The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-11-27
'INe Paw


aims of allow
= holders grow poor
:. i1..19.c TaP, others grow rich. We
have cfflcs holders in this community
who beeao official career. some years
ago, and they are, as understood in the
community, rich. Some of these men
went into office as poor as Jobs tur-
key hen, but they now have lands aud
houses, and business, and money IN
in bank, and live like lighting cocks.
They have absolutely grown rich
on salaries that can by no means sup
port themselves and families. In
face of such facts it may be denied
that Office holding does net pay.
Thrifty men grow rich in office, while
the unthrifty waste that with which
theys start, and then thfy often become
public depencencies-Hoyerty stricken
vagaboads in old age. Besides the
overreaching Influences Of poverty
upon the office. holder there are other
wretcted conditions that often over
take hin. U3 is not only often led
to penGry but 20 the penitenuary by
the temptations that fall in his way.
The ofiice-holder who grows rich and
keeps his gaius is rot only a very
wise manipulation, but u most adrolt
and cautious man. He has the knack
of making q government penny turn
itself over ard o. err with marvellous
rapidity, ev,Iy tine doubling itself,
and his accounts stand o. KID just as
nicely as anythidg can BE-. This sort
of an office holder is a successful man
| ipulator of office; he has genius for
management as well wonderful tact
in shaping accounts, and his successes
are a snare into which poor, hapless
creatures fall and then tumble head
long into utter ruin. A contemporary
puts it very broadly when it says
honest, upright men, who havemain
tanned their personal integrity have
found that participation in public life
has brought in its train poverty anC
personal privation. Elk Gov. Bishop
of Ohio, who was wealthy bushes!
man at the time of his election, is nov
travelling with a sample case as ordi
nary salesman. The neglect OF hi
business, rendered unavoidable by at
tention to his pnblic duties, led to re
verses which swamped him and com
PEELED him in his old age to seel
his livelihood by the uuceri ain ant
precarious methods of the commercial
Traveller. And yet Gov. Bishops mis-
fortunes Go not deter men from goinl
into the vortex that swallows up for
tunes if it does make then
that wrecks the majority of men an
renders them unfit for any other duty
The general tendency of participa
ton in American public life is in thi
direction. The decayed politica
hummer, who once knew better day:
! is sadly familiar sight in this coun
try, and the class of which Goyerno
Bishop is notable example is also ia
too numerous. Indeed, it is the CON
monest thing in the world to hea
men who have participated in publ
affairs declare that they were com
. PEELED to leave official life becaus
they could not afford to stay in
The small salaries paid to legislator
, congressman and other officials and th
constantly increasing expense Of polit
ic campaigns are lettering many c
: our ablest men from entering publ
| life at all and reducing to poyert
many Who do enter. This is not
pleasant truth for the American cit
, zen to contemplate, but it is til
) truth, nevertheless.