What Will They Do With It?

Tlie people have spoken, and by their fiat Januury Ist, the democracy of Michigan wi!I, for the tirst time in a generation, come luto power in every bnuich of the state goverument and in al most every political subdivisión of the commonwealth. In all these years during which the republican party - born in Michigan - has held the rcins the state has been well governed. Education, agriculture, the meclianic arts, trade, mining, shipping and all the material, patriotic and sentimental condition that make a state great, prosperous and powerful hnve been fosteied to a degree that has placed this state in the front rank of the great Union gisterhood. lts citizens have been proud ot it, and its neighbors have admired it and copied frotn it. In short, it has been a model state. However,the years have carried with them an undercurrent of oppositlon to the power that governed - as all years in all governments must do - and this current, in the form of the organization cal led the democratie party, has at last come to the eurface, overrun the banks and flooded the state. The democratie party is in power, llaving gaiued this power it will be interesting to see what it will do with It. In purely state affairs it has combatttd almost every positlon the dominant party has taken. On the stump, in the legislative halls and in the democratie press, it has denounced the tax system of the state as a wicked, wasteful measure, only sustained in order to fatten a horde of leeches in the auditor geueral's office. Thousands of good republicana have believed the system wrong, though they have not belicved In the truth of the reasons alleged for its maintenance. Will the democracy correct this evil with öeo. V. Stone as auditor general and 100 democratie legislators anxious for appointment under him ' No republican goTernor has ever made an important appoimmeiit without being charged with doing it in the interest of the raihvays, or some other corporate organization - a charge that was never proven or warrauted by the outcome. Will Mr. Winaus make more worthy appointments, vvliich will secure to the people more oareful administration of public atltiirs? Our state prlsons, state schools, state asy Innig, reformatorios, etc., are acknowledged throogbout the world as models, and the men who manage them are recognlzed as leaders in their work. Yet every one of these institutions has been denounced systematically and persistently as a hol-bed of official corruption and república!! favoritism, and a wasting place of public ftinds. Havu the new powers any safe plans for conducting these state Instlluiloiis on uny bnltcr, more economical or humane principies? The state official salary li.-t has been charged with being paid for in advance of what the services were worth. Thls has been notoriously true of democratie harangues in the past two uionths. Will the governor recommend and the legislature legallze the rediiction demanded ? If so, will they attack the governor's btlpend, or the legislator's per diem and expenses? It has been charged for 30 years that the participation of state otiicials and employés in politics was a crime against public policy. Will the new officials abstain from exercising that interest in politics which every citizen thinkshe has a right to exetclse? Will the new torce of law makers and officials bettcr the condition of the people in any ratio in excess of the r.itio which has marked the aiivanc ; of the ye.irs that JI.L-t ? It has been eharged that the state owcs lts volunteer soldiers a large mount of bounty money. The sum, so lar as now known, is over $1,000,000. The allejration has been sowu broudcast over the statu that it is the fttult of the republican party that this debt bas never been paid. The present administratiou will on Junuary 1 liave the acenunt adjtisted and ready for payment. Will the democratie party as representad in the legislatura pay it? VVhat will they do at all commeusurate with what they have proinised and de mamled ? Tbe answers He unspoken bebtnd the silent lips of the future. Are Wlnanf, Strong, Soper, Stone, Braasteud, Sliaft.T, et al., able to say whut they will be? If they can, there are two mllllon Michigan people interested in hearing the declaration.