The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-01-14
Living Issues.


useful. And moral cleanliness Is 30
be accounted the first requisite of
usefulness Heretofore the Senators
and Congressman TO whom in the
regular course of things the patron
age fell as a perduisite of office we're
the judges of a candidates moral
worth and usefulness. They took
what was called the responsibility"
when a particularly vicious appoint
ment was made-and hundreds have
been made In the last twenty five
years. To day, the President himself
takes the responsibility. And when
he takes it in name he will take is
in tact. Already President ROOse
Welt has fatty refused TO name a
New Yorker recommended by Soma
tor Platt, and q Pennsylvania in
dorsed by both Quay and Penrose,
an Ohioan backed by Senator Hanna
in Ohio, and other men indOrsed by
smaller fry Senators and Congress
men without number. The men de
A4C0 appointments "O4O 6OOS @@OPNS
loans their party services we're IN
deniably great. They had earned re
ward. But they were not men of
q capacity and moral standard up
to the Roo seveltisn requirements.
So the Senators had TO name other
men. In no case has the President
taken-nor will he take-men not
suggested by the properly accred-
tied Senators and congressman. The
Senators and Congressman name the
candidates always-even after a dis
agreement over the first man named.
But, on the other hand, those men
must come up TO R~oOsevelt's re.
quirements
This means a mighty uplift in the
American political level. ROOse-
Velt's attitude is an advertisements
to men who have done crooked
things in business, around cauouses
or primaries or conventions, or
about Legislatures, that if they allow
their names TO come up for any Fed
eral appointment their enemies,
whether they are in Congress or out,
can keep them out Of Office, and dis
grace them in defeat by proving
their misdeeds.
AFIERCE QUARREL II CONGRESS POS
SIBLE.
For instance, if a Congressman
owes his election TO a man who fixed
q convention by money or by any
illegal means, or TO a ballot box
suffer, or if a Senator yves his @ &C.
ton 80 a man who brought in a
bunch of legislators that he CON
trolled in fee simple, the Senator or
the CONGRESSMAN cannot reward his
friend with a Federal job. Under
the Roosevelt administration only
the clean men in politics will he re-
warded. And as for the unclean
men, the ixers and boodlers and cor.
ruption1sts, there being No reward in
sight for them without scandal-they
will get out of politics into some
thing that pays better. No other
force for decent politics in this gen.
Grafton has been more powerful in
American life than this new rule of
RooseveIt's. It is not a day-dream {;
it is not impractical. The thing
will work. And is will work for
good. 1t may take six months or a
year Or two years for Congressman
TO get this Rooseveltian idea
through their heads. Ii oven may
brew the most enthusiastic row that
has frothed up in the Republican
party inc the War-and many dis
gruntled Congressman say it will
but when the idea once becomes fixed,
when a new set of Congressman have
been elected under the new order,
the country will look back at the
old order, under which apublio Office
was given TO a man tor unclean
party service, with astonishment
and disgust almost as profound as
that with which Modern Americans
look back at the witch burning of
Salem.
THE PRESIDENTS CURIOUsLY FORTU-
NATE POSITION.
In this conf1lct-if is come. to
that-RUoseveIt enters under singu
larly fortunate circumstances. He
has no ante convention pie ges TO
redeem. For one thing, Roosevelt
owes the Republican organization in
the South absolutely nothing. He is
paying about what he owes and moth.
ing more. S~outherners who get