The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-26
DIR. SMITH ON RING RULE
(contlnued from Second Page.l

ueiiloCraCy IS not hOpleSSly lOSC III oui American cities; but a grave crisis IS drawing near, No remedial measures Which are proposed may prevent the disease from running now it's full course; but some palliative measures | have value which may hold the Viru- lence of the disease in check, hasten the | elimination of it's poison, and strength | en the power of the still sound heart of l the people to live through 1t until it is | thrown off. l pass with a single re- | mark those remedial measures which | may be grouped together as constitu- tional remedies Any revision of city charter, for example, which may serve to reduce the number of officers, and to bring those that are left out into the full light of public responsibility, is a promising measure. If the number of salaries offices could be reduced, even though higher salaries should be paid to the officers left in charge, the Ring would find less political miscellaneous ness to thrive in.
 Another and somewhat heroic treat ment proposed is the separation of na- tional party politics from municipal af- fairs This is certainly a desirable aim to be reached. A movement to have a plank inserted in the platforms of the national parties affirming their non-in- tervention in domestic affairs is now ag1tated in some quarters. But it must be confessed that ordinarily the com plete abandonment by the national par ties of the field of local politics, desira-
 ble as 1t may be, Is at. present more ideal than practicable. And until a | nearer approach to that end can be made, the independent voter who casts | himself out entirely from his own na- tional party may thereby serve rather than hinder the interest of the dominant
 Ring within his party. He may not i even be thorn in their side when he cuts himself entirely loose.
 | Neither is the point of moral renle- l dial attack to be made against party or ganization in itself considered. It would
 be unnecessary to offer this remark were 1t not for the fact that the favor ite defense of Ring Rule is defense of the principle of organization which no sober reformer attacks. It is not leg'it- | innate party organization, 1t is Ring | Rule, which is attacked. It is not the necessity of sufficient leadership which | is desired; it is bosSism which smells { rank 1t is not even an oligarchy of the
 wise and the strong, if chosen by the
 people who trust them and responsible
 directly to the people who give them
 power, it is not truly democratic oli-
 garchy, which threatens our civic ruin.
 It is the supremacy of the Ring, which
 is neither derived from the people, nor is terminable by the will of the people it is the presumptuous rule of the Ring
 which may yet compel the freemen of city to take from the mouldering side
 of the cave which once sheltered three independent judges the old motto, and to write it anew on the ballot box, and
 in the city halls of all our American
 cities,-Resistanc to tyrants is obedi-
 ence to God. The fact that they are
 petty tyrants, or clustering tyrants, or
 tyrants who have not become rich in
 any known business, or tyrants who
 may be square men outside Of their po-
 HticaI obligations, does not lessen in
 the slightest the peril of not reslstng
 them in obedience to the whole hlgher
 law of our national history.
 THE INDEPENDENT VOTE.
 The independent vote seems to be
 just at present the most available club
 for such resistance to pernicious King
 Rule. I do not mean by the indepen-
 dent voters men who would form a
 little private political party by them
 selves, in the boxes ana not in the pit
 with the rest of the common people.
 do not mean the few who might wish
 to give us more government against an
 unmistakable popular instinct for
 large degree of personal liberty in this
 country. But I mean the independent
 votes of men, who, while maintaining
 their position on the larger questions of
 national policy, refuse to bow the knee
 to any local Baal, and who can be
 counted on to vote for nominations , which do not bear upon them the trade mark of any ring. l mean independent
 voters who cannot be scared from their municipal business in hand, when to . frighten them back defeated boss at- tempts to raise the ghost of Bryanism before their eyes. I am not saying whether or not under any given condi- tions the independent vote should put
 LID independent nominations; but I am urging that the larger the number of men in any city whom the professional
 politicians can count as sure to vote
 for the best municipal candidates, by whatever party nominated, the more F wholesome will it be for that town, and the less danger will there be to the , taxes through any ring.
 One word in general, and I have done - for the present at least. Because, ac- } cording to the principe of our text 3 the man of lawlessness in our cities is coming to revelation, and, when fully revealed shall be destroyed by the brightness of a better day for our cit ies. I find one good reason for thanks giving in existing municipal conditions But as the hope is for the coming | day, so the appeal for the warfare tc : be carried through to it's victory, must :, be to young men. It was noticeable along the line at Gettysburg, dowr F the front before Petersburg, on the . hilltops arond Appomattox, how bat tery, regiment and brigade were com. F manded by young men; how the ad'
 vancing line through flame of battle te l victory was largely a line of patriotic l youth. The young men saved the l country once; and they can save 1t second time. But if they enlist in the 5 good cause of municipal reform, lei . 1 Thpu will hou