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original.
THE
NEW DEMOCRACY.
_A Handbook for Democratic Speakers
and Workers._
An Outline of the Methods of the National Volunteers of
Democracy and of the Volunteer Speakers Bureau.
BY
WALTER VROOMAN.
Price: Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 25 cents.
Copyright
BY WALTER VROOMAN,
Wainwright Building,
ST. LOUIS, MO.
Witt Printing Co.
THE NEW DEMOCRACY.
PREFACE.
Upon the close of the 1896 national campaign, it was decided at an
informal conference of several of the leaders of the Democratic
party, to establish a bureau of speakers for the continuous
propaganda of Democratic principles by new and young men, while the
acknowledged leaders of the party were busy in the Senate and House of
Representatives. In December, 1896, headquarters were opened at St.
Louis.
Several hundred speakers soon became attached to this bureau, and it
was decided to form a permanent organization, that would bring together
not only the speakers but all the workers of the party. The outcome of
this has been the organization of the National Volunteers of Democracy,
with the Speakers' Bureau and Training School as a special department.
Each volunteer is expected to assist in forming regular Democratic
clubs, except where for special reasons it is found advisable to
organize Silver or Populist clubs, and also to build up and strengthen
clubs now in existence.
Heretofore, the handbooks for Democratic speakers and workers, have
been so stuffed with statistics and figures as to burden and confuse
the minds of their readers, consequently there is a demand for
something simpler, for something that will give a bird's eye view of
the political situation, with suggestions as to best methods of work
and speech.
It is to supply such a handbook to Democratic speakers and workers, and
to outline the plans of the Democratic Volunteers, that this little
book has been written.
St. Louis, Mo., June 1, 1897.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The New Democracy is the Old Democracy. It is likewise the only
Democracy, and in July, 1896, after years of suppression, it became the
Regular Democracy.
The Democracy taught by Jefferson and Jackson is the Democracy of
Bryan, Stone and the Chicago platform. But the victory at Chicago of
true Democracy over the counterfeit that for years fraudulently used
its name was not however a finality; it was a beginning, and what was
there accomplished nationally is yet to be accomplished locally in
many states and cities. We have not only to push on to new and local
victories after taking the central citadel, but what is of greater
importance, must hold the positions already taken.
It was said that at the Chicago Convention we not only "raised the
dead" but "cast out devils." We must remember, however, that there are
other devils, which in many places still possess the party locally, and
the miracle of casting them out can only be performed by the power that
comes of unselfish patriotism.
It is noble to fight for a righteous cause, but it is glorious to WIN
in a righteous fight. The exposure of Republican lies, the betrayal
of their every promise made prior to the last general election, the
perfidy back of their pre-election threats, have made Democratic
victory reasonably certain in 1900. When the country has been cursed
four years more by the infamous gold standard and monopoly rule, the
majority of the people will favor a radical change. WE CAN BE DEFEATED
ONLY IN ONE WAY. Let us repeat this. There is but one possible way by
which the producing classes can be defeated at the polls in 1900; that
is by the same old trick used by tyrants in all ages, the placing of
their own lieutenants as the leaders of the people.
The plutocrats fully appreciate this. They know that the people, weary
of Republican misrule, will vote another party into power, hence their
only salvation is to guide and control. They can do this in but one
way, by having the opposing army officered by generals of their own
choosing. It makes no difference how big the army, if the enemy chooses
its officers, it is doomed.
This was the trick by which monopoly defeated Democracy in several
states during the recent campaign. The forces of the people were
hastily organized. The recruits were strangers to one another. By a
bold move on the part of plutocracy, backed by ample corruption funds,
the willing tools of the money power were in many places made leaders
of the very army formed to destroy the money power. As a consequence,
we, the people, CAST the votes, while in many places the gold standard
representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties COUNTED them;
and incidentally failed to count MANY.
In 1900 the people may poll any number of votes, but, if we fail to
stamp out such traitors as David Bennett Hill, Calvin S. Brice, Wm.
C. Whitney and John G. Carlisle, who use the Democratic name only to
defeat Democratic principles, and who claim friendship for the poor
man only to add his product to the fortunes of the rich; unless we
expel these conspirators and hypocrites from the Democratic party, with
all their abbettors and partners in fraud, we will be defeated in spite
of our overwhelming advantage in numbers.
Democracy now means the people against the organized money power. It
is simply insanity for us to prepare for battle and select as drill
masters, men whose salaries are paid by the very money power against
which we fight.
Suppose a million American soldier boys were to march with flying flags
and beating drums, against an invading army of Cossacks and Turks,
and that by some trick the wily Czar and Sultan should secure the
appointment of Russian and Turkish officers over our troops. Should
we be surprised if thousands of our brave boys were led headlong into
ditches and slaughtered like rats in a trap and our magnificent army
cut in pieces by half as many European king worshippers?
We should not be surprised. And no man who knows anything about
war could have been surprised when such fate befell the magnificent
army of raw recruits led last year by Bryan against the invasion
of the European moneyed despots. We were cut to pieces, ambushed,
scattered and defeated solely by the treachery of subordinate leaders
whom our great champion and the people trusted, who, by sympathies,
self-interest and custom, were bound to the very money power that we
were fighting to overthrow. And now the very men who sold out the
people, who defeated the cause of American independence and fastened
upon our nation the rule of the European money power for four more
years--these same men, led by that adept in low cunning, that master
of political knavery and arch enemy of popular rights, David Bennett
Hill, are trying to get a foothold again in the party they have just
defeated, are again trying to gain the confidence of the millions whose
liberties they sold, and whose children they are now trying to betray
into perpetual slavery.
Some may say that it is impossible for these conspirators ever again
to get a hold on the Democratic party. Such over-confidence is always
a fatal weakness in war. When we know that the only possible way
for plutocracy to continue to rule our country is by corrupting the
Democratic party and placing its own agents in Democracy's counsels,
and that the united money power of the world, will during the next
four years (aided by the best talent that can be bought by unlimited
funds), attempt to man Democracy's army with plutocracy's hirelings.
Our business is not to lull ourselves into a false belief of security,
but to work by day and watch by night to defeat the enemy. It is not
for us to proudly boast that there is no danger, for there is danger,
GRAVE DANGER, SOLEMN AND AWFUL DANGER, THAT WITH AN UNLIMITED USE OF
MONEY AND THE PURCHASE OF THE BEST POLITICAL GENIUS AND CUNNING OF OUR
COUNTRY BY MONOPOLY, WE MAY AGAIN BE BETRAYED ON THE EVE OF BATTLE.
When the outcome of our struggle is a world to be gained or lost,
civilization to go forward or be derailed, all that is dear to us, all
that is most sacred in life saved to us or snatched from us, we cannot
be too alert, too eager, or too anxious; cannot prepare or organize
too thoroughly for the primaries that are to decide the leadership and
control of Democracy in the contest of 1900. We should, each of us,
swear in the name of God and man, that all the power and influence we
possess shall be earnestly exerted from now until 1900 in ridding our
party of these parasites who are in it only to destroy it. We should
bitterly oppose the selection of any man for election judge, precinct
captain, ward committeeman, city committeeman, county committeeman,
state committeeman, national committeeman, or any other place of trust
in our party, who is known to be in sympathy with, or friendly to, the
gold standard, or to any one of the giant trusts now helping destroy
our Republic.
If we would destroy the trusts, we must be led only by known enemies
of the trusts. If we would be victorious in this conflict against
plutocracy, we must follow only leaders whose records prove clearly
that they are absolutely free from entangling alliances with plutocracy.
Some say we must harmonize all elements. We cannot harmonize the
interests of the man who steals and the man who is stolen from, any
more than we can harmonize fire and water. We only weaken our cause by
trying to get the men against whom we are fighting to join us.
Some one exclaims we must have the gold Democrats with us, or we are
lost. THERE CAN BE NO SUCH THING AS A GOLD DEMOCRAT. The Democratic
party stands for the abolition of the gold standard and every other
monopoly by means of which scheming monopolies rob the public. A
gold Democrat is as much an impossibility as a round square, white
lamp-black or a red-hot icicle. The plutocrats who left the Democratic
party and enlisted under the banner of Mark Hanna, will never join us
except for the purpose of defeating our plans. They will never work for
the success of the Democratic banner, unless they themselves carry that
banner, and lead us, its followers, into their own traps, wherein we
shall be despoiled. For the vote of every traitor and deserter, gained
by such cowardly attempts at compromise, we shall lose a hundred loyal
votes through sheer despair.
We do not need the gold bugs. If they are honest in their professed
change of heart, they will vote for honest, fearless candidates as
well as for those of the milk and water brand, or who have no definite
programme except their secret pledges to moneyed constituents. If they
have not experienced a change of heart, we do not want them, for it is
better that they remain open enemies than that they become professed
friends, seeking an opportunity again to betray us.
We do not object to receiving in the ranks the man who comes back to
the Democratic party and says: "I deserted you, but I wish now to
return to the fold; I was a traitor during the last campaign, but I am
willing to vote with you hereafter." But the manhood, the self-respect,
the enthusiasm of Democracy do object and register a vigorous protest
to permitting these deserters to assume places of responsibility with
power to sell the people out again.
No one objects to the gold-bugs returning to our fold any more than we
should to the blind regaining their sight or to sinners desiring to
wash away their sins, but we do object to these sinners returning at
the price of giving our party organization over into their hands.
A PERTINENT ILLUSTRATION.
An ominous example of the methods being used to capture Democracy by
the money power was afforded by the lawless militarism brought into
play by the gold bugs at the recent municipal Democratic convention
of St. Louis, when, their fraud being discovered, and legitimately
defeated by the people at the primaries and at the convention, they
appealed to the last resort of despotism everywhere, the force of arms.
For many years a clique of unscrupulous politicians controlled St.
Louis Democratic conventions. Early in the April campaign, Mr.
Hugh Brady, for many years Chairman of the Democratic City Central
Committee, stated in an interview published in the St. Louis papers
that a clique of "machine" politicians had "fixed the machine" to
nominate Mr. Edwin Harrison for Mayor. The street railway managers,
who last fall knifed Bryan and the Chicago platform, came to the front
as Mr. Harrison's supporters. Mr. C. C. Maffitt, who bolted the party
last fall, headed his delegation, and in several other wards the
Harrison delegations were led by gold boltocrats. The "machine" was for
Harrison, and Hugh Brady declared the "machine" could nominate any man
it wanted.
The men who supported Mr. Lee Meriwether for Mayor were all aggressive
Bryan Democrats and opposed not only the gold standard, but also
opposed street car domination in city affairs. They appealed from the
"machine" to the people. They pointed out how the leading supporters
of the "machine" candidate were gold boltocrats and street railway
managers, who use their political influence to escape paying hundreds
of thousands of dollars of taxes legally due the City Treasury. They
insisted that franchises to monopolize the public's streets ought to
be sold, not given away, to private corporations. And on this platform
they secured enough delegates to control the convention.
On the morning following the primary election, even the Republic,
the organ of the "machine," admitted that Mr. Harrison had but 134
delegates, while the opposition had 153[1].
[1] See Republic, March 20, 1897.
When the delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison united in supporting Mr.
Meriwether, it was apparent that nothing short of fraud and force could
prevent the defeat of the machine. Accordingly, Mr. Ed Devoy, Chairman
of the Central Committee, called the convention to order and hurriedly
announced as its governing officers Messrs. Lutz, Barrett and Wand, the
three campaign managers of the "machine" candidate.
Scarcely was the announcement made when ex-Governor Norman J. Colman
rose and protested against the attempt to muzzle the convention, and
nominated for chairman Mr. Sterling P. Bond. Upon Devoy's refusing
to put this motion, one of the delegates, R. T. Brownrigg, made the
motion which was duly seconded, and Gov. Colman put the question to
the convention and it was carried by a majority of the delegates. In
a similar way secretaries and sergeants-at-arms were elected, the
convention refusing to accept the slate prepared by the machine.
After the committees had been appointed and reported, nominations for
Mayor were made, and on the second ballot Lee Meriwether received 155
votes, eleven more than a majority of all the delegates elected, and he
was accordingly declared the nominee of the Democratic party.
Thereupon ensued a scene more worthy of Russia than of the American
Republic. Foiled in the attempt to carry the primaries; foiled again in
the effort to force their own tools upon the convention as governing
officers, the gold men and the street railway managers who were present
on the floor of the convention, played their last card in the game to
defeat the candidate pledged to make them pay their taxes, and ordered
their servant, Devoy, to do by force what he had failed to do by fraud.
A Board of Police Commissioners lent themselves to this shameful
assault upon American liberty, and ordered three hundred armed police
to drive from the hall the delegates opposed to Mr. Harrison. Sterling
P. Bond, John J. Fitzwilliam and W. A. Brandenburger, the duly elected
chairman and secretaries of the convention, were brutally assaulted by
the police. Mr. Bond was carted away to jail in a patrol wagon. Mr.
Meriwether, who had been called on to address the convention after his
nomination for Mayor, was thrown from the platform by two policemen,
and, in company with a majority of the delegates, was forcibly expelled
from the hall.
Since the 9th of November, 1799, when Napoleon's grenadiers drove
the French deputies out of their convention hall at the point of the
bayonet, history affords no parallel to this outrage by the St. Louis
boltocratic politicians.
That in claiming a convention has no right to elect its own presiding
officers the gold boltocrats were utterly wrong in custom as well
as equity, will be seen by recalling the manner in which last year
the Chicago Convention refused to accept Senator Hill, the National
Democratic Committee's suggestion for chairman, and instead elected
Daniel, a silver Senator from Virginia.
Although the St. Louis papers subsequently supported Mr. Harrison,
whose nomination was only accomplished by the illegal use of three
hundred police, those same papers did not hesitate to say, the morning
after the convention, that the action of the machine was illegal and
tyrannical:[2]
[2] Witness the following extracts:
Police Commissioner Bannerman in Globe-Democrat, March 22,
1897:
"The trouble was all started by Ed. Devoy refusing to allow
Bond's name to go before the convention as chairman. The
whole thing was a scheme on his (Devoy's) part to split the
convention. Of course it was wrong to send Judge Bond to the
Four Courts in a patrol wagon."
Republic editorial, March 21, 1897:
"Committee Chairman Devoy made a mistake in surrendering the
gave before the delegates had elected a temporary chairman.
A convention holds within itself the right to choose its
temporary officers."
Post-Dispatch editorial, March 31, 1897:
"The blundering began with Chairman Devoy. It was his duty to
recognize any delegate who desired to move a substitute for
the committee's report. Devoy failed in his duty and furnished
provocation for all that subsequently occurred."
Post-Dispatch editorial, March 22, 1897:
"Dr. Lutz had no right to a place on the platform until he was
chosen temporary chairman by a vote of the convention. He had
no more right than any casual visitor to himself take the vote
of the convention on himself as temporary chairman. The plain
fact is that the whole of these preliminary proceedings were
in every particular irregular, unparliamentary and void."
Post-Dispatch editorial, March 23, 1897:
"The delegates who asserted their right to choose their
temporary officers were within their right in doing so, and in
fact only did their duty. THE RIGHT IS SACRED."
Globe-Democrat, March 23, 1897:
"The attitude of Assistant Chief Kiely is regarded as
having been strained in the interest of the Harrison crowd
and significant of the Police Commissioners' domination in
Democratic politics."
A WARNING FOR THE FUTURE.
Might never makes right. The candidate whose nomination rests not upon
ballots but upon the clubs and guns of three hundred policemen, cannot
be the rightful nominee of Democracy, which means people's rule, not
police rule. When appeal was made from the outrage of the corrupt
political machine, the Court of Appeals decided that the matter was
beyond its jurisdiction, that no Court has the power to review the
action of the Election Commissioners, even though they certify to the
nomination of a candidate without a shadow of right to such nomination.
Had the Court consented to examine the evidence and gone into the
merits of the case, it could not but have decided that the rightful
nominee for Mayor was Mr. Meriwether, who had the affidavits of a
majority of the delegates showing that they had supported him in the
convention.
This high-handed attempt of the gold boltocrats to tyrannize over the
convention resulted in Democracy's defeat. But despite the stinging
rebuke administered by an outraged people, the machine is again
endeavoring to fasten itself upon the Democratic party of St. Louis.
The same tactics, and even more desperate and lawless ones, will be
used by the gold plutocrats throughout our country. The people must be
prepared to meet them.
What are the best methods of preparation? It is to give some
suggestions as to methods, and to increase, the vigilance of the
patriotic Democrats and friends of humanity in whose hands it may fall
that this little volume has been written.