Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-07-06

hiSAoitb VIII UO 4ulCo uOuobtly TQdTl@ saical, thanking heaven that they are not touched with any of my infirmi- ties.
 It may have been coincident, though think not, that. few days after Fes- senden's call, reform movement against Dominick appeared upon the surface of Jackson county politics. thought at the time that it was the first streak of the dawn I had been watching for--the awakening of the sluggish moral sentiment of the rank and file of the voters. l know now that 1t was merely the result of a quarrel among the corporations that employed Dominick. He had been giving the largest of them, Roe bucks Universal Gas and Electric company. called the Power trust, more than its proportional share of the privileges and spells. The others had protested in vain. and as last resort had ordered their lawyers to organize movement to purify" Jackson county, Dominick's strong hold
 I did not then know it, but I got the nomination for county prosecutor chiefly because none of the other law. yers, not even those secretly directing the reform campaign, was brave enough publicly to provoke the Pow CT trust made house to house, farm to farm, man to man, canvass. We had the secret ballot, and I was elected. The people rarely fail to re- spond to that kind of appeal if they are convinced that response cannot possibly hurt. and may help, their pockets. And, by the way, those oc. casional responses, significant neith. CT of morality nor of intelligence, lead political theorists far astray. AS if honor or honesty could win other than sporadic and more or less hypo- critical homage-practical homage, mean-among people whose perma- nent ideal is wealth, no matter how great or how used. That is another way of saying that the chief charac- teristic of Americans is that we are human, and, whatever we may pro- fess. cherish the human ideal uni. versal in world where want is mans wickedest enemy and wealth his most winning friend. But as was relat. ing. was elected. and my majority, on the face of the returns, was be- tween 1000 and HOO. It must act. ually have been many thousands, !or never before had Dominick doctor. ed" the tally sheets so recklessly.
 Financially was now on my way to the surface. supposed that had become political parsonage also. Was l nos in possession of. the most powerful office in the county7 was astonished that neither Dominick nor any other member of his gang made the slightest effort to conciliate me between election day and the date of my taking office. did succeed in forcing from reluctant grand juries indictments against a few of the most notorious, but least important. members of the gang; and got one conyiction-which was reversed on trialerrors by the higher court.
 The truth was that my power had no existence. Dominick still ruled. through the judges and the newspa- pers. The press was silent when 1t could not venture to deprecate or to condemn me.
 But fought on almost alone. did not fail to make 1t clear to the people why I was not succeeding, and what q sweep there must be before Jackson county could have an real reform. I made an even more vigorous cam paign for reelection than I had made four years before. The farmers stood by me fairly well. but the town went overwhelmingly against me. Why? Because I was bad for business" and, if reelected, would be still worse. The corporations with whose law-breaking I interfered were threatening to remove their plants from Pulaski-that would have meant the departure of thousands of the merchants best customers and the de- struction of the towns prosperity. I think the election was fairly honest. Dominick's man beat me by about the same majority, by which had been elected.
 Bad for businessl"-the most po- tent of political slogans. And 1t will inevitably result some day in the con centration of absolute power political and all other kinds, in the hands of the few. who are strongest and clever est For they can make the people bitterly regret and speedily repent having tired 10 correct abuses: and the people. to save their dollars, will sacrifice their bberty. 1 doubt If they will. in our time at least, learn to see far enough to realize that who captures their liberty captures them. and, therefore. their dollars. too.
 By my defeat in that typical con- test was disheartened. embittered- and ruined. For. in my enthusiasm and confidence had gone deeply into debt for the expenses of the reform campaign. At midnight of the cleo ton day I descended into the black cave of despair. For three weeks I explored it. When I returned to the surface, I was a man ready to deal with men on the terms of hu- man nature. had learned my les son.
 For woman the cost of attainment of womanhood's maturity is the beau. tiful. the divine freshness of girlhood.