Show THE two fJIT UAJ SITUATION Moat people would shake their i beads dubiously over a statement that the country appears to be on the eve of a dissolution and reoryt tallization of parties He who should make it would be told tbat ever since 1872 there bad been prophets by the aoare foretelling lust such a change and that nothing had come of their predictions predic-tions Nevertheless there now exist Ftrnnger reasons than ever for believing be-lieving th rt the change is fast approncniiiK Perhaps these rea 8006 are not conclusive but there I purely cltn be no hwm in giving tnetu a lair consideration A reorganization of parties does not necessarily imply the adoption of new names Names are often more prrnieteoi than ideas In toe domain of political action especially they Survive the principles und purposes they typify in tbeir origin and are easily adapted to new conditions of party strife The names democratic and republican repub-lican have each done service tor a multitude of varied and metimea conflicting i iisunp and as they are good general terms of no particular meaning that any believer in a representative form of government can object to they may last for generation longer But the signs of the times plainly indicate that if they are not abandoned they will coon cease to represent the old quee tions and elements whieh they nave designated in recent years Let us see what these signs are One of the most conspicuous is the fact that an annual I message of a president goes to Congress for the first time in a quarter of a century in which there is no reference to the south as a political entity or even as a geographical section This is of great significance The south its institution behavior and designs has been the pivot of national poli UCH ever since the adoption of the Missouri Compromise Even as late aa the presidential campaign of 1880 one of the great parties maanita moat effectual appeal to the patriotism of the voters on the ground tbat the south was solid in support of the opposing party Now the official chief of the very party which obtained ob-tained another four yeard lease of power on that argument finds nothing in the attitude ot the people of that sEction to call lor even a passing remaik But this is not all The omission of President Arthur to discuss southern politia might be said to be accidental or a deep stroke of policy But Congress has been in session for many weeks and neither in the debates nor in the measures introduced can we find any trce of a southern question Apparently the south does not need legislation even in the opinion of tbe most radical radi-cal of the republican members nor is any occasion found for discussing her affairs Thus the central l quee tion which has divided parties since the war closed appears to have faded out of eight Yet the progressive changes in southern opinion were never more marked than now These changes however are all in the direction of obliterating old party lines The strong argument of the reoublicacs in the north has been that by a system of intolerance fraud and violence the southern states were kept in the political control of the democrats Only one party was permitted to have any potency in the election of public officers and the settlement of public questions Now the result of the sp rited cnvasa in Virginia last autumn shows that the one party epoch is passing away Ardent and healthful opposition to democratic ascendency is develcping in the whole region between the Potomac Poto-mac and the Rio Grande seizing upon one locai issue in one state and another in another but always fighting fight-ing the old order of things In Virginia Vir-ginia the new movement seeks to scale down the interest on the ejate debt in Tennessee it advocates mil payment in South Carolina it makea a grievance out of a law prohibiting cattle from running at large in North Carolina it wants a tax on liquorselling in Texas it talks of greenbacks All these issues are temporary and to some extent subterfuges sub-terfuges thinly covering the impulse to new organizations which many I men are reluctant to avow at the outset Below the local questions apparently paramount is everywhere the desire for freedom of political action for broader views for better educational systems and for more liberal and progressive legislation If the republicans are losing their cohesive force aa a party by the progress of the south the democrats are no better off They have kept tbeir northern contingent together of late by their power to throw the electoral vote oi all the aid slave states into their side of the balance in national contests Here are so many votee sure U they were able to say sweeping a hand over the map from Virginia to Texas Now we have only to gain a few more in i the north to win the fight This they cannot say in future contests I The development oi what is called Mahoneiam in the south makes it almost certain that if the present party lines are preserved in the north in the next presidential campaign cam-paign two or three of the southern states if not more will be lost to the democracy They may not become republican but they will choose electors who will cooperate with the republicans in the choice of a president presi-dent With this probability before them the democrats cannot make another canvass on their chances of success as an opposition party alone They cannot get votes on the showing show-ing that they hive the best chance toW to-W D They must take up fresh issues and demonstrate a patriotic purpose or their party will fall to pieces But they are as loath to identify their organization with any of the live questions fermenting in I the public mind as are the republicans repub-licans They have no policy but to drift March Atlantic |