The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-05-23
OFFICE SEEKING.

II. ]. ingalls, in New York Journal
This perpetual, ceaseless whining, and
lamentation, and weeping, and wailing
and gnashing of teeth about bad gov
eminent and the corruption of Ameri-
can politics is WEAKNESS to the flesh.
The people of the United States, in
every locality, have as good government
as they deserve, and whether good or
bad, pure or corrupt, it is of their own
choice, which they can change at will.
If in any community taxes are excess
sive, revenues squandered, officials dis
honest, it is the fault of the people.
There are in every state more honest,
upright men than knaves and scoun-
drels. Honor n integrity are IN the
majority everywhere if they choose to
assert themselves.
The incredible rOttenness and pol
luted putrefaction Of municipal affairs
in New York city; the shameless rob-
berry and plumber of its imperial re-
sources by an organization that en-
riches its leaders by levying cOntribu-
lions upon gambling dens, brothels and
dives, dance houses, buncO shops and
saloons; its police that is in lucrative
COLLISION with the criminal CLASSES and
the beasts of prey; its nasty theaterS,
where professional harlots portray to
audiences the fOuleSt de-
tails of prostitution, lust and adultery
all this reeking, fetid and fostering
SuperStructure rests entirely on acqui-
/ GSc6nc6 OF the CnuIGneS, the IOle1al1OE
of Epworth Leagues and Young Mems
Christian associations, the consent Of
the moral, religious and educated
classes, who, for n reason and an
other, omit and neglect or decline and
refuse to discharge their political du-
ties as American citizens.
In a popular representative democ-
racy, based upon universal suffrage,
every man ought to be a politician. Not
in the narrow and restricted sense of
aspiring to official station, but in the
broader view of taking an active, con-
slant and intelligent interest in public
affairs.
And not only should the citizen be a
politician, but he should be a partisan
also.
Political parties are groups in the
state composed of those who hold sim
liar views about public questions, and
every man should ally and actively
identify himself with that party which
is nearest in accord with his own con-
victions as to the policy of the state.
Habit, temperament and heredity have
much to do with party affiliations 1t
is not a matter of morality, but of in
~clination and expediency. Nothing can
be more senseIess and unjust than the
attempt to impugn the patriotism or
the conscience of any citizen because
he is a Populist, or a Democrat, or a
Republican, but both are open to ques-
ton if he be neither the one nor the
other.
And a man should belong to a party
not a little n once in a while, but d
great deal and all the time; not alone On
election day, but every day in the year.
He who upon the pretext of business,
or disgust, or incidence, or Indifference,
keeps away from the primary. the reg
~iStration office, the convention and the
polls is the worst enemy Of good gov
eminent. These duties must be per
formed, and if good men don't bad
men will. It seems like a paradox to
say that the worst evils of society are
due to the delinquency of it's better
elements. but it is true. They are di-
rectly responsible for the conditions
they denounce and affect to deplore- In
stead of blaming institutions they
should reproach themselves.
The inevitable corollary of universal
suffrage is holding office. This govern
ment is not automatic. 1t cannot run
itself. Their must be presidents, and
governors, and senators, and represen-
tatives, and judges and ambassadors,
and postmasters, and Indian agents,
and clerks, and janitors. Whom shall
these be2 There is no
class. There are no hereditary legiS-
lators. The divine right of kings has
been abolished. The oil of consecra-
ton has not been poured on any citi-
zen. These places are lucrative They
are honorable. They must be filed by
somebody. They do not require the
possession of extraordinary faculties
nor unusua powers There are scores
of men in every state in the union who
would make good presidents. Why
should not any of them aspire? Ad-
miral Dewey, who has examined the
constitution and the laws and the po-
Iitical history and institutions of his
country since his marriage, and is
therefore entitled to be considered an
expert, ~nounc that the presidential
Office requires no qualifications above
those of a forty-dollar clerk in a cor
ner grocery, and that he himself has the
same right to be a candidate as some
Of the clowns who are ambitious for
? the domination
Good men ought to seek office. The
: more the better. The wider the range of
selection the less chance of mistake.
It is a duty they owe to society, to
themselves and to the political system
Of which they are components. If a
man is fitted by age, talents and ex-
perience for legislative, judicial or ex-
acutive functions, his ambition for
office is honorable and praiseworthy.
The idea that there is something i'm
modest and indecorous about seeking
office like a girl proposing marriage to
the man she loves, and that the aspi-
rant must wait till he is asked, and
i, shipper and giggle and be coy. is based
: on entire misrepresentation Of the mean
ing of popular Self-government, il
: which there is neither privilege nol
caste nor prescription.
Z 1t is seldom that one citizen towers
so pre-eminently over all competitors
in public estimation, like Bryan among
Democrats or Mckinley among Repub-
: licans, as to exclude rivalry. Ordina-
rily the choice lies among many, anC
: the people profit by the emulation NJ
J doubt it would be better were every
official in the public service, from pres
ident down, an educated gentleman