Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1902-04-11
PURITY IN P >LITICS.
RELATIONS OF THE PEOPLE AND
THEIR PUBLIC SERVANTS.
Betrayal of Trust should Never be
Overlooked or Con toned-Res ponstbil-
ity Lies with tho Party That Put the
Offender In Power.

While the subject of reciprocity In
tariff laws is being discussed there Is
another kind of reciprocity which
should not be overlooked, namely rec
iprocity between he people and their
public servants. The people owe 1t
to their public servants to commend
and encourage them when they do well,
and it Is not only the privilege, but the
duty OF the people to condemn and re-
buke officials when they betray their
trust.
The public servant, on the other
hand, is under obligation to the people
who elect him and to the party which
he represents. When he becomes the
agent of the people to carry out their
will, he takes an oath that he will be
honest AMI faithful II he violates that
oath he ought not to expect the people
TO be more considerable of his feelings
than he has been of thir rights. III
he sells them out he has no reason to
complain If they turn him out. If he
has received his price he ought not to
complain if they pursue their remedy
and select some one else to represent
them. Why should party support
an official who has brought disgrace
upon it by his unfaithfulness? II his
devotion to his party is not sufficient
10 make him behave himself, his party
ought not to be so devoted to him as
to shield him from deserved punish
ment.
When good official falls, his party
cannot escape some censure even
though the officials previous record
was such as to justify the party's
confidence, but party cannot defend
an official after his fall without assum-
ing responsibility for his sins. Neither
is it incumbent upon party to incur
risk in defending member Of the
party against charges not yet proved
in court. Purity in politics requires
not merely that officials shall keep out
of the penitentiary. but that they shall
be above suspicion. II under suspicion
let them step aside until the cloud Is
removed. When an official shows the
first symptoms of that disastrous Off
cial disease known as "the itching
palm" he should be quarantined until
he is entirely recovered or until 1t is
shown that he did not have the disease.
If he is a manly man he will prefer
seclusion during the investigation and
his yindication will be the more COM
plete when it comes. but the party by
taking the suspicion upon itself will so
weaken itself that it cannot be Of SER
vice to him even after vindication.
The Democratic party has suffered
occasionally because of corrupt off,
Gals in city, county, state and nation
AS a matter of policy as well as mat
ter of principle it ought to make an
example of every guilty Democrat. 1t
will by SO doing win the confidence of
the people and by warning Democratic
officials that punishment follows
wrong doing, it will lessen the num-
Der Of betrayals.
Let every honest Democrat resolve
to feariessly prosecute every corrupt
Democratic official and thus make the
party stand for public honor and fldel-
ity to public interests. This advice is
especially applicable to Pennsylvania
politics. Even Republican papers are
omen in their charges Of corruption in
high places and it is evident that some
of the Democrats have been besmirched
by Republican corruptionists. The
party should be purged Of these I'M
grateful and odorous misrepresenta-
tives. Pennsylvania politics needs
purifying and the Democratic party
must purge itself of these rotten mem
bers If it expects to be potent factor
in the cleansing OF the state,-The
Commoner.