The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1874-01-24

permit the workingmen of our state to become
the prey of the professional sharper ana
spokesman of the Hobbies, would pc not lleIeiS
a technical violation of our oath Of office, but
surrender of every honorable attrlpuee Vi
our manhood.
COMPLAINTS OF PUBLIC CORRUPTION.
1t must admitted that the popular COM
plants of public corruption manifest IN the
country at the present time are not without
substantial foundation. Ihsee complaints 40
not originate altogether III specific assaults
upon the public treasury, or specia! and det-
mite violations of the popular rights by the
legislative power. They relate to the whole
,locial and political structure. The period OF
our civil war was succeeded by public debt,
and public debt has been accompanied by IN
or Innate expenditures Tor the support OF the
government. A secondary result is the effort
to place the iEteress tot partisan organizations
above the claims of good government, and to
protect favored classes at the common ex-
pense.
Private life never fails to profit by public
example. Greed for office social extravaganza,
immortality, contempt for honest labor, cor.
porate extoStIon, and the efforts OF the specu-
lative classes to amass and enjoy wealth not
honestly earned are evils which have eDsued
IN their logical order.
am not unconscious of the d, tculties at
tendant upon the en9eavOr to resist estab-
lished currents of thought aud reverse rules
OF action invested with the sanctity Of long
practice and precedent. We SHALL not be ike
" 10 forget, however, thai the responsibility
of our State III respect to the issues now
absorbing public attention Is much enhanced
by the fact that oar people were among the
first to realize the magnitude of those issues,
and to demand formal recognition of them
by their representatives, IN power. The lutu
ences of your action and example, Therefore,
are rot wholly limited to your immediate con-
stItuencv, but III an important degree pos
o.aS n naI Is n ~ O.
termine whether the purposes of government
are superior to the purposes OF party; Whet Ter
honesty and Intelligence or personal avarlce
and importantly constitute qualifications tor
otnce whether legislatures shall intelligent
ly reflect the popular Will or become the IN
struments of the impertinent, the impOrtu-
nate, the mercenary, and the corrupt.
POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS.
1t is true that political organizations are
necessary to the triumph OF right over wrong !;
but let Us also remember that development
and progress are dictated under the law of
God that all parties that blind to this
decree must decay and die, that political
partsanship which renders the public good
sobservlent to the success of party. or which
requires electors under any circumstances to
elevate vice and ignorance to public station,
as a party obligation, is to be deplored and con-
demned ; that the Donors and emolGments of
office rlGhtfully belong to those who have
earned them by lives of personal honesty aud
intelligent industry, and that the greatest re-
ward of political service Is the consciousness
of having faithfully discharged public duty.
No political organization which fails to recOg-
nize these principles of action is worthy Of
liberation.
CONCLUSION.
LIZ conclusion, it becomes me to acknowl-
edge To you that l have entered upon the du-
ties of the executive department with much
dilfidence, and with great distrust III my own
ability, but with firm belief that | shall not
co ton ana that the guidance and Less-
ing of an all-wise Providence VIII attend all
our endeavors 10 promote the public good.
WM. II. TAYLOR.
MADISON JAN Is 1874