The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-01-26

to gather voters by the hundreds, or
thousands, and deliver them for voting
purposes to any one who could pay the
required consideration. The independ-
ant voter has practically put an end to
this form of graft, and better class OF
citizenship is coming to the front i'll all
iarge centers of population. But, we
must inquire into the conditions, as they
have been shown to exist.
In the first place, the commercial
spirit. which manifests itself everywhere
in our country, seems to have swept
way the moral foundation of business
rs well as political enterprise. Men
have seemingly uncomfortable desire
to become wealthy without much eff
fort and to control large business inter
ests. To the great majority, the OBJ
iect in life is indeed to be happy, but to
be happy is to be rich, and their sole
efforts are bent in that one direction.
Honor, integrity and character, every
thing, is sacrificed for riches. Their bus
mess becomes almost a scored matter,
and everything which enhances the
same, consequently, permissible and just.
If it becomes necessary to extend a fa-
vor to a public officer in order to adj
vance their business interests they do
not hesitate. One bride leads to an
other and when the business becomes
large enough, the stock may be water
ed, the prices raised, for all of which a
special law or the assistance of some
public officer may be necessary. Com
petition cuts down profits and therefore
competition must be eliminated. But
the business is considered sacred, and
the means are naturally DENIED justi-
fed by the ends.
Secondly, our very form of govern
ment is partly responsible for affording
so many opportunities. Ours is gov
eminent by the people. We pride our
selves of the fact that we are the peo-
pie, ana we govern ourselves. The con-
clusion to be drawn is, that if we bet
ter our own conditions and advance our
own interests we are doing the duty of
good citizens and raising the standard of
.ivic virtue, but the actual result is,
that each one looks after his own in
terests and no one looks after those of
the government as such. The good citi
zen is the influential citizen, and in or
Ter to get the influence, he must build
it up and at all times have it under his
control.
This leads us to consider, in the third
place, machine politics, or the party
lash. A government by the people is
in effect a govermnet by party. The ma
jority party distributes patronage, pro-
notes the faithful ones, applies the par
ty lash to anyone, who dares to raise
a dissenting voice. But the maintenance
of party requires funds, and it must
levy graft on its members as well as
on those who seek favors at its hands.
In the larger cities the dominant party
maintains its bosses. who collect the
tolls from private interests as a con-
,ideration for the required protection or
Advancement.
The following paragraphs taken from
| Lincoln Steffens introduction to "The
Shame of the Cities are worthy of no.
| lice in this connection:
''There is no essential difference be-
tween the pull that gets your wife into
| society or favorable review for your
book, and that which gets heeler into
office, thief out of jail, and rich
mans son on the board of directors of
| I corporation, none between the cor
| ruption of a labor union, bank, and a
| political machine, none between dunn
my director of trust and the caucus
| Bound member of legislature; none be-
| tween labor boss like Sam Parks, a
boss of banks like John ID. Rockefeller
boss of railroads like J. P. Morgan
| md political boss like Matthew s.
Quay. The boss is not political. he is
IN American institution, the product of
freed people that have not the spirit
to be free.
| Sand it's all a moral weakness, a
weakness right where we think we are
strongest. Oh, we are good-on Sun
| day, and we are 'fearfully patriotic on
| The Fourth of July But the bride we
pay to the janitor to prefer our interests
| TO the landlords. is the little brother of
the bride passed to the alderman to sell
a city street, and the father of the air
brake stock assigned to the president
of railroad to have this life saving in
vention adopted on his road. And as
for graft, railroad passes, saloon and
bawdy-house blackmail, and watered
stock, all these belong to the same fam
lily. We are pathetically proud of our
democratic institutions and our repub-
| lear form of government, of our grand
| constitution and our just laws. We are
free and sovereign people, we govern
ourselves and the government is ours.
| But that is the point. We are RESPONSE
bic, not our learers, since we follow
| them. We let them divert our loyalty
| from the the United States to some par
| ty;' we let them boss the party and
| turn our municipal democracies into au-
tocracies and our republican nation into
I plutocracy. We cheat our government
| and we let our leaders loot it., and we
let them wheedle and bride our sovereign
| ty from us. True, they pass for us
strict laws, but we are centent to let
them pass also bad laws, giving away
public property in exchange, and our
good, and often impossible, laws we al
low to be used for oppression and black
| mali. And what can we say? We break
our own laws and rob our own govern
ment, the lady at the custom house, the
| lyncher with his rope, and the captain
of industry with his bride and his re-
bate. The spirit of graft and of lawless-
ness is the American spirit"
Finally, we must consider the RENE
dies. There is no occasion for throw
ing up our hands in despair. Both the
business and political world of today
1