The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-04
Every Man a Politician.
MON 0e N. Y. Times.

from ute ~. II. IIHeS.
friend vino was present at the dinner to
General Grant by one OF our milltonaires, told
us there was four of the twenty who would
take Office. We were obliged to differ with
him. We believe there were five. AT least
one. quarter of our voting population, we take
it, are ready to hold Office, nay, anxious to
do 30. 1t is a curious and not very intelli-
gible fact.
Our Central Government, It is said, employs
and paws 60, 600 ofice-holders. They are
liable to be supplanted to please some whm-
are sure to be upplanted whenever there is
change of President. Sixty thousand in Office
implies one million out of Office who are NOV
ing heaven and earth to get in. The whole of
these we may put down as professed polti-
cians-men who are anxious to make politics
their business. 1t seems that man who has
once held an Office forever wants to hold an
Office. He cannot be cured by any known
means. A million capable men at this moment
among our people are passing wretched and
schemipg winter in the vague hope that they
may get an Office next spring from General
Grant.
1t is the most hopeless form of insanity
one would think, for it is apparent from the
five hundred offices in the whole country
which viii pay man decent support. The
pay OF the Secretary of the Treasury is about
one. half that of a coed bank president; that
that of a member OF Congress is one-half that
of good country lawyer; while the smaller
departmental offices are notoriously insufficient
to support family. IL appears by recent de-
velopments that men do want the place of In
ternal Revenue Commissioner-salary $1,000
who are at this time in receipt of salaries of
$40, 600 to $13, 000-and this, too, in face OF
the fact that it cannot be held over four
years, and may be snatched away at any
r'Oment.
The explanation of this astounding condi-
tion OF things is found by some in the theory
that men are venal. 1t is and has been urged
that men seek for offices not for the salaries,
but for the plunder. To a certain extent this
is doubtless true, but we are 10th to believe it
| to its full extent. But it is not to be doubted
| that our system is as bad as it can be and is
the worst ever invented. When the phrase,
'to the victors belong the spoils" was applied,
it was the most devilish text ever preached
from: we have been preaching and practising
it now these three decades. Men who get
offices know that their official life is short, and
if they can be tempted to make the most Of
their short time, they will be. snake hay
while the sun Shines is a maxim quite as
generally accepted and acted upon by the
politician as the farmer.
What is true of the Central Government we
may assume to be true of The lesser govern.
ments. We conclude that there are 25, 900 to
expect to, in the city government. We know
of men who go into school boards and every
other small place, who can have no purpose
but the hope of pickings. We know of men
who give up So day togo to the Legislature
to get 33-and for what And those who are
not directly venal are sustained by the hope
that something will turn up" by which they
shall benefit.
The truth is that this system is corruptng
the body politic. We read politics and talk
politics and smoke politics and drink politics
the year round. There seems to be something
fascinating to mortal man to be put up aud
pushed forward by great party. He finds
himself talked about courted and treated by
everybody as if he were great man; and this,
to most men, is the same as if he We're. He
arrives at dignity which he has hardly dared
to dream of, and thus we are being converted
into nation of politicians; and that means
ruin. The politician must exist, and he is, ol
ought to be, most valuable man; but he
ought to allow his fellow-men to seek him,
rather than he to hunt his fellow-men.
But as a business it is poor, and the pay il
small. Venal or not, hardly any man Car
keep money if he makes it in that way. Their,
are a thousand demands upon him, and il
takes sharp brain and ready purse under
our system for man to keep bis place agains
the million who are trying to get it away from
him.