The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1886-10-14
OIL K NEW YORK LETTER.
MIR. PAGE PREAtHF> SOUND PO-
IlIItA Al DDCTRiN
Mr.. George and Nr. Andrews start "A
w hote>ome Innovations Nr. Horace
W iiiIam>'> Lecture on luther.

Especial Cor STATE 5.HEoEICLF
NEW YoRk, Oct. -. 1886 There Is one
+ very who e5ome innovation that hs, been
made by t~o candidates for Important
offices thi, year that deserves 10 be pub
/ lshcd far and wide and 20 be- initiated
/ When Henry Georges friends first asked
/ him whether he would be a candidate for
Mayor Of New York, he replied that he
would not unless 30, 600 men first pledged
/ themselves to Vote for him hat i to saw
unless this number OF men really desired
/ hun TO be \ candidate. As proof OF their
eagerness to support him he suggested that
I everybody who wished him to be "A caudI-
date should give 81 TO his campaign fund.
When he saw $50 900 given by 80. 600 men
/ he would feel as if there wore really a
/ popular desire for him 10 become a candi-
/ date. He has got more than his 30, 900
names and more than his $50. 900, although
| every name was not accompanied with 4
dollar
Now this is the right principle, rs sure
aS you are born If people wish a man to
run for office they ought to wish it a
/ dollars worth. If a reasonable number
/ Of people do not wish a man to run a dol
/ lar 5 worth a piece, there's no sense III his
strutting and palayering and making be
/ lleVe that he didn't want tie Office any
! how and that he simply obeyS the call OF
! the people, or of his party; and All such
| nonsense. If you consider the subject
with any barny yard sense at all, in the
first place it isn't fair that a man who
runs for office should be required to settle
the campaign bills Very few offices Char
| ley Upchurch's always excepted, and Mr..
| Cleveland>sl pay more than an Industrious
man who has 4 business of his own can
earn, or more than man needs to sup
port his family; and if he has to settle
| legitimate campaign bills Ito say nothing
| Of ''sundries'D race for an office costs
! him more than the Office yields and the
poor fellow simply spends his money for
| the tlcetng glory of the thing. the more
| fool he on the other hand in any com
munity people who take an intelligent and
! publicsp spirited interest in the city's or
country's or States business ought to take
a dollars worth of interest or half dol
| lar 5 worth, or a quarters worth If You
! 90 on higher ground and consider the
morals Of the subject, there is 4 still Stron-
ger reason why a candidate sh Juld not
contribute a cent. The tendency of such
contributions is to give man with money
| the advantage of a man without it; and,
worse than this, 1t Is TO make the pocket
/ book and foolish greed for glory of the
what ought to be the popular interest in
an election. We have in fact already
reached the point where the candidate is
positively expected to put up the money,
| and it does not occur to the ordinary cit-
zen that if he really desires the election Of
his favorite candidate, he ought to be
willing to pay a part of the legitimate eX-
| penSeS of the campaign.
| | have never yet been able to see why
the city and the county and the State
ought not to have just as good men to
| L.,
| But suppose the congregation were to leave
it to the preacher to pay the gas and fuel
bills and all the incidental expenses of the
church you would at once hear cry
raised about imposing on the PREACHER.
The lazy and stlngy congregation would
be laughed at and despised. On this very
ground | am making plea for the can
didate, the duped and foolish candidate,
generally the lying candidate morcs the
| shamel who feels sure he has been call
edH and is willing to mortgage his home
| if he can only ''come it." We don't treat
him fairly; and we have encouraged him
to lie about how eager the people are to
have him, until it has actually come to
| pass that a Democratic convention even
| in Wake county will nominate and then
'bleed0 men, whom no pulpit in Raleigh
/ would think of accepting as its preacher.
! Doubtless we ought to have good preach
| ers; but it is quite as certain tia' VI ought
| to have good politicians. And f the po-
| litlcai congregation would do its duty and
stiffen up its political conscience, Brother
| Dixon might come back; and good men
would be as much at home in the front
| seats of a convention as they are III the
amen corner of the church.
Mr.. Georges example has been followed
| by the Democratic candidate fof Governor
| of Massachusetts, Mr.. John r. Andrew.
Mr.. Andrew has given his political friends
| and everybody else to understand that he
! is not going to contribute any money or
be the indirect means of having anybody
else contribute any to his campaign fund.
Mr.. Andrew, like Mr.. George, is a man
who regards the dignity and purity of
politics and the proper conduct of a cam
| paign as of much more importance than
| his own election. And this is very sound
| doctrine.
After ALL this almost universal itch for
office is a humliating thing. Dignity there
| is, of course, certain quantity of it at
least, IN public position; and it is com
pliment to a man for his fellow citizens to
vote for him and to elect him. But if YOU
| anal, re this craze and get to the bottom
of it. YOU will find it a very small vanity
| indeed; and vanity purely. man loves
! 10 De conspicuous, loves 10 De elevated,
| loves to be the topic of conversation, of
| discussion, Il little hero for brief pc
riod. SO he will run for an Office
almost any mothers son of US will, to
crafty this small vanity.
The sermon | am preaching, however,
after all, resolves itself into the ID text
! the office should seek the MAJ Id not the
man the Office. There is no need to go as
far away from home as New York or
Massachusetts to find an example of this.
You can find it by going merely out to
Cary; for nobody under the sun ever heard
of Mr.. Rufus Jones going about seeking
a nomination, or putting up ''boodle' for
the campaign. If the nomination didn't
90 TO the man in that case, there is no
case in history when it did; and if the po-
litical congregation has any sort of a mind
to do its duty, the office will go to him
too. While it is in fact an honor to any
man to elect him to a place of public trust,
it is an honor to a county also to elect
such man as Mr. Jones to serve it. If
he is beaten the county will this year sim
ply fail to honor itself.
OF the many entertaining and lnstruc
tive things that are classed under the
general head of 'amusements, there are
few that the people of all the chief North
eastern cities enjoy every winter that give
more pleasure or instruction to a large