The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-07-24
RULERS AND THEIR OWN
ERS."

In a Gespoii5m the ruler is Iesp0n-
sible for his people; but IN republic
the people are responsible for their
rulers. As the people are, 90 will the
ruler be whom the people choose. He
will be their expression, deliberately
chosen, CT what they consider the
Rbless and most generally delightful
and excellent type OF hannah nature.
There ia no getting rio of this respon-
sibility in q republic. If the official
Is q thief it is because the people
who choose him have De particular
objection to q little thievipg. II he
is q coarse demagogue, 1t is becaUee
the people ike Il dems2ogue. and p
coarse one. Il be is Il mounting,
pretentious humbug, it Is because toe
average citizen, as be runs, likes
pretension and humbuggery. That
there MAY be vast number OF peo-
pie who are honest, who don't Ike
demagogues, nor coarse men, nor
humbuggery, does not alter the case
They are part only. The average
tone of the average citizen is what
guides the republic, where the vote
of the sage is balanced by the vote OF
the loafer. The corruption, the
knavery, the lack of ability, honesty
and truth in the various departments
of our complicated government ma
chinery in this country are notorious
20 ourselves and TO the world. When
We find An honest official we pro-
claim him to the four winds SO a
wonder. He is 8 sort Of monster,
admirable but rare, and to be caught
bat once in a generation. We have
not had a statesman among us for
quarter of q century or so-politi-
clans in plenty, but not statesman.
Can We name q public man to-day.
from the President down, who has
any conception of public duty beyond
helping the party st the next cleo
tien2 Or one who, if by any means
he got such q conception has the
slightest notion of how to realize it?
That this state OF things grows cut Of
republican Institutions, such ss they
are, isl inevitable. The government
represents the average honesty and
the average intelligence Of the PEG
pie. The stream cannot rise higher
than the fountain. Complaints, there
fore land they are very common, and
likely to become more common still),
of the im6eCility and knavery eff our
national, state and municipal gov
ernments are revelations of the in
becility and knavery OF the Ameri-
can people. The Russian, for such
things. may blame the Car. The
Turkish subject may blame the Sui
tan. The Irish patriot has ground,
At least, to cay that the poverty and
misery OF Ireland ia due 10 the British |
and that the Green Isle |
would be paradise of pure women
and honorable men if it could but |
run its own affairs in lis OWE way.
can say nothinG ~ The |
sort. The business Is IN OUT OWE
bsnds We sTss fQG66 World g. a mSHbg our our
estimate and judges US on our own !
ground. Il sees our cities in the
hands of men without character, the |
worst policed, the dirtiest, the most
unsafe fcr property and life, in
Christendom. Itsees more burglsries,
more murders, more robberies and
Irsons, for instance, IN Chicago than
q London, in New Orleans than in
Paris. 1t sees public plumber open.
notorious and unpunished. L sees
Infaithfulness to every public duty
md public trust. It hears no utter
ances In the halls of our capitol
higher than party SLAYER and politi-
,ians' bIstheFskite. And it concludes
hat sill this is what the people want
because the people put it there! The
of sll this are not felt
ret. Othere have been saying repub-
icanism is on trial in the United
states. We say is has been tried and
lss succeeded. Others are right.
Ne are wrong. The trial is not over.
{ will not be over for some time.
Dill our waste lands are occupied, till
'Er enormous resources have been
discovered, developed and possessed,
Ill the struggle OF the mass is fer
lread, as it 10 in other lands, and will
70 here finally, not till then will the
cal test come. But the fight, the
rue ''irrepressible conflict" OF all
ines between labor and capital, is
ure to come in America, as every
there. And when il comes We shall
now how much our democratic in
titntions are worth. We have 81
eady had some small skirmishes, and
be said institutions did not show up
ny too well in the trial. In any real
trsin-considering that every man
Rs 3 vote, and that the IgeEting OF
otes is sll an American ststesman(?l
nows anything about-WhaEswill be
be end? Gan any one blame the
and the millionaires for
uyiug these statesmen" and keep
lg them on salaries when they have
,cured the necessary votes to get Of
oe? The time may come when it 5
i'll be handy to have them in the
ouse. But, also, the buying and
Ening them may hasten the crisis
I'D precipitste the need. The cor {
orations are rapidly pressing the c