The people of Alabama will no longer vote the Democratic ticket simply because the "antediluvian" leaders say so. They will no longer be intimidated by party threats, or blindly driven by party lash, but they are going to have a good reason for so doing, hereafter, before casting their votes for the party which has been in power in Alabama for eighteen years, during the whole of which time the people have grown poorer and poorer and no measures have been adopted or suggested for their relief. The great masses of the people cannot again be forced to neglect more pressing interests to take issue on tariff reform only. While these people favor tariff reform they demand other more vital things as well, and they have formulated these demands into a party platform; and the brave and patriotic people who have the courage to maintain their convictions, will no longer be frightened from the issues they indorse, by threats of disrupting an existing political party,--especially when there no longer remains any necessity for keeping that party together. For what purpose are political parties organized and why do they continue their existence? The reading and thinking masses understand that there is but one answer: Political parties are formed to educate the people upon a proposed policy and to be instrumental in having such policy enacted into law as soon as the majority of voters favor and cast their votes for it. When the policy which brings a party into existence has become accepted as a proper theory of government and ceases to have any opposition, then the necessity of the political party itself ceases, for it has nothing else to accomplish. It is proper and usual, however, for such a party to continue its existence until some other living issues arise which demand the consideration of the voter. When this is done, one of the political parties which has accomplished its mission, should, by appropriate platform, present the issues of the voters of the country; or some new party having that object in view, should be formed.