The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-11-21
the second time only that coIoFcd man BIZ
been promoted Ia the Ep!,copatc,
ACCOUNTED FOR.

ACCOUNTED FOR.
Which shows the advantage OF having Il
nbllosopher as the chief editor OF the leading
ronnblican newspaper Of the northwest
While Horace White was editor Of the Chi
caoo TriJaae, not being philosopher he
|could look at things only in an everyday,
common sense way. When he saw steal,
he called the perpetrator II thief and attrib.
u,,d the crime TO his natural depravity OF
heart; and when he saw the republican
leaders boldly trampling on their own party
platform, cozening with Butlerism and cor.
ruption, and detying public opinion, he told
them, in his straightforward way, that they
were driving the party pell.mell TO dcsruc-
ton, and tor enc he had rather get off the
train and 90 atoot,
This sort of blunt, reckless honesty did a
great deal of harm to the partyD and it was
found necessary to get White out of the way
and put philosopher, like Joe Medill, IN
his place. And now philosopher Joe is run.
ming the great republican organ of the north.
west in the approved orthodox groove Apiece
of arrant thievcry in Office he reasons away as
an incxplcable moral sinuosity arising out
of the process of evolution and natural secc-
ton, whose laws are still too inscrutable for
common comprehension, but in obedience to
which the purest men are led into acts which
in no way initiate against their usefulness as
members of society, but which, IN the eyes
of the unenightencd alone, bear a sinister as.
pect. Butlcrism, according TO the same great
light, is a phase of political ethics that can
in no just sense affect the genera. moral
stamina of party thoroughly inoculated
with the virus, but rather acts as process Of
cleansing and publication, etc, etc.
None OF these things, theret ore-is the ma.
tural corollary Of philosopher Joe-had any
thing 10 90 with the recent disaster of the re-
publican party. That little smash.up, on the
contrary, was the result of a very small mis-
take in the mere details OF local political
management, and its effects can be but TEN.
porary and eyanescent. The little mistakewas
this: The republican party IS one sympathiz
ing with all the great moral reform move
ments OF the day, and as such naturally fell
in with temperance crusaders and lent its
great moral support 10 that movement Tenn
perance is a good thing-all right, etc, and
must enlist the sympathy Of all good men !;
but no political party can mount that hobby
with safety. twill inevitably cost votes to
DO so. II drove from the republican party
all the saloon keepers, all the beer and whisky
drinkers, all the Gsrmdns, and, in short, was
the sole and whole cause Of the late dirctul
disaster. The republican party Will consult
safety and avoid that biunder hereafter.
Great is philosophy! Joe is right. See
how his thesis is demonstrated in the case Of
La Salic county, for instance. PlHmb was q
Temperance man, out and ont and all over,
and lie was Il candidate for the state senate
Corbus ran on the anti-temperance tack. He
drank lager beer at the saloons aud ridiculed
the crusaders as crazy bedlamites. Plumb
had majority Of 200 against him to oyer.
come Corbus went into the contest with the
prestige Of 1900 IN his favor. Of course,
with such an advantage, and having avoided
the great mistake Of Currying favor with the
temperance zealots, and having all the Ger
man votes in his favor, Corbus, the straight
republican candidate, was uiumphantly elec-
ted. Well, no, not quite. He was badly
beaten by Plumb, the temperance man. But
then this don't initiate against the soundness
of Joe's philosophy. Every rule must have
its exception, You know.