Amador ledger., 1905-10-13

|
| the militant forces of Republicanism in
the last campaign, has not been able
to even nominally surrender the reins
| of party management, although the
vast responsibilities of the Postmaster
Generalship devOlved upon him at the
beginning of this year.
1t was under the Hanna regime that
permanent headquarters of the Repub-
lican National Committee were estab-
llshed in Washington. Mr.. Hanna set
the fashion of the chairman of the Ma
t1onal Committee settling Quarrels be-
tween warning factions, quarrelS that
threatened so to disrupt the party be-
tween campaigns as to seriously darken
its prospects in intervening State, Con-
gressional and city elections.
The Democratic National Commit
tees headquarters are nOminally in the
offices of Chairman T. T. Taggart, in
indianapolis, though much of the work
OF that organization is still done in
New York by August Belmont and VIM.
r. Sheehan, the leading members of the
Executive Committee in the last cam
paign. AS the Democrats have no Fed
eral patronage to dispense, the work
that falls to Messrs. Taggart, Belmont
and Sheehan is Of purely advisory
and supervisory character. 1t goes
without saying, of course, that the Hon.
William J. Bryan has very great infu-
ence in the decisions as to policies,
even though he is clothed with no Off
cial authority.
The organizations next in Importance
to the National Committee are the
State Committees. In each of the forty
five States both of the old parties main
tain central committees, whose func-
tions within their respective jurisdic-
tions are similar to those of the Ma
tional Committees.
The Congressional National Commit
tee stands next in the line of our mill
tant political system. These commit
tees are Of comparatively recent origin,
and are logical development of our
party government system. Each party
in Congress selects its own committee
in caucus in Washington usually Just
before the expiration of the Congress
then in session. Each committee in
turn selects its officers, who, as rule,
are members Of the House. Both of
these committees have permanent head
quarters in Washington, from which
are conducted those fierce biennial
struggles for control of the House of
Representatives. Attached to each
committee is corps of salaried assist
ant secretaries, stenographers, etc.
City, ward, county and precinct COM
mittees, State legislative and senatorial
committees, Congressional committees in
each district of the States, judicial dis
trict committees, not to mention the
myriad host of political clubs of mush-
room growth and others of stable life
and permanent habitations, complete a
line of political organizations that
ramify every avenue of our activities
and are in the woof and web of our ma
tional life.
Nearly every candidate for President
keeps always in his employ-rarely, of
course, avowedly-a well-organized ma
chine, usually headed by one or more
alert and enterprising press agents and
seconded by practical politicians rang
ing in the social scale from the highly
respectable corporation president to the
much-abused ward worker. These pri-
vate machines are grinding from the
close of one Presidential campaign to
the opening of the next. In a word, |
so numerous are the political organiza-
tions, so varied are their methods, so
unceasing are their activities that the
American voter finds it virtually impOS
sible to escape surveillance.
With all this marvellous perfection of |
political machinery, however, it is |
worthy Of note that at no time in the |
recent history of the United Staes has |
the American voter shown more indie |
pendence of thought. In fact, this is |
one of the reasons for the unceasing
labor and vigilance of party leaders.
To test public opinion, to follow popu-
lar sentiment in the making of plat
forms and the nomination of candidates
is one of the important functions of or
ganization. The American voter is in
telligent, alert and independent. The
party machinery of to-day is not Gre
ated for the purpose of driving men,
like sheep, to the polls or in the ex-
pectation of hoOdwinking the voters.
1t exists for the purpose of crystalliz-
ing and making effective a particular
political creed. 1t can do nothing more
than this.