The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1906-03-24

per Office. The editorial rooms of
many Offices in this country are adorn
ed with two little black dots above
the chandelier. These are the marks
made by the back suspender buttons
of gentlemen who have hit the cell
ing trying to run newspapers better
than the men who owned the paper
when they bought it
"And the place where these new
editors have stumbled has been in
politics. Just as soon as an editor
gets a notion that he is in politics, he
begins to go out of business. For the
first and only business of a newspa-
per is to print the news. If an editor
prints the news-all of it and prints
it without fear n without favor
the people don't care what he advo-
Gates on his editorial pages. They may
hate him for his editorials, but they
will %patronize his paper for the news.
The old-fashioned editor who used
to dodge and trim, and wiggle and
squirm to please the people is fading
away like stars in the morning. He
is like the old-fashioned politician
whose boast was his smoothness.
early Kansans will remember the
inaugural address of the first reform
mayor of Dodge City, who assembled
all the gamblers and ~dance-hall girls,
and COW punchers, and cut-throats and
addressed them as ladies and gentle
men-a remark which was greeted
by loud cheering. Then he said, "a
man elected to the responsible posi-
ion of mayor of this Queen City of
the Prairies has a great problem be-
fore him. He must not forget the hus-
ky boys and girls who have made this
the greatest COW town on earth, and
on the other hand he must not ignore
the stream of conservative Eastern
capital that is pouring in to make
Dodge City the greatest city of the
plains. In fact, l may say, that the
mayor of Dodge City today should be
like Caesars wife, al things to all
men,
/ 1.-The time has come not only in
the newspapers business but in ev-
cry craft and profession. when a man
may be his own master. For thous-
ands upon thousands of years our
race has fought for it's freedom, and
today in this country. a man who de
liberately adorns himself with the
shackles of any creed, any party, any
leader or N system which he thinks
is wrong, or h sells his freedom to
live his life freely and ~candidly for
the price of an office or for business,
is worse than the ancient slave who
was born to his bondage. What is
more important slavery doesn't pay
today. The people are becoming in
| dependent and wise. They no longer
look to newspapers for their opin-
ions any more than they look to poll,
teal parties for guidance. Time was
when the party organization and the
| party organ ran this country. But now
the newspapers furnish the tickets,
and the people act upon their own
judgments.
Thirty years ago Uncle Chester
Thomas, a local boss in Topeka. came
flashing his horses to headquarters one
election day, stumbled out of his bug
gy and gasped to the party workers:
.Boys-boys, for heavens sake send
some one down to the Fourth ward
quick. Them idiots down there are
just voting as they damn please The
recent elections in this country indi-
cate that the trouble a spread from
the Fourth ward of Topeka pretty
well over the whole country. More
and more people of America are com
ing to regard the political party as
a mere adjunct to free government;