San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-07-13
is HE IN EARNEST?

ne "altOF una puDllSnef or the
Weekly Lantern, after caioling
and manipulating with the mug
wumps and the Big Six for the past
eight or ten years, has been convicted
of his guilt, and now cries aloud for
pure politics, and straight party tick
cts. The following is his wailing:
Our County Politics.-From the close
of the war until 1872 BeXar county
was practically Republican in poll
tics. The records will show that near
ly all the offices. from 1865 until 1872.
were filled by Republicans, and what
is said of the county may also be said
of the city.
\ research into the records of those
days will show TO the people that
both the county and city adminiStra-
lions were conducted far more econ
Omically and equally as efficiently. all
things considered, as they are today.
Political corruption, political bOssism,
and SO-called nOn-partisan cOnven-
tons were unknown in those early
days.
The first blow struck mt the Supre-
macy of the Republican party of Bex-
ar county was in 1872, when the Ger
man element of the party. for some
real or fancied wrong. bolted the
Meyers Hall Republican convention
and in a body endorsed Francis Gil
raud, the Democratic nominee for
mayor against Col. s. G.. Newton. the
Republican nominee. This resulted
tn l,A oil =
the entering wedge, which finally dis
rupted the Republican party in Bexar
county, was manufactured then and
| there.
KILLED in the house of its friends
should be the epitaph inscribed upon
the tombstone of the buried hopes of
our party in this county for the past
quarter of century.
In 1915 the second blow was dealt
to the Republican party, and the sys-
| TEN of nOn-partiSan conventions.
coupled with the swapping and trad
ing of candidates for the various city
| and county offices. was inaugu-
| rated. Then it was that the reign of
| the bosses began. which has made it
| possible for few self-constituted
leaders. scarce a dozen, all told, to
dictate to sixty thousand people. year
| after year, who shall fill the different
offices, city and county.
This system has been engrafted so
deeply and so long in our municipal
and county affairs that all principle.
political and otherwise, has long since
vanished.
1t is today only an unSeemly scram-
for oil III -h. hnI
them seek to perpetuate their reign
by STOPPING to the most disgraceful
practices, sacrificing and even slaugh-
tering one another at the polls to Sc
cure their own reelection.
Is it not about time that this state
of affairs was brought to an end? Is
| there not virtue enough left in our
people to arouse them to a sense of
the wrong that is being perpetrated
upon them? Has all political prin-
ciple been so effe0tually eradicated
from both parties by the demoraliz-
| ing influence of the past twenty
years that it is impossible to once
more inaugurate purity in politics.: to
once more unfurl and carry to victory
| in this county the banner of the grand
old Republican party?
We say no! thousand times no!
Now is the accepted hour. The time
has arrived to fling the Republican
| flag to the breeze. Unite, Republi-
cans of Bexar county! Unite! Bury
all past differences! Hold your pri-
maries in every precinct; elect
your delegates to county cOnven-
ton; place before our people a ticket
| Al will nd nd
support of every fair-minded citizen;
give to the people good men and true
men fully competent to fill the pO-
sitiOns for which they are nominated
and who are pledged TO an
economical administration of the af-
fairs of the county. Do this, and you
will sweep BeXar county like a cy-
clone, and machine politics and boss
ism will be buried so deep beneath
the rotten debris of the present per-
sonal regime that its hydra-head will
not appear above the surface of the
political waters for century to
come.
Now let us take a census of the Re
publican party and see where we are
at. The Germans of BeXar county
are naturally and inherently Repub-
Leans. The colored men were in the
early days staunch and true, and so
remained until their white leaders be-
gan to trade them off. They will
take to the support of straight Re-
publican ticket like a duck to water.
And, again, the Democratic party
of this state, and perhaps of the ma
ton, having followed off strange gods
and strayed into the camp of the Pop
ulist, and adopted the free silver and
free trade craze, there are hundreds