Indeed that is manifestly part of
the business of this year of reckoning and assessment. There is no means
of judging the future except by assessing the past. Constructive action
must be weighed against destructive comment and reaction. The Democrats
either have or have not understood the varied interests of the country.
The test is contained in the record.
What is that record? What were the Democrats called into power to do?
What things had long waited to be done, and how did the Democrats do
them? It is a record of extraordinary length and variety, rich in
elements of many kinds, but consistent in principle throughout and
susceptible of brief recital.
The Republican Party was put out of power because of failure, practical
failure and moral failure; because it had served special interests and
not the country at large; because, under the leadership of its preferred
and established guides, of those who still make its choices, it had lost
touch with the thoughts and the needs of the nation and was living in a
past age and under a fixed illusion, the illusion of greatness. It had
framed tariff laws based upon a fear of foreign trade, a fundamental
doubt as to American skill, enterprise, and capacity, and a very tender
regard for the profitable privileges of those who had gained control of
domestic markets and domestic credits; and yet had enacted anti-trust
laws which hampered the very things they meant to foster, which were
stiff and inelastic, and in part unintelligible.
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