Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-05-10
the ROOT Of POLITICAL EVIL.

After all there is bright side to the
dark cloud which at present overhangs |
the country. The remarkable and I'M
precedented depression in business af- |
fairs which now prevails throughout the
United States has led men to think Sc
irously upon political and social topics
who had never before given them any at
tention. The result of such thought on
the part of the mass of the people can not
fail to be advantageous sooner or later,
although for the time it may give rise
to many visionary and impracticable
schemes.
One of the questions which Americans
have been asking themselves during these
days Is why there should be such a wide
gap between the desires of the people
and the fulillment of those desires-or
rather the lack of their fulfillment--by
the men whom the citizens have chosen to
make the aws-the federal, and state, and
county and municipal laws. There are
certain things which the weli-meaning
citizens of all political parties want
election these well-meaning citizens
fondly hope that they are going
to attain their desires. If the pre- election
speeches of candidates amount to any
thing citizens would certainly be justified
in this hope. After election, however,
they invariably find that they have been
duped and deceived. The platform which
looked SO substantial under the glare of
the torchlights is broken and the fair
promises made by suave aspirants for
office are gone where the "woodbine
twineth." 1t always has been this way; it
always will be this way as long as the
present system of choosing men for office
prevails.
What is to be done?
The first thing is to have the people
the voters-re alize the necessity for a
radical change. Fortunately We have
reached this point The people have
wearled of the rule of city, county, ward
and precinct bosses, and are anxious to
try their hand at running the country
| themselyes-of reducing to practice the
theory Of a government of, for and by the
people. They have the will, but they do
| not see the way clearly.
1
is found that the tap-root of the whole
evil of corrupt politics in this country
rests IN the primary elections. The pri-
maries are like the committees of legis-
latlve body. Schemes and jobs are Matched
there, then presented to the main body
for its Endorsement, and generally worked
through in defiance of the consent and the
efforts of even an honest ma jority. In the
primaries and the conventions the cor
rupt jobs and the thieving trades Sue
coed, because the same gangs who work"
the primaries manage to work" the con-
ventions also. These worthless pull to-
gether on the principle of "you scratch
me and I'll scratch YOU" As the same sort
of business goes on IN the primaries of
each party, all that is left for the intelli-
gent and patriotic and defrauded voter to
do is to choose between two evils-or
take to the woods.
stream can not rise higher than its
source. One can not expect to get pure
water out of sewer. To reform policy
you must begin at the beginning. The
beginning is in the primaries. What is
the matter with abolishing the primaries
altogether, or else reforming them beyond
recognition? The ward bosses might
think that the world would cease revolv-
ing and the heavens fall if this were done,
but we do not believe that the people are
possessed of any such fears on the sub
| ject.-Los Angeles Times.