appointees A more outrageous asure usurpation aaion of power has his never been witnessed in any state amoreux A more explicit violation of all the principles of home rule it would ba be impossible to find and the perpetration of thi results regalia of this outrage has been arranged arr angad for a shameless gerrymander of legislative districts in order to insure so far aa as human foresight can reach a perpetual democratic majority in the house of assembly af 3 north carolina is a state in which tho the Damo crata crato have been in power for many years the natural unit of political power in the bouth south is the county as in the north it is the township and a century ago the people of virginia and the carolinas were as jealous of their county rights as of their state rights but the principle of centralization has overwhelmed all the southern states homa home rule was never allowed ta to stand in the way of supremacy pre macy there are a dumbar of counties in north carolina which are and if alloway to elect thair own era would actu actually illy republicans in ii order to down dawa the radicals the principle ol 01 home rule wag was rath leasly violated and tha the people of all tha the cou courties aties deprived of control over their local altire tha legislature took upon itself the power of appointing the magistrates in each county and in turn gave to these creatures crea turea of its own the appointment of county er era these again appoint tha the of election elec tiou in ineich each precinct two judges of election are appointed by the board of commissioners for the county one badge from each party the people have nothing to say about it the party cauca aea sea or committees have nothing to say the board appoints oni one white Damo democrat crat as judge ol 01 election in each precinct and for the republican inspector may and often does appoint an ignorant negro who can neither read nor write who has neither the intelligence to know whether his side Is in being cheated nor the moral or physical courage to protest if it ha he did know further these county commissioners have absolute power over excise mattera matters and at their pleasure may grant every license that Is applied for or refuge refuse to grant iny any licenses at all only once in two yeara years people of the county if enough of them petition for it are kindly allowed to vote on tho license question for the rest of the time the commis el oneri nere who are tha the creatures ol 01 the magle magistrates who in turn cro are the crea tares of the legisla legislature inre have the power in their ova own hands 4 but in florida even such vestiges of home role rule as exist la in new jersey or north carolina have been swept away in that state not even the city of 0 jacksonville is allowed to elect its own mayor or appoint its own policemen the reason is simply because the city has a republican majority and BO so has the county aa ad for the counties they have no rights that the legislature respects 8 tha the election officers are not only legislative appointee appoint ew but they may bo be and usually are all of one political party election returns are absolutely sol worthless in florida and elections are a mere more form the necessary number of votes can be and often is determined ter mined beforehand by the democratic bosses and the casting of the ballots ha has a nothing whatever to do with the declared result of the election these are sample states two in the north and two in the south which show how much of real regard the damo cratic party has for the principle of home rule aud and to what lengths that party will RO go in depriving the people of all control over their own local affairs wherever it considers such each robbery desirable for the perpetuation of democrats in office if there is a voter in the united states who supports the democratic party because be he regards it as the cham champion lion of home rule let him examine the facts and he will find that no outrage on the home rule principle is too glaring no robbery of local liberties too audacious or too wholesale fo the democratic party to commit for the purpose of gaining or retaining the spoils of office THE tim SALT LAKE says that I 1 nobody cares anything for the long of a platform adopted at chicago although most of its deliver ances express the convictions of the great mas mais of the people cleveland is platform enough Clev elands opinions are unchangeable la in his own conceit be he knows more than all the people henry watterson the brilliant but erratic editor of the courier journal knows all about the staffed stuffed prophets convictions and he it was who said just before the assembling of the chicago convention that with cleveland aa as a candidate there was DO no needom need of a platform for be he would not recognize its binding force |