Amador ledger., 1902-07-11
FOR THE OFFICES.

euc COuuGy ONeTuuleHG-Wul Ue re-
quired to give an account of their
stewardship. The sovereign people
who elected them 10 positions of
trust will scrutinize the record of
each servant, and if need be call
back the delegated authority, and
place the same In other hands. 1t
can be taken for granted that every
county official is anxious to succeed
himself. 1t matters not how long q
man has been in Office, he is never
satiated. There is something about
the business of Office holding, that
when the average man is fairly en-
barked therein he is rarely willing
to let go. He becomes fascinated
with place and power, and too often
hugs the delusion that the people
are also infatuated with him. When
election time comes round he makes
the plea that if the dear people
whom he has, from his own interest
ed standpoint, served so faithfully,
will only give him one more term,
he will be satisfied, and give some
other good man chance. But Just
as sure as election time rolls round
again, the chronic fever asserts
itself as strong as ever, and he
wants ''one more term" The
truth is he wants lifelong lease.
The love of power dominates every
other passion, and absolutely die
tates the individuals life. The
longer this appetite is gratifed, the
more imperious and domineering it
becomes. 1t is wise arrangement,
under republican form of govern
ment, that at stated intervals, the
power returns again to the people of
either reelecting their public SER
wants, or relegating them to the
ranks of private life. The con-
sciousness of this reserve power
tends TO exert a salutary influence
upon official conduct 1t ought to
put the ofice-holder on his best
behavior. When by long continuance
in public life, or from whatever
cause, this wholesome influence be-
comes relaxed, the people may de-
pend upon it that change is de-
sirable. The time has come when it
is their duty to themselves and to
their country, to move for read
justment of the political machinery.
We are not now speaking from a
party standpoint. The Ledger is
republican, and its editor is repub-
lican of the stalwart kind. We are
not hide-bound in our partisanship.
We do not believe that it is for the
best interests of our county to have
all the offices filled by republicans
all the time. AS an individual and
as journalist, we have sometimes
deemed it our duty to aid in defeat
ing nominees of our own party.
Whenever we have pursued this
path of divergence, we have done so
regretfully, moved mainly by a de-
sire for the public veal. Selfish
motives may also come into play.
Human nature is curious mixture
of good and bad. No man is moved
solely and absolutely by noble in
spirations There is ever present a
strain of clay that interferes more
or less with the ring of the true
metal. While this is true as a
psychological fact, it does not de-
tract in the least from the value of
any act the handspring of which is a
desire for the public veal. We must
take human nature as it is. not as
our ideality has pictured it.
We deem it not out of place at this
early period of the campaign, to call
attention to an anomalous feature in
connection with our county gov
ernment. The anomaly is probably
matched by no other county in Cali
fornia. We refer to the fact that
the entire Judiciary and executive
branch of the county government is
in the hands Of the adherents of one
party-the democrats. To be more
explicit, the superior Judge, the
sheriff, the district attorney and the
county clerk are all in the hands of
democrats. Let the voters ponder
over this fact, and the further fact
that when most of these officials
were last elected four years ago, the
county was republican Find if you
can parallel to this peculiar condi-
tion of affairs in any other county in
the state. We ask the voters to
discuss among themselves the causes
which brought about this anomaly.
Let them analyze the political drift
for the past eight years, and they
will probably find that the evil
herein complained of has been
created in a measure by the very
desire to prevent the concentration
Of power in the hands of few of the