The Phoenix herald., 1880-09-24
THE INDEPENDENT VOTER
It has been well said that tn

one thing for the honest voter to do
 is to make the politicians trade
 uncertain. This is in fact the key
 to the situation. It is by the free
 fux of votes on the edge of party
 lines, the fu;dity of parties, so to
 speak, that politicians can most
 practically be controlled and politics be most effectualIy reformed. The
 independent voter is the strong
 man. Ii the parties will not apply civil service reform for him, let him apply it himself to the parties.
 In fine, the educated voter, if he
 wants to better parties and to bet ter politics, must resolutely refuse to cast lis vote for a bad or unfit candidate, or for a candidate repre- senting bad practice, because the candidate is nominated by the party whose professed principles he de- sires to supp rt, and by whose name he calls himself. If more fit man Is nominated for the same place by the opposing party, he will vote directly for him. If there Is but a choice of evils, he will refuse to cast his vote for either. not by staying away fom the polls, but by leaving the objectionable name off his party ticket, whether or not he replaces it by a good name, which he cannot expect to see chosen, but which offers a warning and 9 protest to his party naanag- CTS.
 This at once involves the dilem- ma of the undesircd election by default, of tue bad candidate of the worse party; but this is a dilemma which must be resolutely met. It is tbe game of the politicians on both sides to keep the vote in this dilemma. They can be checkmated only by peremptory notification that at any hazard tliis kind of game must be stopped. The re- sponsibility of party defeat is not with the voter, but with the party manager who has deliberately de- fed him.
 For a political party, also, must be known by it's fruits; if it produces bad candidates, il is not q good par ty; nor is it any longer tour" party, f it rejects in its nominations and ils administration, the avowed prin- ciples which make it ''ours." It cannot be too often repeated that party is only the cooperation of voters to put into practice given principles. and there is nothing but fetichism in the worship of a party name. It is notorious at this time that neither great national party represents either its a7owed prin- ciplss or the best men in it. Each party subs;sts chiefly on the blum cTVTSs UT OISC UTAH DIUnucTS CT Its opponents; and finds its political capital not in it's own usefulness, but in the dread of the worst possi- Utilities of the ether side. The cry of Principles, not men'-which the true conflict of real parties-is a mockery in these days. This is the reason that the fight must be made first on men before we can get back again to tie conflict of principles. The way l -o stop stealing is net to pass reso- 1 utions against it, but to punish the particular men who steal. GLe 1 way ts make e party represent prin- 'iple is to reject the men in it who iaye 20 principle. If the worst .omes and the party is captured y unpriueipled men for their own .nds. then their defeat is the only method of reform with the party because by such purifcation only all it again rise to its true power. f party managers invite this, this hey laust have.-Atlanfic Month Y for September.