Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-11-24
OF DANGEy-s TO THE AMERICAN
SYSTEM

OF DANGEy-s TO THE AMERICAN
SYSTEM.
A political philosopher mas said that
patriotism is that sympathy which brings
affection into the state, and witho1t which
men woald separate into different sects
and hostile parties, and abstract right,
which Is based on individuality, would not
be able to supply bond of unity This
truth IS not capable of denial. 1t follows
therefore, that any system that toleratcs
the subversion of affection in The state, for
greed in satisfying personal desire, is de-
structive of the vitality of the state, and
this is what happens under the rule of
bossism.
The boss does not consult the love of
country in seeking his ends, but only the
claims and greed of individuality. He
therefore tends to destroy affection for
country by inspiring contempt for its in
ability to protect itself against the purely
selfish schemes of the plunderers of the
state. He acts, not for the purpose of fill
ing public office well, but to so fill it as to
make it return to him reward in the form
OF spoils, and these of course, are to be
plucked from the aggregate of indiyiduali-
ties that we term the,State
1t is essential to the perpetuity of free
institutions that the expression of the
popular voice through the ballot-box, the
convention and the primary, should be
genuine coin; when, therefore, the bogus
is put forward in its place and a verdict
given that is not the true reflection of pub
lie opinion, fraud has been committed
that is not less infamous than the making
and passing of spurious coin. But this
is Just what the average modern political
boss does. He manipulates political bodies
by resort to the baser sentiments and
grosser desires of few men, and by traffic
in voters and votes, legislators and laws, he
secures in convention and at the polls only
bogus expression. This is not leadership.
banners of principle, or leading them on to
the victories of conscience, but it is sub
stitution for the will of the people, the
autocratic demands of the boss, whose
patriotism at best is but national vanity,
and considers government only as a means
to the satisfying of his own ambition,
no matter what form it may take, his
party being really second to it.
Parties, in their design, are aggregations
of citizens who desire commonly agreed
principle to prevail in the policy of the
government, and they are formed and
maintained for what their members believe
to be the good of all the people. 1t is not
possible for there to be, and there never
was a free country without parties So,
when the machinery of these parties is no
longer operated by leaders who reflect the
will of the membership-by leaders we
mean men in whom personal ambition and
greed are subordinated to public good;
who cannot be imposed upon, and will not
deceive the people; who are animated by
patriotism and inspire others with their
own courage and conviction-but is con-
trolled by bosses in disregard of the de-
sires Of any large number of members of
the party who have not SELL but public
good to serve, the organizations are no
longer subdivisions of the people known as
parties, but merely vicious individual ma
chimes primarily for the accomplishment of
private ends, ultimately for plundering the
State. Parties, wherever controlled by bosses
as We know them to-day, are therefore not
those essential divisions of the people upon
questions of policy that are held to be inn
peratiyely necessary to the existence of
free government. 1t behooves all men
therefore TO think very seriously what
must be the outcome of the continued rule
Of bossism over party, of bribery at the
ballot-box and in the legislative chamber,
Of spoilation, intimidation and general
corruption inseparable from it.
Whoever confounds the leader with the
boss is unable to distinguish patriotism,
and cannot understand the aim and true
method of system of government by the
voice of the governed. Whoever believes
the political vote-buying, class-ruling,
autocratic and spoiIs-dealing boss to be
necessity OF the American system, confesses
thereby that our whole scheme is a failure;
that the people of the United States
are not capable of self-government, nor
able to express their views as to the pol
icy of their country without the interyen-
ton of agencies that do not rise in their
estimation of free institutions above the
level of their use as a means to reward
friends and to punish enemies. If the
TWO are inseparable, then the vicious in
fuence must, as in much of human activ-
ity, overcome and master the better, and
we will finally reach the point when only
revolution will restore to the American
voter the right to have not only his own
voice heard in government, but the voices
of all others without any repressive inter-
vention whatever in primary, convention,
town meeting, Legislative hall or the ballot
box, and without such voice being mega
tiyed by bogus verdicts of popular ex-
preston, bribed ballots and fraudulent
tally-lists, such, for instance, as engaged
the cunning of Sim Coy, of Indiana, and
landed that typical boss in the penitentiary
at Michigan City, an event that, with the
conviction and punishment of the ballot
thieves and boodlers in Chicago, and the
bribed and bribers in New York, give hope
of the ability of the American system still
10 assert itself.
OF LABOR STATISTICS.
The Commissioner of the Bureau of La
L.