“If Judge Parker is a Democrat, Mr. Bryan is not. If Mr. Bryan is a Democrat, Judge Parker is not. “No party-name is wide enough to blanket two such irreconcilable theories of government.” That’s where the _World_ falls down. The Democratic party-name is wide enough to blanket anything and everything, anybody and everybody. I’ve seen it cover the Prohibitionist and the Saloon-Keeper, the Gold-Bug and the Free-Silverite, the corporation lobbyist and the Bible-class expert, the Free Trader and the Protectionist, the Bank men and the Anti-Bank men, the Income Tax men and the Anti-Income Tax men, the Expansionists and the Imperialists, the Inflationists and the Contractionists, strict Constructionists and those who sent the United States Army to quell a local disturbance in Illinois over the protest of a Democratic Governor. There is no earthly difference, antagonism, variance of creed, or policy, or purpose, or persons that the Democratic party-name is not “wide enough to blanket.” * * * * * The Democratic party-name not wide enough to blanket Judge Parker and W. J. B.? Oh, yes, it is. It did so in 1904, and it will do so again. If Bryan whips Parker in the Convention of 1908, Parkerites will knife Bryan as they did in 1896 and 1900. If Parker beats Bryan in the Convention, Bryan will “come across” in 1908, as he did in 1904. This play of politics is a very pretty game, and the politicians get a good deal out of it. The people are kept interested and excited, but the people don’t get anything out of it. It is not seriously intended that they should. Primarily, the game is played for the benefit of the players. * * * * * Tom Taggart, the gambling-hell man of Indiana, must feel very funny when he looks back and sees the imposing lines of Democratic preachers, Bible-class graduates, Amen-corner grunters and family-prayer brethren who are meekly following _him_, Taggart, as he, the official Commander-in-Chief of the Democratic Party, bravely leads his loyal hosts upward and onward. If Tom T. has any sense of humor he must enjoy such a situation with exquisite relish. _The Gods We Worship_ The savage African, in the wilds of his native home, takes a few sticks and some cloth and makes an idol which he calls Mumbo Jumbo, and before which he falls prostrate, in devout worship. Whereat we civilized fools all laugh at said African, and call him a barbarian—as indeed he is. Nevertheless, it is quite apparent that while we make no gods out of sticks and calico, we worship Mumbo Jumbos of our own just the same. Take, for instance, the Gold Reserve. Nature did not produce it; it has no life, no motion other than that which we lunatics give it. One day it occurred to John Sherman to stack up, in the Treasury, a cool hundred million dollars, and keep it there, idle. He straightway created the _Gold Reserve_. Any law for this? No.