Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1906-01-26

every one can see what is done, and
unless they are settled 10y public dis
! cussion in which every voice can be
heard and the public can understand
| what motives are prevailing. The
impressive vote given to Mr.. Bryan
| nine years ago, like that given in
New York City to Mr.. Hearst two
months ago, was not a vote indorsing
the principles of the candidate: it
was a protest against ring politics and
, the corruption that inevitably at
tends them. The will of the people
in different States has been thwarth-
! ed for years, and the men who have
organized the machinery which has
annulled popular government have
had corrupt dealings with organized
capital and brought about an unholy
com mbinatiOn Of business and politics
people of the country out of account.
The perception of this fundamental
treason against free institutions and
popular rights is becomming more
and more clear, and there have been
increasing evidences Of an impending
revolution. When Senator Platt tes-
titled before the Investigating COM
mittee in New York City a few weeks
ago that he had been in the habit Of
receiving $4,000 year from the New
York Life Insurance Company, he
did not seem to be aware of the moral
significance of that admission, for
curious blindness has fallen on the
political bosses, as it has fallen on
many life insurance officials. They
have been overtaken by an avalanche
without suspecting that they were In
any danger, and many OF them are
still of the opinion that the wreck Of
their regulations is the result of
passing fury which will soon vent it
self. These gentlemen are mistaken.
Some of them may survive and recon-
struct and direct their shattered ma
chimes for little while longer. but
their era and the era of their kind of
politics is fast drawing to a close.
They are just as much violators OF
trusts, and have shown as complete
an indifference to the interests COM
mitted to their hands, as the life in
surance officials who have been driven
by public indignation from their
places. Every public man holds his
place as trustee on behalf Of the
people. and these bosses have treated
their places, their authority, and
their opportunities as If they were
private property.
The boss and the machine have
taken the very life out Of our politics
for twenty years. In that time every
thing that has been vital and inter-
esting has been associated with the
men who have fought against them;
the real interest in American politics
in that time has centered in men like
ex-President Cleveland and Theodore
Roosevelt, who have stood for the free
movement of ideas in public life and
for the administration Of public Of
flee as a public trust and for the
square deal. In State in which it
is impossible for young man to go
to the front in public affairs unless
he bows the knee to boss there can
not be any real public life, for no
man of integrity and ability will ac-
cept that kind of servitude. The
bosses have substituted for the per-
sonal element, for the brains and dar
ing Of the Statesman. the monotonous
grinding of the machine. That our
politics has had anv interest during
the last twenty years has been due TO
the fact that there have been great
questions which the bosses could not
postpone, and men whom they could
not down.
The American people are now de-
manding three very simple things,
and they will secure them: Free gov
ernment-that is to say, the manage
ment of public affairs by the people:
honest goyernlnent-that is to say,
the settlement Of public questions
and the carrying on Of the public
business in the interests of the peo-
pie; an open field and a square deal
that is to say, the opportunity for
all men to go to the front in public
affairs without bowling the knee to
bosses or compromising with ma
chimes. In democracy there must
be leaders. parties, and party organi-
zations. But party organization is
not a machine, nor is leader a boss.
We are not looking for perfection;
we are asking for chance to breathe
freely as a Nation, to get men in pub
lie life who will have some Of the
instincts of the statesman, and to be
able to hold our heads up as Ameri-
cans when we face the rest of the
world,
The Sioux Falls Critic and Farmer