Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-03-24
Money i'm Politics,

ullt IRlSoS GtduefS " tiic lOhoNihS
article copied from the Philadelphia
Times. For years Cameron county
has witnessed some diseraceful Doodle
campaigns and it is an open secret that
certain individuals have openly boasted
that "in Cameron county few hun
pred dollars would defeat any candi-
date" and "election officers could be
bribed to violate the laws" The Lam
caster county incident will apply with
equal force to this county:
ga poor devil of q colored preacher
in Lancaster has been arrested on the
charge of accepting an election bribe,
and formally expelled from the Ian
caster Ministerial Association. lie
contracted with the friends of the Re
publican candidate for Mayor in that
city to deliver some thirty votes of his
congregation for that candidate.
"None will dispute the propriety of
dismissing such a minister from the
pulpit, nor will his criminality be
doubted, but where are the men who
bribed him, and who habitually tempt
men from their integrity who are in
poverty? If the minister was bribed
somebody must have bribed him, and
the tempter was the man who offered
the money to the impoverished parson.
eve are on the threshold of a great
political contest in Pennsylvania. 1t
is one of the most important we have
had for many years. 1t involves the
election of a Governor, Lieutenant
Governor, Judge of the Superior Court
and Secretary of Internal Affairs, an
entire delegation to Congress, and the
Legislature to be chosen will elect a
United States Senator to succeed Mr..
Quay.
''With the experience in the contest
Of 1896 and in the Legislature of 1897,
the people of Pennsylvania should set
themselves like hooks Of steel against
the use of money in politics. No local,
district or State candidate should be
permitted to succeed who starts out to
win his way by the debauchery of the
people. If we are to have a govern
ment worthy the respect Of the people,
the boOdler must be sent to the rear
and money must be eliminated from
our politics.
'It is the Veriest moczerr- to indict
and punish a poor colored minister
because in his poverty he was tempted
by the money of the boodler to commit
an act not only lawless but unworthy
of his sacred calling, if the boodler
who tempted him, and without whom
no such offense could have been COM
mitted, is allowed to go without ex-
posure and punishment.
''The only way to break up the now
appalling evil in Pennsylvania of
money in politics is to strike at the
corrupt fountain from which these
streams ofdebauchery flow to contain
mate the people. As long as there
shall be men with money to tempt the
poor, the dependent and the venal
just SO long will there be corruption in
Pennsylvania politics; but whenever
it shall be determined that no man can
play the roll of boodler without dis
grace and imprisonment, we shall have
purer politics inaugurated and men of
merit viii have fair fight for political
honOrs.
''Every good citizen, regardless of
party or faction, should take high re-
solve that money in politics should
not be given the mastery in Pennsyl-
vania in the great battle Of 1895"
1t is time for the sober thinking peo-
pie of Cameron county to think care
fully over this question and organize
to put a stop to this debauching
system. Let us, if necessary, organize
a Law and Order League and prosecute
to the fullest extent all violations of
the laws. The PRESS will cordially
second any such plan and render all
the aid within it's power.