The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-17


in nomination men of equal ability and char
acter, we shall not only have a c'ean and
eievating campaign. but We shall have The
assurance that. matter which ticket sha
be elected. the interests of thu state will he
III good hands. and the overthrow of machine
rule will have been achieved.-Minneapois
Tines.
If our youthful contemporary will
run its eye back over the pages of his
tory. it will discover that no party
ever won a political fight, national
state or municipal, without the aid of
a machine. 1t is the popular thing
among persons who do not understand
politics and will not participate in it
to deride the machine. AS well try to
run politics successfully without a ma"
chine as railroad without rolling
stock or a locomotive without steam.
The machine in politics means organ
iZation and ceaseless attention to de-
tails. The machine of party is what
the members of party permit it to
be. If taxpayers and law-abiding citi-
zens will not discharge the highest
duty which our form of government
imposes upon them; if they will not
exercise the right of suffrage, then the
organization of their party-its MAJ
chinery-will fall into the hands of the
vicious and the yenal, and the good
name of the party itself will suffer, for
taxpayers are bound to be raided, treas
uries looted and the state victimized.
The organization which Samuel j.
Tilden built up in every state of the
Union was derided as the Tilden ma
chine. Will our contemporary deny
that it was guided by the highest in
telligence; that it's ideals of government
were the loftiest, and that the doctrines
which it disseminated were devoted to
the betterment of the masses which in
reality it represented?
1t elected one president in 1876
Robbed Of the fruits of it's labors, it
rallied ard elected another in 1884.
Permitted to disintegrate by a fatuous
policy, 1t still mustered strength SUI
ficient to secure the nomination of
Cleveland in 1892, and the wisdom of it's
few remaining leaders was abundantly
justified by the people at the polls the
following November. What both par
ties need are maclineS-nachin with
machinists who are the right kind of
managers and the proper kind Of men.
What beautiful simplicity is display
ed in the Times conception that the
Republican convention will place in
nomination men whose election will put
the states interests in good hands, and
incidentally overthrow machine rule.
Is the Office boy disengaged? Let him
pass a cup of water to cool the fevered
brow of the father of such a funny
idea.
Are we to judge that the Times, in
its role of an Independent newspaper,
is balancing itself uncertain of the re-
itself "solid" with the winners, which
ever may be their party? Will it wait
to learn who the good men are to be
who are to be nominated by the Re-
rublicans and then turn around and
overthrow machine rule, before it defines
its position? Or is it hop that a clean
and elevating campaign will be pre-
cipitated upon us before it finally takes
a position? BY all means let us have
this kind of a campaign, but let us not
forget that we do not live in Utopia,
over whose highways rattle no ma
Chimes and whose languid inmates
indulge in no kind Of campaign ever,
elevating or otherwise.
Meanwhile what's the matter with
getting down to earth along with the
Democratic managers who do believe in
machine rule and share no such senti-
mental hopes of it's overthrow as are
entertained by our charmingly inno-
cent contemporary