St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-22

must organize; in a time when all cleo
tons are determined, to a great ex-
tent by comparative excellence of
organization. They must work day and
night, talking with their neighbors,
canvassing the precinct or ward in
which they happen to live holding
meetings. making speeches and i'm
pressing their views upon the great
mass of the voters with whom a final
decision rests. Unless this is done, and
until it is done, all the rest is mere
froth and enthusiasm that spends it
self like raindrops pattering upon a
stone wall.
At the present moment, therefore,
the outlook is that the persons who are
to conduct the business of st. Paul for
the next two years will be chosen in
the old way familiar to us all. Party
inaries will be held, attended by
.Cssibly one voter in ten. although that
is a liberal estimate, in each precinct;
and these voters, having been instruct
ed beforehand in their duties by the
ward workers, will select a prear-
ranged slate of delegates. These dele
gates will meet in a city convention
to nominate a pre-arranged set of can
didates. These candidates will have
been selected beforehand in confer
| ences among the active politicians of
the town. A very few men on each
| side, Republicans and Democrats, will
| mo "a TacnantiUn NitU tickets
and our excellent fellow citizens, who
are just bubbling over with zeal for
retrenchment and reform, will have
about as much to do with it as they
did with the reorganization plan Of the
Northern Pacific railroad. They can
| go to the polls and vote. If they do
not like one set of candidates they can
! choose the other. If they believe that
both are unfit, they can stay at home.
That is the promise of the situation
which is, perhaps, no less threatening
| than it always has been, because it
! happens to be familiar. The average
man will consider himself exceptionally
! fortunate if he is allowed to vote for
reputable and competent candidates,
and will choose between evils, where
| evils only are offered to him. But the
| brunt of the campaign will fall inevita-
| bly,as it always has done upon the ques-
ton of party utilization, and even those
who are most ardently impressed with
the necessity of bringing to the front
only men who will give us an admins
/ cco:, In
principles must work along party lines;
hoping that, out Of the hurly-burly,
they can find candidates worthy of their
! support, and relying upon the increas-
| the names of the unfit, to bring us
ultimately to better state of things.
The whole truth is that business men
are not yet willing to make the sac
rifices that are due and necessary
from every citizen in a free state and
| a self-governing community. The gov
| erning machinery of such is not au-
tomato. More there than anywhere
else in the world is it necessary that
each individual spend freely his time,
his resources and his personal inf1u-
ence and erergy to accomplish the rule
of the fittest. Every evil that we suf-
fer in city, state and nation rises from
one fatal folly, and is durable in but
one way. All are the product OF reli-
ance upon a scheme of government, in
| stead of an understanding that govern
ments rise and fall by the worth or I'M
worthiness Of the individuals who COM
pose them All admit of no remedy
save the earnest, constant, personal
participation of every citizen, and the
carrying out on his part of a deter
mination to see that public interests
are cared for with exactly the same
fidelity that is given to private bust
ness. 1t is pretty clear that our people
are not yet awake to their duty or
willing to perform it, Until they are,
they need not expect to gather grapes
! of thornS or figs of thiStleS.