The Indianapolis journal., 1890-01-29
HAS FREEDOM FAILED?
Thoughts Suggested by the Cesseless Wall
ing of So-Called Reformers.

New York Tribune.
Is it true that Times latest offspring.
which men call the Great Republic, is far
from the noblest; that corruption is here
tho rule and virtue well nigh a lost art, and
that sef-government is here maintained
principally for the purpose OF plunderlng
the peOplef
A stranger visiting this country. and
Judging of its institutions entirely from
the published statements OF those who
%s ona faansss be- esonpeed II 20 bs
lieve that all these things are true.
He is told by organs representing nearly
half the people, for example, that the ma
tional policy of protection which has been
maintained by the governments govern for nearly
the many for the benefit OF the few. and
during all these years has so operated, and
yet q self-gOverning people uphold the
robbery. He is told by a multitude OF ad-
vocates of ballot reform that elections here
have, as a rule, become contest oil purses;
that millionaires. crowd the Senate be-
cause the longest purses buy the seats; that
candidates who are not rich have little
chance to enter even the lower house. unless
they are dishonest enough to accept an
election as gift at the hands of some pub
lic-plundering job; that workingmen are
generally intimdated or controlled by en-
ployers; that voters in cities are usually
controlled by direct bribery, and that even
will not go to the polls unless paid for it
has become so great that money turns the
scale.
The Jealous persons who passionately de-
sire changes which they think needful do
not pause to reflect that, If all they assert
is true, the one change most necessary for
the public veal is to take from the people
the seif-governing power which has for
century been used with srch frightful re-
suits. IF the ballot-box has indeed become
~A,s.x x<,E.. tynrn nd
is time to substitute the sceptre. If citi-
zens can employ their freedom to no better
purpose than plundering themselves
through forms of law. then by all means let
an aristocracy of some sort do the govern
ing thereafter.
The stranger who visits this country
after little observation presently becomes
satisfied that passionate den0uncers or
American institutions do not mean what
they say. He sees that they reason and
that the great majority of voters do vote
freely and from honest convictions. He
sees that either of the great parties
in every critical contest shrinks
from nominating "a rich man or
men, in the fear that prejudice against
such influence will do more to defeat than
all possible employment of wealth can do
to elect the nominee. He sees that In nine
tenths of the districts men of small means
intellect, and that the decisions of the peo-
pie are by all citizens accepted as honest.
and as q true test of public sentiment, in
ninety-nine cases out OF hundred,
throughout the Northern States. at least
1t is the American habit to revile Amerl-
can institutions beyond all reason, in the
sincere endeavor to attain better things
All parties, and all real or professed re-
formers, without an exception now remem-
bered, fall into this fatal fault. Most fatal
it is to their own endeayors, because the
constant iteration of charge which the
voters themselves know to be untrue tends
to destroy the influence of those who make
it, even when they are laboring for the best
of causes.