The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1886-07-16


queror, and to day a wiser genera
ton of English operatives as well as
American wage earners laugh at their
folly. The old independent, solitary
who worked in isolated shops
for starvation wages, have long ago
disappeared from off the face of the
and the great factory where
thousands are employed, at living
prices, has come in their place. Com
bination, organization, the many
guided by the superior energy and
ability, financial and mental, of the
few, is now the recognized order of
things. Churches, asylums and
schools are as much run by organiza-
tons, called by these fellows "the
machine" peculiar to each as are the
politics of the day. The mugwum
plan machine was as certainly in &C.
tive operation all through the late
presidential election and its angry,
silly and derisive toots are still being
echoed through the country. The
managers of Harper's Weekly, the
New York Times and Evening Post,
the Nation and other so called indie
pendent papers manipulated it to suit
their own notions of how things
should be, as surely and as success
fully as ever "Boss' Kelly guided the
policy of Tammany. BY a natural
law as fixed and determined, as defn-
lite and as sure In operation as that
of gravitation, unusual executive and
mental ability will command a large
following, whose movements for the
most part it will guide and determine,
| This law like all other natural laws,
springs from the eternal fitness o.
things.
1t is we'll, if in this or any othel
country the ignorant and uneducatee
are made amenable to a force outside
of and superior to themselves which
is capable of so guiding their actor
as to make it tell for their genera
prosperity. This power may be, ha
often been, and may doubtless b.
again abused, but that does not prov,
that its existence is not for the best
Its abuse is perhaps most strikingl
illustrated in the corruption AM
fraud practiced by the Democrat
party in the financial management c
the affairs of our cities, great an
small, in all parts Of the country
But this does not grow out of nor
it the fault of that kind of polite;
organization called 'tbe machine,
or from any of its operations. 1t
rather to be attributed to the careles
and culpable indifference of homes
able men, who might guide publ
! opinion, but who will not make til
necessary effort. If parties are I
t be successful there must be eficier
organization, and this organization
just what these mugwumps and the
: workers call "the machine" In p
, litical work, as elsewhere, "the IN
! chine" must exist, if political reform
3 are to be secured. The one thir
needful is that the power which driv
: the machine should be carefully S
lected. Reform should begin in Il
choice of leaders, not in decryir
their existence. They manufactul
public sentiment, and they decic
r what the standard Of honor shall b
;. 1t rises to their superior moral heig
5 and mental power, or sinks to the
!. debased condition, just as "the lea
S ers" are the worthy or unwortl
t guardians of public sentiment. !
e the campaign of 1886 begins tosope
!, our ears are again filled with the C
n "down with the machine" This
simply an appeal to popular prelude
e a survival of ignorance that shou
be frowned down. Organization wi
IS efficient leaders, "the machine,"
d essential if good government is to
d secured by popular elections. :
e this end, the machine, organizatic
,r should be strengthed, improved, p
: fe@ed and then manned by the be
purest and most conspicuous abil
to be found in the land. Its destr'
l. IA. - AtaV