The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-17
(Author of The Shame of the Ci- ties)
 Copyright. 1906. by Mcclure. Phillips &

ties.)
 Copyright. 1906. by Mcclure. Phillips & Co.
 Washington, D. C.. Jan. s.--I have come to Washington in the plain char- scter of a private citizen to find out all can about my government. It IS
 mine: or it should he; yours, too, or
 course. But I say mine" with defi-
 mite thought in mind.
 Our government should represent
 us. all of us; not only the good citizens.
 but the bad also. and not only the bad
 but the good, the bad and the indiffer-
 ent For we are all sorts. and our gov ernment has to deal with us all. But
 my thought is that a representative
 government should stand especially for those of it's citizens who don't want to get anything out of 1t but fair play and fairly efficient service.
 Now you may be asking some favor
 for yourself or your friend or your
 friends friend; or, for your business or
 your party or your State or your river.
 It may be all right for "our" govern
 nent to grant you what you want, but
 have noticed that men who get what they want out of "our" government are disposed to judge leniently of the ad- ministration of 1t as a whole. On the other hnnd. when men fail to get what they seek, they are inclined to condemn the whole thing. and rather harshly. So I cannot be sure of YOU as am of myself. For I know that I have noth- iEg to ask that everybody should not have, neither an office nor a contract, neither a wrong grant nor a good bill:' nor yet-t the news. The point of my purpose lies in the fact that. though I am a reporter. my interest Is personal not professional: it is simply that of simple citizen who seeks to ! understand simply if. and how, his
 government is attending to his busi- ness.
 And I really want to know this
 have spent all the years of my mature 1 life inquiring into the condition and character of our State and municipal governments. and I know something about them. They are corrupt. Some
 are worse than others. but none is very good. Tn few cities and in fewer States, there are movements afoot to | achieve better things. Indeed there are signs Of an awakening all over the countrys-in cities and States. Yet the l typical American government Is bad in our cities and in our States.
 How about the national government? I Is that any better? The average Amer ican citizen seems to think it Is. Tn 1 cities and in States where the good citi- zen has given up in despair. he will brighten up when you mention the fed- eral establishment. Our American op- l timism takes refuge in the Geclara- ton made again and again to me that
 anyhow, as a nation. we are all right"
 "The national government is sound"
 we say
 Is it? The observation which trans formed me from an easy-going reporter into a concerned citizen was that the so-called political corruption of St.
 Louis was like New York, and that
 what went on In those cities went on also in Minneapolis and Pittsburg and Philadelphia and Chicago. The causes were much the same, and the prices ! and the forms and the effects And the same causes were at work corrupting
 the States wherein Ohio and in Rhode Island. in New Jersey and Illinois and New York and Wisconsin,-the same forces working in the same way were producing the one very same result 1 revolutionary change in the corrupt
 States, and that the corruption of the States reached down into the cities. Municipal reform was checked by State corruption, and State reform was
 checked by municipal corruption. be-
 cause.-forsooth,-St corruption and
 municipal corruption were all one sys- tenn of corruption.
 Pessimistic2 Not a bit of it. I be-
 lieve that when we Americans once un- derstand our corruption we will throt- tie the beast to death
 But I found that I couldn't grasp IiAN pCdSt III luG C1IleS and States. l Wherever l followed the trail of mu- nlcipal corruption up into a State. I met evidence of federal corruption and have seen citizens who, having beat en the beast in their city, have pro- l ceeded against it in the State, only to
 encounter there what looked like sympathetic national system. What did that mean? What does it mean that wherever l have travelled the broad main highway of our commercial-po- lltical corruption, whether in a city or Tn State, always the footprints of the big successful political grafters have pointed off towards Wash
 ington? Did they come here to retire and reform? Recent disclosures
 concerning certain departments and
 men suggest that the lessons learned
 at home have been applied here-only
 with the improved skill of the prac-
 ticed expert Is that so. Is Washing
 ton to politics what New York is to
 business, the Mecca of the finished ras-
 calls, or is 1t more like Newport-a
 sort of ValhaIla for the grafters that are done grating?
 No? Neither? Well, that is what
 want to settle for myself That is why, havinng turned from cities to
 "e's, l am going now from the States into the United States Since our bad city government and our bad otdte governments are all one bad Sys- tenn, I'd like to know if these are but parts of national sy,em.
 And We must not anticipate. have crossed, in the cities and States, the tracks of good men who have gone on up to Washington And there are more, no doubt, of whom I never heard. 1 The President told me once. before he l was President, that the character of the House of Representative for ex- ample, was high, very high; and that there were in that bodr surprisingly large number of able, courageous men l Good. What are they doing there? How are they doing it? It is some times hard for good men to do good work in public office what difficulties do good men encounter in Washington? must seek out these men and ask them.. They will tell me the truth, and will tell you the truth. And if the President is right about the House, and If the scandals exposed in the depart | ments are exceptional; and if the Sem ate has been misrepresented as much ! as it is accused of misreprescnting us, l then, the truth about Washington l will be interesting and pleasant for a | private citizen Io know of his own ! knowledge.
 And I shall know. have right to know what is going on and so have ! you and ] mean to know: know. too, of my own knowledge, and l mean to | make that knowledge yours flow? I 1 shall ask questions. I shall report those | questions to you. When I get answers, | I shall report those answers to you. i And if ] get no answers, l shall re- n lI1f