Stikeen River journal., 1899-07-22
THE CURSE OF
 POLITICS

Great fieas have little 1eas upon their backs to bite 'em
 And the little ieas have lesser ones, and so on
 ad in tinitum.
 While the great tieas themselves have greater ones to goon,
 And these, in turn. have greater still and greater still and so on.'
 The great and growing evil in Amer ican politics is "Bossism.". The polit- ical boss is as much a parasite-a blood sucker upon the body-politic- as much varied in proportions and activi ties as the obiquitious fees represented above. Our legislative bodies, and in- deed all our public servants, from the lowest to to the highest are, as q rule. composed of men not callod by the peo- pie on the ground of their fitness for their several positions, but who have forced themselves upon the people for their own personal grandisement and the qualification of their own personal ambition. They are bosses of cross roads caucus, and the county, district, and state conventions, which they art | fully and eorruptly capture, and so mercilously rule as to make the idea of a "government of the people for the people and by the people" by-word, a snare and delusion. And what is the cOnsequence? There is no indepen- dance of thought or actiOn--no enlarg- ed statesmanship but in its stead dem agogucry. sharp practice in political tactics and a continual struggle to per petuate their power by decending to partizan intrigue even in general legis- lation and the discharge of official dut- ics. They are reckless of pledges and true to no principle but self-nterest and the country is always uncertain what they will do: and the uncertainty begets diStrust which results in depres- sion and finally into panic. But fur ther: tyrants are always towards, and the boss of the crossroads caucus is as subservient to the boss of the county convention is in turn the slave of the boss of the district and state conven- tion: and so on through the whole range till We ret to the biggest boss. who has a pack of cringing CUTS at his heels al- ways ready to do his bidding at the crack of the crack of the whip. And when the Big Boss is cornered and about to be thrown overheard by an outraged and awakened public he fights like all towards in desperation and not in the courage of true man. hood. Hayes said ''He serves his party best who serves his country best" and Cleveland" -"Public office is a public trust :'but the political boss reverses these salutary aphorisms to try best who manages his party best" and-"Public office is the reward of chicanery. bribery and corruption. !" Mr. Lincoln curtly remarked" -"YOu may fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool some of the people all the time.' and Jefferson said Eternal vigilance is the price of lib- erty." It behoves the public to look we'll to the conduct of their public ser- wants. Their rights and liberties are in their own keeping, and the dangers threatening them are not from without but from within. Let them not be daz- ed by any supposed overtowering indi- viduality for whenever the servant shows symptoms of feeling himself big ger than the people behind him, it is time to JOnahize and cast him over- board. The recent { history of our country is not wanting in nillustrous ex- amples.
 Bossism is an alarming evidence of decay in the tree of American Liberty before it has attained to half its wont- ed growth. Who are the sovereigns of this country? The masses of the people. What are the office holders?