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Show . CHANCE FOR THE DEMOCRATS The Democratic party expected de feat, but it did not expect defeat on so large a scale. It could not have been wholly blind to the handwriting handwrit-ing on the wall that has become increasingly in-creasingly legible to the rest of the nation, and indeed of the world, and since Wilsonism became a distinctive distinc-tive factor in its councls. Doubtless there were hopes of the unforseen. There are always Incalculable factors fac-tors in every election. Prohibition was still something of a dark horse. The vote of the women was supposed suppos-ed to be a mystery. The league of nations might show unexpected str ength. No one knew what there might be in the chapter of accidents. But thoughtful Democracy every-v every-v lmre knew that they had run their rare aiid lost it, that th stars were gainst then.. They expected to lose but tney did not expe;'t to lose so V.avMy, and so perhaps it is not unnatural un-natural that their disappointment sh' uld show itself in bowilderment and incrimination. A scapegoat, per haps a whole flock of scapegoats, must be found somewhere. The supposedly sup-posedly guilty ones must be read out of the party. Resentment and revenge re-venge seem for the moment to have ln!en the place that should be glv-n glv-n to reconstruction. Let us hope that better councils will speedily prevail. The Democratic Democrat-ic party is not annihilated, nor exterminated, ex-terminated, nor any of the other things that are so glibly spoken of it. It remains as much a part of our system of government as ever It was md its disappearance would be a national misfortune. Majority parties par-ties flourish, not alone on their own capacities, but upon the strength md the intelligence of the opposition oppositi-on that they must encounter. They find their chief incentive and stimulation stim-ulation in the constant challenge, the critical vigilance of their opponents. oppo-nents. Neither the Republican nor any other party has reason to wsh for undisputed power. It would cer tainly mean schism and disunion. It might easily mean license and corrosion. cor-rosion. It may. Indeed, be contended that the Democratic party has now an opportunity op-portunity of which it may make the most salutary use. It may display by its intelligence a strength that is denied to it by its numbers. It represents, rep-resents, or it did represent, a habit of political thought, a definite political po-litical theory, that we may hope will not prevail, but that none the less ought to be presented as a critical and modifying force. The Republicans Republi-cans have now to run the gauntlet of their own successes, an ordeal that it would be foolish to underestimate. underes-timate. The judicial attention of the nation will be focused upon them and upon their critics. The magnitude magni-tude of their success will bring its own temptations with it. They will be assailed, in a sense, by their own powers, and they will be handicapped handicap-ped by inherited difficulties, domes tic and foreign, of the most termid-able termid-able kind, and sometimes of a nature na-ture that does not find its way into the light. If the Democratic party can now ascend to the plane of constructive con-structive criticism, of definite and intelligent opposition based on true Democratic principles, it will not fail of the appreciative attention of the nation, due to the proper per for-mance for-mance of an essential political duty. There was never a more Interested audience than now. Never was there a time when true Democracy statesmanship states-manship had a better opportunity to show the stuff of which it is made. The size of the Democratic congressional congres-sional vote need be no indication for gauge of Democratic success. But the Democratic party must learn to diagnose it9 own malady. There should be no more talk of scapegoats, no more vain searchings for causes that have no more to do with Democratic failure than has the equinox, no more fulminations again st individuals who actually did no worse than swim in the eddies thinking think-ing them to be the stream. ..The Ve-mocratic Ve-mocratic party failed at the election not because It was Democratic, b because it was not Democratic but Wllsonlan, so far at least as it was anything. If It had actually been Democratic its failure probably would have been far less marked. It would do well now to recognize that in adopting Wilsonism, it abandoned abandon-ed every distinctive Democratic prin ciple and turned Its back upon the faith of half a century. It preached popular liberties and abolished them. It preacehed economy and indulged in-dulged In a saturnalia of extravagance. extrava-gance. It broke every one of its own Ten Commandments and violated ev ery clause of Its creed. All this It did under the beguilements of a leader who lead It Into the wilderness of apostacy and left it there. If the Democratic party will now rehabillta-tate rehabillta-tate Itself, and it can so easily do so. it must renounce Wilsonism and return to the faith. It ought to be eager to do so, seeing that Wilsonism Wilson-ism Is the negation of Democracy, its denial and its betrayal. There is no other salvation. Arganaut. |