The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1903-01-17
A POLITICAL Ring,
It SIGNIFIES AND WHAT
It Does. The Men that Com
pose it and the
Motives that Actuate them in their
Conduct.
HOW Things are Worked and the Sort of
Men that do the Work. The Australian
and Blanket Tickets.

| 49, SS"'C - l'TSiSC9
and far play IN our elections, de
lIvered All address before the Er,
Club, of New Orleans. which /,
composed Of ladies, on the night ot
the Slh INST, in which lie gave the
members some idea as 10 what 9
political ring means. He said he
would give attention to the geher
al principles OF the difficulties un
der hIch New Orleans. as other
cities. lahors. He said that the
present city government was the
best ring or machine government,
the city had ever had, and If this
was the les IT was the duty Of the
people t. inquire into The remedies.
H. d, fined a ring, saying that some
time ago he had b. en- asked from
another CITY to state what particula.
! form Of misgovernnen; New Or.
leans .tfared from. He replied
that 50 tal as be could Judge 1t was
not Il fferent from that IF other
American citIeS. y iiug is b ndy
| of PERSONS who desire TO make their
| living out of politics To do this
they must have Office, aud to get
Office hey must get votes, and to do
| this tEeg need the machinery of
elections. They must have patron
age above all other things He
| had heard one uf the best edu ;ated
and most capable men II the city say
that the election machinery be
iorged to the party, and it was
necessary for it to nave that advant-
age. THIS shows how man of in
t, liigence, looking from one point
of view, assumes posltiou which
is as unjust and un-American as
that. The machinery belongs t.
the people. That one party Is in
power means simply that for time
it has been trusted with the rrach'n-
cry.
The ring, III order to Eet vo es,
must put into office, not the hest
men, but those able to bring the
greatest accession Of votes. The
ring cannot possibly be good. 1t
will be just as bad aud go as Tar as
the people who live under its gov
ernment will tolerate. People ID
New OiIeans continually run after
quack remedies for these things,
and do not look for the practical
facts. They say that 1t ls became
there is but one party. Grant ~ a
this aggravates the evil; but If W.
look at New York, with its gigan-
tic ring and study conditions here.
| am not sure that another regular
party would make it any better
There Is always perfect under
standing between TammanY and
the Republican State ring IN New
York, by which the city or the
State is sold out. The leaders of
our ring are always on the best
terms with the people IN the Gus
tom house; IN fact, most of the
people IN the Custom-house are ex-
Democrats who have added on the
Republican name and lack political
principle. Such people cannot be
embarrassed by a change political
name. So that is not the remedy.
Then they say that as we are all
Democrats, and this is Demo-
cratic community, we must 60 into
the primaries, take possession OF
the machinery and the better classes
run 1t. The fatal objection Is that
the people won't do 1t. The masses
are too busy and have not time nor
inclination.
The speaker argued that the lead
ers under this system would be-
come as bad as the others. That
was the objection to independent
organizations here. If they are
kept together long enough, we see
the heads getting just as dictatorial
as the others and just as eager to
put their acquaintances IN Office,
and this is arming their enemies.
Another objection is that city
government: Is MT concerned with
national politics. There Is no rea-
son why man should make a bet
/ ter Mayor on account OF his nation.
al politics. The ring gets the pow.
er, the machinery and the patron.
age, and says 1t is doing it to hell
the party, They do and the party