The age-herald., 1897-10-08
Where We Are At.

The boss is an American institution. No other country has a man who, with out official responsibility. without. if possible, publicity, controls his party, dispensing it's patronage and dictating it's legislation. A Hanna or a Croker is elsewhere impossible. In England the prime minister rules his party with an iron hand. He distributes offices, filling even vacanciesin the established church; bestows decorations, peerages, and other law he turns every place to party ac- count. But he is the duly chosen leader of his party; he holds himself responsi- bIe to the people; his acts are constant ly subjected to the keenest inspection and the widest publicity. He does not go out to dicker in secrecy with dis reputable leaders, rewarding these lead- CTS afterward with public office. There is no Demas in England, because there is no purse- bearing Hanna there. Cam paign funds are not built up there through acts of favoritsm to corpora tions or through legislation of class nature.
 The rule of the boss is maintained here through the control of primaries and conventions The boss wants no one to attend them who does his own thinking He takes care that such un- satisfactory persons have no voice, if they attend. He makes the primaries at least unfit places for all but thugs or loafers. In this section of the coun- try a republican boss will not permit any more white men to join the party than are needed to fill government of- fees. And all this scheming and ma neuvering is conducted with the ut most possible secrecy; corruption there fore underlies every part of it.
 One boss, Martin Van Buren, was elected president, but as a rule a boss is content to rule secretly ard to gather riches from corporations. If he could unaided keep the party in power, he would dispense with popular support; and there have been periods in the va rious states when the people had no more influence over their public affairs than the people of Russia have over the general affairs of that great em- pire. And the greater the wealth of a state or city, the greater the power of the boss; the more exceptional the cir cumstances as in the south among the republicans, the more readily does the boss render affairs subservient and trib- utary to himself.
 Is there remedy for such state of things? If not, another Hanna wilIarise to again bargain for the presidential office. The office has as a ruel been above purchase, but it sank to the gen. eral level of offices when Hanna ap- peared. Spasmodic efforts overthrow now and then the boss, but as a rule he soon resumes business at the old stand, surrounding himself with his former ad- herents, not one of whom is better than his master. The boss and the corpora tion go hand in hand, the one furnish nipulation needed to turn public affairs to suit the purposes of both. The coun- try is now in the hands of its Hannas, backed up with corporate wealth. Where it will be a hundred years from now is something every patriot is trying to foresee, and no one feels sure of the outcome, although the American people have never yet failed to find a satisfac- tory solution for every problem that has confronted them.