Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-11-13
BETWEEN OURSELVES.

NO wohucr @nerc is sucn maneuVerlng, sucn
treachery, and altogether such questionable
devices to get political Office. We are gradu-
ally recovering from old republican supersti-
tons, and we have an undisguised liking for
soft things Gin the gift of the people,"
Now when You consider how the scheme is
worked-when you grow pensive over Judge
Vanderburg and his eighteen votes, you ap-
preciate that there isn't in the English Ian
guage more ironical saying than this "gift
OF the people business in the elections of to-
day. Vanderburg was present from Camp
to the people, and much good may he do us!
His charges will be wonderful variety, es-
pecially if We have J. B. B. to congratulate
him when he buries an argument in the dust.
Rotation in office is obsolete then in its for.
mer meaning.
1t may be applicable to the improved Office
chair--but that is about all. No sooner is
the winning candidate installed in his berth
and his duties smoothly operative in the hands
| OF cheap expert clerks, than he has the first
supreme and delicious establishment of his
life, in pocketing the unexpected and exces-
sive revenues of the position, and he straight
way falls to lingering the wires for second,
aye, third continuance of them.
Ali his aids are selected and promised long
in advance, for political usefulness which can
be made handy in his behalf. Generally these
versatile fellows, apt with the pen, gifted
with clear heads, and quick management of
details, are not much in themselves according
to the paying standard, but they are usually
significant of some power behind them, which
puts forth this needy complement as
the price of its help at the polls. A family, a
faction, a Sect or boss farms out its de-
pendents and weak brethren financially in
this cooperative fashion-and interest boosts
interest to the uttermost circle of the official
wave protractive of its tenure, and vitalizing
of barnacles.
The spectacle of a man holding an Office
Gin the gift of the people, for years has
become so common that communities have
grown accustomed to it, In Rice county one
popular generosity since the Republican party
was an infant with good many fathers. His
connections and relations have been provided
for, and the only regret he can experience re-
garding his fairly immemorial sinecure is,
that he is mortal, and in the order of nature
must one day ruefully exchange his rotary
chair for coffin. o. death, this is indeed
thy sting-to be ushered by thy petrifc mace
into sphere where there are no politics-no
holding nor giving of Office, and where the
victors are not clamorous over the spoils.
Of all the serene sinecures in a smallish
way gin the gift of the people" in this repub-
| lie, Ramsey county has it. The incumbents
| chief claim to it before election long ago was
| that ''his children would stharve'' unless he
| got the coveted Office, and as he kept on in
creasing his family with the most exemplary
punctuality, his liens on party patronage and
county suffrage threatened to become numeri-
cally prodigious.
There are curious pleas put forth for politi-
cal office nowadays, those Of poverty, and
philo progenitiveness for example. This last
one was permissible and took its political
premium as at a cattle show. One fact
is certain, that the less desir-
able the breed, the more there is of it.
tell You it is a saddening sight in many
instances this large body of office experts with
no backing-no mysterious political infu-
ence to enforce employment willy nilly-with
only brain and natural qualifications, receiv-
ing sorry stipend for the best of work, who
are made to understand that there are lots
of equally competent fellows waiting to
take their places if there is the least symptom
of dissatisfaction.
Pity tbs, tbs true. Our educational theories
are surfelting us-hooray for the education
just the same-although the while multltu-
dinous Newman Nogges serving the Ralph
Nickleby's are asking themselves. Was it
education or fitness that made their respective
chiefs successful?
Rather the lack of it.
They have risen by ignorance.
Jerry Keller, famous wit of Dublin in the
time of Curran, said of Judge Mayne, man
of ponderous gravity, and nothing else:
''That he had risen by it, whereas he, Keller,
had sunk by his levity.''
When Bernard Barton, the Quaker writer,
told Charles Lamb that he was coming to
London to earn his livelihood by literary work,
gentle Ella suggested that he throw himself
slap-dash down the Tarpeiar rock first. 1t is
good advice to the hordes of educated 'ef-
ficient young men, who are going to make
a handsome thing out of office work for the
average politician and public man.
The old accusation against the Jews of
sweating coin, was innocence itself compared
with the sweating process of Gods image in
the intermediate class day after day until the
divine impress is almost wiped out by under
paid labor for the leisure class of chaps, hold
ers of political and public Offices ''in the
gift of the people," who coolly pocket the
gains, and grudingly hand out the we'll
earned stipend which keeps the efficient clerkly
soul and body together.
Just as the strongest force in physics is
evolved from the greatest consumption OF
material, so in human affairs, happiness and
gain, and leisure are founded on the misery,
the needs and the unending toll of Others.
just so, says Mrs. Harris. 1t ought to make
our gazelle-eyed postmaster melancholy as he
sits at his cosy breakfast table in broad day.
| light, and thinks of his subordinates at theil
posts these cheerful mornings hours before
Their bloating pay ought to be commensurate
to every want, and it has to be - or -
The law compels him to appropriate $1,000
for himself, for his exhaus.ing duties, his
| offio;o1 vioi1c and his y1ufiriuO usefulness