Arizona republican., 1908-03-28
PARTY THROTTLING.


 The Globe Democrat of St. Louis one of the leading republican and ad- ministration papers of the country does not believe that state or local party can thrive in the deadly shadow of a rank federal patronage growth. It says:
 It ought to be apparent to the re- publcans of Missouri. who have not elected a governor or legislature for thirty-siX years, that some blighting influence is steadily at work within their own lines to cripple them in state elections. In all the thirty six years referred to. except eight, the federal patronage has been in republi- can hands. Whatever this hold upon federal offices, if rightly regulated, might do to strengthen the party. the practical effect in Missouri, for a third of a century, has been a paralyzing injury. The federal patronage rings work. not to carry the state, but to perpetuate themselves as holders and dispensers of federal offices. Year af- ter year the state is lost because the manipulaJors of federal patronage take the lead in party proceedings and manage them along their own selfish lines. Their position is that they win just the same when the democrats carry Missouri, and they conduct their dominant part of the state campaign on this basis. a crushing one to the more than 30O,000 republicans of Mis- souri.
 Four years ago the republicans car ried a number of state offices, and the men elected have made excellent rec ords. They have justified the promise that an oveTturn in the state would be beneficial to public interests. But these capable republican state officials, who have emphatically made good, do not seem inclined to run again when they can see that the federal patronage program is worked more vigorously than ever. The first thing done by the republican state committee this year after the election of a new chairman was to pass d resolution indorsing one presidential candidate, without any in dication that The others, distinguished republicans all. were worthy of the slightest consideration. The first con gresSional district in which national delegates were elected was visited by federal officials, some from distant part of the state, to address the dis trict convention and direct its proceed ings in behalf of the one presidential candidate for whom the state commit tee, travelling outside of its legitimate functions. had set the ball in motion The whole job. by prearTangement, was managed on the federal patronage system, regardless of the virtuous claims made that such serious inn propriety" or "pernicious activity is not to be countenanced by the author ity that could effectively rebuke it by a single stroke. There has been no such stroke. The indorsement of one candidate in Missouri has been re- ceived in that quarter with com plaisant congratulations.
 Let not the republicans of Missouri misunderstood the occurrences or the influences that are at work again to defeat their state ticket in November. The state itself is consigned to the lumber room by the federal patronage experts. They have worked the state committee at the outset, and worked the congressional districts for national delegates in the interest of single candidate. There are but six states in the union that cast more republican votes than Missouri. but this host wills. decade after decade, under the grip of the federal machine. Candi- dates for state offices realize that they are but secondary. or rather negligible. The pafamount game is to get federal patronage and consult fed eral preferences. Defeat is conse- quently feared in the state. Why not, when il is deliberately organized and invited by a fatal system of party management? The best men to make the race for state offices will not run , when they look over the situation ! They have something to lose by de- feat. while the federal patronage ring wins, either heads or tails. Republ- 1 canism in Missouri itself is treated as | a byproduct. The incubus is of long standing and as bad now as ever, if not worse.