The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-03-26

enough publicly to provoke the Pow.
er trust l made a 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, AID may help, their
pockets. And, by the way, those oc-
casional responses, significant Meth
er of morality nor of intelligence lead
political theorists far astray. As II
honor or honesty could win other
than sporadic and more or less hypo-
critical homage-practical homage, ]
mean-among a 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 man 8
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 LOO. 1t must act.
ually have been many thousands, for
never before had Dominick doctor
ed the tally sheets SO recklessly.
Financially / was now on my way
to the surface. | supposed that had
become a political parsonage also.
Was / not in possession of the most
powerful Office in the county? I was
astonished that neither Dominick no
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 few of the
most notorious. but least important,
members of the gang; and | got one
conviction-which was reversed on
trial-errors 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 l fought on almost alone. did
not fail to make 1T clear to the people
why 1 was not succeeding, and what
a sweep there must be before Jackson
county could have an real reform. ]
made an even more vigorous cam
paign for reelection than | had made
four years before. The farmers
stood by me fairly well, but the
town went overwhelmingly against
me. Why? Because l was bad for
business" and. if reelected, would be
still worse. The corporations with
whose law-breaking l interfered were
to remove their plants
from Pulaski-that would have meant
the departure of thousands of the
best customers and the de
struction of the towns prosperity. |
think the election was fairly honest.
man beat me by about the
same majority, by which l had been
elected
Bad for the most po-
tent of political slogans. And it will
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 tried to correct abuses; and
the people, to save their dollars, will
sacrifice their liberty. l 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 I was disheartened, embittered-
and ruined. For, in my enthusiasm
and confidence 1 had gone deeply into
campaign At midnight of the cleo
ton day 1 descended into the black
cave Of despair. For three weeks
I explored it. When I returned to
the surface, 1 was a man ready to
deal with men on the terms of hui
man nature. I had learned my les
son.
For woman the cost of attainment
of womanhoods maturity is the beau
tiful, the divine freshness of girlhood.
For man. the cost of the attainment
of manhoods full strength and pow
er is equally great, and equally sad
his divine faith in human nature, his
divine belief that abstract justice and
right and truth rule the world
Even now, when Hfe is redeeming
some of those large promises to pay
which / had long ago given up as
hopeless bad debts; even now. it
gives me a wrench to remember the
cruelest chapter in that bitter lesson
So certain had l been of reelection
that 1 had arranged to go to Boston
the day after NV friumDh AT the
polls. For / knew from friends of the
Crosbys in Pulaski that Elizabeth
was still unmarried, was not engaged,
and upon that l had built high a ro-
mantle hope.