Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-11-25

little circle around us.
the POINT OF VIEW. .
The Minneapolis Northeast Argus
comes to the defense of the Freeborn
County Standard on the proposition
that "the grafters are generally as
good as the average voter that gives
them the opportunity. The article is
too long for reproduction, but we give
few extracts giving the meat of the
article, with comm ents:
It would take pretty shrewd advo-
cate to make it appear that q person
who possesses ordinary reasoning fac.
ulties does not know that his political
party, be it the G. o. p. or the D. o.
P, is corrupt to the core. Both of
those old parties have long since out
lived their usefulness. Toey are no
longer the servants of the people but
on the contrary have become the faith
full servants of great corporations who
are becoming more powerful each
year.
The Argus forgets that the appear
ance OF things depend considerably
upon the angle of vision. To say
that the majority of the people know
that both the old parties are "rotten
to the core" just because the Argus
editor knows Tor thinks he knows
that to be the case is to suppose that
all minds are cast in the same mold in
which his mind was formed. Anyone
who has studied human nature knows
that people will honestly differ on
almost anything, and each one will
wonder Why what appears so plain to
him should appear in such different
way to another. He forgets the intlu-
ence of associations and surround
ings. There are people who have
been born republicans or democrats;
who have never read anything but re-
publican or democratic papere; who
have believed from childhood that
their own party was the best in the
country, though not necessarily per-
feet, and that the opposite party rep
resented the worst elements in the
country. We have met hundreds of
people who believe that every man
who fought for the Union was a re-
publican and every rebel was demo-
crat. We pitied their ignorance, but
never for q moment doubted their alb.
sOlute honesty. We have seen men
whose honesty has been tried in the
most severe way and come out trium-
plant, but whose political opinions
were "way OFF" according to our way
of thinking. Had they been raised
under different circumstances and sur
roundings they might have enter
tanned Numerically opposite political
views, without the least affecting their
honesty. It is this conserv atism, this
s,ubbornness in sticking to opinions
implanted in childhood that Is the
greatest obstacle to political reform.
The Argus goes on as follows:
Now, Mr.. Tribune, we would like to
see TO what extent the corners of your
mouth were drawn down when you
wrote the above, that "hidebound
partisans, blinded by prejudice so
they do not do their duty as citizens, !"
were honest. We would like to see
by what manner of reasoning or what
language the editor of the Tribune
would apply to such conduct that
would make the man, who insists on
doing wrong, appear to be right. The
editor who has gift that enables him
to do that has missed his calling.
Instead of being an editer he should
have been criminal lawyer. The
chance for client of his ever being
convicted would be very slim indeed
if he had adopted the practice of the
law.
We can assure the Argus that
there was no drawing down Of
the corners of the mouth in writ.
ing that sentence, for we know il
to be true. AS stated aboye, a man
fcan be blinded by prejudice and still
be honest, if he does not know that he
does wrong. We cannot say that 9
n an is blinded by prejudice unless il
prevents him from seeing that he does