Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-11-03
TOLEDO
UNDERSTAND?

Lincoln Steffens, writing in Col
lier's for November 4, indorses Brand
Whitlock's candidacy for Mayor of
Soledo by saying:
When Sam Jones lay dying, the
stock quotations of Toledo public
service corporations bulletined his
condition. As his strength rallied,
prices weakened; as he weakened.
stocks recovered, and when he died.
there was a boom. This gentleman,
who had governed Toledo by the Col
den Rule, had stood in the way of
certain business plans which now
could go through. He had no party.
no organization to carry on his mind.
immovable resistance to corporate
corruption of the City Council. Only
another Jones could do what Jones
had done, and it was assumed that
there never could be another Jones.
But the opposition to Jones never I'M
derstood this remarkable man. His
appeal had been to men as men. An
i~ndividualist himself, he had insisted
that the only limitation upon the lib
erty and independence of his own
manhood should be the liberty and
independence of other men. The re-
suit was astonishing. The Golden
Rule worked. The example and the
appeal of Jones, Just JONES' to 9TH
er men proved to have been so well
understood that when the Golden
Rule Mayor" died and the rings, po-
litical and corporate, crowded with
fresh courage into the lobby of the
tCity Council, the streets of Toledo
outside became crowded with men;
all sorts and conditions of men, but
men. They presented their petition.
"a petition in boots, "rthey called it,
and they waited quietly till the men
in that body, with the help of the cor
rupt towards there, had beaten the
bold corruptionists.
Then the ring appealed from the
mob" to the people. The issue was
carried, without a leader now, into
the next election, and, strange to say,
the men whom Jones had taught his
independence struggled unorganized
to the polls and again the rings we're
beaten. The Golden Rule lived
though Jones had died, and Toledo
was full, not of Jonesites but of men;
individuals just as capable of indie
pendent action in concert as if they
had been drilled into dull subservi-
ency by Tammany Hall. And finally
among all these men a leader devel-
oped-Brand Whitlock. We know
his as a novelist. Toledo knows him
as a man; the friend Jones loved the
best; the young lawyer to whom was
i~ntrusted the sucker rod" factory
where business was and still is done
successfully under the Golden Rule;
the simply eloquent speaker who has
| preached, as Sam Jones preached,
once a week to the hands at the
factory, that they were men among
men. Brand Whitlock is not another
Jones; there isn't in all Toledo an
other Jones and there neve will be.
Brand Whitlock is as clean-handed,
as clear-eyed, as ~pure-minded as Sam
Jones, and he is as patient of other
men, but also he is as true to himself.
Brand Whitlock is Brand Whitlock,
just as Jones was Jones, and the men
whom Jones taught to be just men
have nominated Whitlock to be May
or of Toledo. The other parties, two
or three of them, have nominated
other candidates, all good men, we
hear; all on good platforms, we see.
Jones left his mark on them all.
But these good men and good plat
forms only serve to confuse the issue.
What the rings and some others seem
to be unable to understand is this:
Whitlock is nominated as Just a man
to do, as Mayor, unto others even as
he would that they should do unto
him, And 1t does sound queer; the
Golden Rule in politics in a Christian
city, 1t is confusing. One can't help
wondering If Toledo will really I'M
derstand.