St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-13
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERN
MENT.

when listen to the talk among the
members of the legislature, especially
those of the house, and hear the open
ness with which they talk of the cor =
rupt use of money, mentioning names
and amounts with the utmost freedom;
when the chairman of an important
committee assures me that he has list
| of the names and the amount of money
each has received for his vote; when
hear these recriminations INDUCED in
on the floor of the house and see no
member rise to demand that the mem
ber's words be taken down and he be
| called to the bar of the house to either
reTract or make good his charges" said
one of the veteran Democrats of the
state. Il lose my faith in the SOlidity
and durability of our representative
government"
No man who loves his country and
has witnessed these or similar scenes,
but has had his moments of despair
when he felt that corruption was the
ineradicable cancer of the body polite,
eating away Its vitals. He has turned
away sick at heart from the arenas
where small politics is the main pur-
pose in the life of men, With his faith in
the capacity of the people for self-goV-
eminent in an eclipse. lie has had this
feeling recur when he has cOntem-
plated the selections made by the con-
ventiOns of the parties, and compared
them with the men whom any intelli-
gent and patriotic body would select.
And then, if his liver is not hopeless
ly dIsOrdered, there comes the solid re-
Election that the world is not retrogra1-
ing; that, measured across long dis
tanceS, it is evident that it is making a
really rapid progress; that it is getting
better, and not worse; and he feels
braced afresh TO do his duty as a citizen
III depressing what is bad and encour-
aging what is good, feeling that if he
can not eliminate the one he can at
least do his duty in strengthening the
other.
If lie be bit of philosopher he will
see that his Impotence of existing con-
ditions is irrational; that the factors of
corruption and compatibility are not
controlling; that they are but incidents
of the main movements of the race,
growing less as the race develops, and
that while they are to be censured and
denounced OH all occasions, it is need
less to accord them more than a minor
place in the great problem.
He Will see in his calmer moments
that conditions are as they are because
this is representative government; not
at all representative Of the best i'll it nor
of the worst, but of the average. If he
will take any preventative body in the
land, from the federal senate down to a
city council, he will have to admit that
its members are fairly representative
of the community in which they live.
There may be men in by accident who
represent the best Or the worst elements
OF the community, but in the main they
are good averages. If there are corrupt
or cOrruptible men in, it is because
there are many such, and il there are
honest men it is because they are types
of many more behind them.
His reason and his good sense will
convince his judgment that this condi-
ton is unavoidable in any republican
government, and results from the indis-
criminate voice of the voters in the
selection of officials. Into every caucus
or convention Of every party come all
phases OF citiZenry, each with an equal
voice. The bum and the professor, the
selfish schemer and the patriot, the
learned and the unlearned, each with
his own tastes and opinions, meet on
common ground, and inevitably the re-
suit OF their conflicting wishes must be
a compromise which is but an average
of them all. And he will shake off his
pessimism and dip his faith afresh in
hope, and go forth to do what he can to
make conditions and results better.