Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-01-24

to infer that the wrongs it seeks to
right are peculiar to those places hav-
ing great aggregations of people. AS
a nation. we have been too prodigal in
bestowing the right of citizenship up
on those who have sought our shores.
We have thrown our doors wide open,
and our hospitality has been accepted
by millions of the former Inhabitants
of the Old World, making US a heter-
ogeneous people. We have tried to
assimilate these people too rapidly.
They flock TO our centers of popula-
ton, where. being unaccustomed to
our political habits, and unacquainted
with our political institutions, they
come to act under the advice and di-
rection of some one of their country
men who has been here a sufficient
length of time to have become familiar
with our political methods.
Big Mike, who keeps saloon over
LII thC IoOi Ill " dIOs - q SoOo AO1Ao"s
aud has been in the country a long
time. His countrymen congregate at
his place Of business. Having accu-
mulated some property. and being a
man of good mother-wit, his trade
thrives apace. and he becomes the
oracle of his fellow countrymen. What
ever Big Mike says goes. According
ly. when election comes around, be
finds his friends coming to him by the
half score for instructions as to how
they shall vote. The politician is not
slow to catch on, and no slate can be
made for the Fourth Ward without
taking Big Mike into the account. He
has evolutcd into a Boss. What is
true of Big Mike of the Fourth, is true
of Hans of Tenth, and Pedro of the
Sixth.
The candidate who secures Office
through the influence of Mike, Hans
and Pedro finds himself called upon to
care tor their lieutenants, which he is
compelled to do if he expects to con-
tinue in the swim, for these people
hold the balance of power. The Amer
leans, after awhile, awake to the fact
that they are being ruled entirely by a
foreign element; nearly every appoin-
tive Office in the municipality being
filed with this class of citizens, aud all
of the religion of the country from
whence they come, which is usually
Catholic-for immigration Is not SO
large from Protestant countries-and
for this reason the minimizing attrib-
ute to the religious creed of the i'm
migrants the evils arising from our
own bad legislation. Anxious to get
votes for our party, we sacrifice Ameri-
can manhood, and degrade American
citizenship; and, when the resultant
evils come, seek to lay the blame up
On the foreign born citizens religion.
PROFESSIONALLY here is an evil, but
who is responsible? Does not part of
the blame attach to every business man
who is too much engrosscd or too
careless to vote? A very little time
spent each day in keeping abreast of
current political events. and then an
intelligent vote, would suffice to re-
move the evil.
The candidate too much under for
eigu influence could be quietly laid
out. and this happening a time or two
would be sufficient warning to the par
ties who seek positions of trust and
confidence. in order that they may
help their pocketbooks.
The A. P. A. is a CONCLUSIVE effort
to get rid of these evils, and not apt to
last; but it may serve purpose of
another kind. We are now entering
upon a great economic contest: the
monopolists and corporations have
grown holder each year; they have re-
odSCo tAO SoluO VI SFCty
except money; they have, with the as
sistance of Mr.. Cleveland, forced the
government to provide them with safe
investments by issues O.; bonds ;they are
wholly without heart and wholly with
out shame. Latterly they have be-
come alarmed at the storm they have
raised. How pleasant to them it would
be if they could set the people of this
country by the ears over matters of re-
ligion or foreign immigration, and
thereby divert attention from the great
economic crimes they are perpetrating!
The A. P. A. is playing into the hands
of this class of men-consciously or
unconsciously.
Let each municipality attend to its
own affairs in its own way. Let US not
initiate the boy who, in trying to save
his bre akfast from the dog by guarding
the front door, let the cat steal it
through the window. The A. P. A.