The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-04

BuD1ect OI OluCldl anu pOA4tASoA AVHSSNS' and in the language of our old friend Robert Burns,
 Perhaps 1t may turn out song,
 Perhaps turn out sermon.
 not that we make a habit of singing or sermonizing in the editorial col- umns of The Advertiser, but sometimes an editorial partakes of the nature of each.
 Some one--or several--has said that this is an age of graft, of peeulation and of official dishonesty. Perhaps it is, but if we have read history alright from the earliest records to the pres ent there have been dishonest men in high positions, officials who used their positions for their own advancement or for personal gain. In spite of all that, and in spite of the fact that there have always been found dishonest public men, that fact should not make us less intolerant of rascality in office in our own time and country. For many weeks the newspapers were filled with details of the great insurance scandals in New York; scandals in which trust ed officials holding positions of trust and honor were proven to be steeped to the eyes in the foulest forms of cor ruption and official rascality; scandals in which men holding the high position of United States Senators were so badly smirched that their resignations have been called for by decent sentiment throughout the country.
 Again, other honored Senators have been indicted for grave crimes for which penal servitude is the only ade- quate punishment. while other Senators and Representatives live under such grave suspicion that nothing is lacking to put them on trial except the fact that they have so managed their crooked work as to prevent direct and positive proof being brought out to convict them. Even now investigations are go- ing on in connection with large corpor- ations which show conditions tEat ought to send some prominent men to the pen, though they, too, will prob ably escape. Still again, we all know that there have been so many and such grave charges in connection with canal matters that the entire affair has all most become a scandal on the Govern ment and all connected with the work. 1 And so it goes, all through the official world. Great cities become so honey combed and saturated with corruption l that they become shame to American civilization. Sometimes, as was the case with Philadelphia, the shame be- comes so black, so open and so notori- ous that the people finally rise as an act of self-preservation and turn the rascals out" while Tn others the looters | and the bribers have become so firmly ! seated that the better class of people ! have become hopeless or apathetc, and submit in silence to the burden of shame resting on them. apparently feeling that it Is better to bear their ills in silence than it would be to make matters worse by futile effort to put off the yoke.
 As in business and official life so it is in politics, perhaps on an even more extensive scale. It has reached point in some sections of our country where no man expects to get a good political office unless he pays the price. Corrup- tion funds amounting to thousands and millions of dollars are raised and put to use with as little apparent shame as money is raised to build a church. The benehciaries hardly care to hide it and the subscribers feel little shame over if. And when this kind of politician knows that he owes his place to his money. is it any wonder if he remem- bers the favors received and returns them in kind? That is human nature, and is politics.
 Is there no remedy for these condi- lions? Can We not have both civic and political honesty in d free republic? Certainly there arc honest men in civil life and in politics, but they cannot b0nish the shame and disgrace that come from the officials and politicians who are not honest. Is there no rem edy? We see none unless the very best citizens ot each state and com munity will take an active and vital interest in elections and use their ef- forts and their influence to put down and retire the veuaI and corrupt, and try to bar from office all men who will not be a credit 10 their positions and their country. To do this, it may be necessary in some eases to ignore party l altogether, but it is much more credit