St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-29
A NATIONS BULWARK.

Bishop PoTTER's pessimism is OF the
useful type. While he is inclined to
take a morbid view of political affairs.
and possibly sees more danger than
really exists, still he is so clear in his
statement of public wrongs, so fearless
in his Remuneration of those wrongs,
and so practical in his explanation OF
how they are to be eliminated, that it is
positive pleasure to keep track of his
argument. That he is no respecter of
persons, when it comes to denOdneing
political sins, was forcibly demonstrated
by his Washington centennial sermon,
when President HARRISON and his cab
met sat before him, attentive but I'M
easy listeners to a fierce TRADE against
the very methods which had secured
HARRIsoN's election. The bishops re-
cent college address, which is now Gre
ating profound sensation throughout
the country, was an elaboration of his
centennial sermon.
The boodler and the trimmer in pol
itics are the main objects of assault, be-
cause they are the forces which, in
bis estimation, are bringing the coun-
try under the domination of the
monopolies. 1t is the purchaseable
element among the voting popula-
ton which is the most serious men,
ace to our institutions. The boodler
would have no field for his operations if
there were no purchasable voters. But
as there are plenty of them, or at least
enough of them, to enable the bOodler
and the spokesman to control the politics
of the country, the government is
rapidly losing its democratic cast, and
seems to be drifting into imperialism,
and the worst form of imperialism at
that.
Vote purchasing has been reduced to
a system which is operated so skill
fully that the masses scarcely realize
the power or extent of it. tits not done
now, as formerly, by the candidate
sending his purchasing agent to the
polls to look up the vote sellers. The
Australian system of voting has meas
urabiy eliminated this evil. Under the
new system the politicians form trust
or combine, in which they agree to
parcel out the offices among themselves.
1uCll lllCA tlCt Ill CO-OpClQblOli otilu Iul-
Their agree to make an equal diStribu-
ton of the spoils among their bench
men. The clans of bummers are started
out on a missionary tour to work up the
rural districts in support of their candi-
dates. At this stage the boodler appears
upon the scene and begins his work as a
purchasing agent. 1t is easier to buy
delegates to a nominating convention
than it is to buy the great body of voters
And thus it has come to pass that in
every community where one party is
largely IN the ascendency all the NOM
mating conventions of the majority
party are made up of hired men. There
is no such thing any more as free
and untrammeled convention, composed
of representative citizens, unless it is
the convention of some minority party
where there is no possible hope of sue
cess, and there is not enough in a
nomination to interest the boodler and
the hummer.
That this state of affairs is serious
menace to our institutions must be ad-
mitted, and if persisted in it will effect
the final overthrow of republican institu-
tions. But we are not so pessimistc in
our view of the outcome as the bishop
seems to be. We believe that an end
will be put to the joint reign of the
boodler and the hummer. The people
in their sovereign capacity founded this
government, and through all OF these
100 years of our national existence the
people have never failed to put things
to rights when the body poll
tic got out of tone. And they
can be relied on to do it again. The
American people can submit to good
many wrongs for time, but not for
ever. The colonists were slow about
going to war with the mother country,
yet they finally took up arms. The
American people were forty years max
ing up their minds to abolish slavery,
but it went at last. For twenty years
they have been enduring the monopoly