The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-07
AFTER BIGGER JOBS.

L ne ulOSl serious cElllClSll IcNSleu
against our public schools is their lack
of thoroughness. Pupils are rushed on
to more advanced studies and more
difficult subjects before they have OBJ
tanned thorough grounding or real
mastery of the elements. There is lit
tie reason to criticise educational au-
thor1ties on this ground, since the
fault is one common to our whole peo-
pie, and cropping out IN the most I'M
mistakable fashion in political and So
! cial movements. The most singular
characteristic of the American is that
failure to perform a little task inevita
bly, stimulates him to tackle bigger
one. In political and social reform the
constant movement is toward the rails
ing Of new questions and the attempt
ed solution of new problems. You can
not more surely arouse a mans i'm
patience than by telling him that some
of the simplest duties Of citizenship lie
unperformed, and that until this is
remedied it is utter folly to essay the
IAAOON NO@-A---O
place things behind him with a wave
Of the hand, and rushes on to the up
per heights with a Quixotic notion that
like a fairy prince, he has only to wave
his wand, after he gets it, and the
whole world will be made over again.
The lives of a great majority of earnest
and Well-meaning men and women are
spent in what an irreverent cynic call
ed the endeavor to ''poss the impossi-
ble."
For example, there is a very gener-
ally cherished belief that the people
would be profited if the government
were to operate the railroad systems Of
the country, take charge of the tele-
graph and telephone business, and as
sumo a more or less complete control
of all large business enterprises in
which the concentration Of capital has
| created alarm. Now, it is not neces-
| sary to discuss the merits of this ques-
ton until the obvious objection has
been answered that if the government
cannot transact expeditiously, econOm-
ically and efficiently the much smaller
| affairs committed to it's care, it could
be expected to make only very bad
botch Of the larger. Let any man of
business experience go through one Of
the big departments at Washington
and investigate it's accounts and then
answer how long any private concern
could last if it were so conducted and
so financed. He would tell you that
from one-third to onehalf of the en-
ployes are unnecessary, and that the
same work could be done as well, if
not better, and certainly much more
quickly, with the expenditure Of from
25 to rs per cent less money. Con-
slider only the work Of the department
of agricultur e; where the attempt Of the
executive head to enforce ordinary
economy met with a severe reprimand
and a positive veto by congress. Look
at the consequences Of the participation
by the government in building the Pa
cific roads, and see what has come of the
land grant policy applied to railroads
in general Take it where you please
and you will find that a political gov
eminent, federal, state or municipal, is
the poorest possible business manager.
But this does not seem to lessen the
eagerness Of the average man to have
the state try to accomplish great things
where it has failed in small.
1t is in the domain of social and moral
reform, however that this ineXplicable
tendency to make failure as conspic-
uous as possible has fullest sway.
Every public association and every leg
islative body is besieged with schemes
and proposals that run fatty counter to
all human experience. 1t has been
found impossible to extirpate the drink
habit by legislation. No sooner does
city or town find it's ordinances defied
and violated with impunity than it
asks for a transfer to the larger fail
ure of state laws. When these are prov
ed impotent, men and women, instead
federal help to defeat the inevitable
operation of human nature. We find
the greatest difficulty in the whole list
in making our government an actual
working success to lie in the indiffer-
ence of the voter and his failure to
perform the first duty OF citizenship.
Statistics show that in the most ex-
citing elections there is an enormous
Dorcap to oa Of q bSantpnS from tho OO11r
Men who mingle with other men and
participate daily in political discussions
fail to acQuaint themselves with the
subjects upon which they must vote
A vast amount of ignorance and mis-
representation is put into the balloting
at every election. The most serious
duty that confronts this republic is to
make every man feel what he owes to
it so sincerely that he will vote at every
primary, as well as every general cleo
ton, and put his mind and his heart
and his conscience. into the act
Now, in spite of the evident fact that
a colossal work is to be done before this
will come about, we have a widespread
agitation to enlarge the electorate by
adding to the list of voters the women
Of the country, at least nine-tenths of
whom do not desire the ballot, and
would not perform the duty Of voting
if imposed upon them under any per-
The bills for female suffrage, which