River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-03-06
MEN SHOULD NOT
BE ACCORDED Prepayment.

| BE ACCOhOED fEEEEhmE EMF.
PREDATORY to the expression of few
thoughts upon this subject suggested
by the above caption we quote as fol-
lows from the Portage Register:
The use of the word pneumonia in
Madison appears to have direct refer
ence to its classical origin. 1t is de-
rived from the Greek ,7peuud, which
means spirit or breath. Two Assem-
blymen have died this winter from
| having taken too much pneumonia,
| the papers say, and on Tuesday night
last. John A. Byrne, erier of the SUI
preme Court, while on his way home,
found he had taken on more pneumo-
MIA than he could carry, SO having no
one to help him, he staid till morning
on the street, and was badly congealed
so that his pneum0 was not heard i'll
court on Wednesday morning
In far too many instances both elec-
tive and appointiye offices, from Unit
ed States Senator down to pathmaster,
are occupied by men whose habits of
intemperance totally unit them for a
proper discharge of their official du-
ties and it Is high time that some ef-
forts were made tending towards re-
form in the direction indicated. We
do not assume that none but total alb
stinence men should he elected or APP
pointed to office, but we believe that
the interests of the administrative
legislative and judicial branches of the
government, as well as those of the
common people, would be materially
promoted by public sentiment that
would make habits of intemperance a
perpe tual bar to official preferment.
Some railway corporations have al
ready assumed more radical position
than this, requiring pledge of total
abstinence as one of the qualifications
of their employees. The United States
Senate and the National House of Rep
resentatives have each furnished con-
spicuous examples of the degrading
habit to which we refer and of the
evil and demoralizing tendencies of
the same, while the courts, legislature
and civil service" in Wisconsin are
by no means exempt from intemper-
ate public officials. Public men are
popularity presumed to have been adj
vanced because of their peculiar fit
ness for the respective positions which |
they were chosen to fill, not the least |
of which qualifications should be the
possession of a character worthy of |
emulation; but this presumption is |
fallaciuus, and the rising generation |
should not attempt to follow the ex-
ampleS set by public men of the pres |
ent day without careful discrimina- !
ton between the worthy and UNI
worthy. The spectacle of a drunken |
official is nothing which inspires an |
ambitious young man with the idea
that to become a subject for official |
emolumentS and honor he need be |
over scrupulous about his habits, but |
rather implies that to become popular |
he must be one of ''the boys. The |
press generally is entirely too charita- |
bic towards these 'benZine' soakerS |
who draw means from the public |
treasury with which to debauch them
selves and others in revels of diSSipa- |
tion, and if anything transplres
which is not on the programme it is
attributed to pneumonia, a fit or some |
other convenient appellation, without |
a statement of the true cause; in re-
cent instance where circuit judge |
took on too heavy a cargo of "benzine"
it was called business" instead of |
pneumonia. Is business derived
from Greek word? AS rule public
officials are well paid. the salary of
which will profit man of temperate
habits while the Incorporate official
will improvIdently squander his salary
in habits of dissipation and at the eX
piration of his official career will be
worse off than at its commencement
by reason of the increased opportuni-
ties afforded by his liberal salary for
an unchecked qualification of his NOR
bid tastes. No political issues need
be involved in working the reform
suggested and which all good citizens
can consistently favor, but let both
of the existing political parties keep
in the back ground all aspirants for
official preferment who are unworthy
ny reason of habits of intemperaEce.