The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-03-08
is FOR GENERAL WELFARE.
Some May Disagree With His Meth
ods But Few People Will Question
The Great Aim of His Many
Actions.

In the course of an address on The
Present Movement for Civic Better
ment," before the teachers of Wayne
county in the circuit court room Sat
urday afternoon, William Dudley
Foulke made plain in no uncertain
terms his position on the presidential
question. He declared that President
Roosevelt has right 10 urge upon
the country his choice for his success
sor and that he is certainly right in
picking as that man Secretary Taft.
Mr.. Foulke discussed the causes lead
ing up to the great reform period of
today and in the course of his remarks
took the political measure of Grover
Cleveland. Benjamin Harrison and
William Mckinley and found them all
wanting. He said:
After the Civil war the issues in
yolved in reconstruction were allah
sorbing How should the country best
preserve the fruits of the great strug-
gle? That was the question. There
was little time to devote to common
civic virtues and these We're neglect
ed. Grant said to Bristow, during tho
prosecution of the whiskey frauds.
Let no guilty man escape" yet after
wards Grant showed great unwilling.
ness to convict Babcock, his own IA
miliar. Secretary Cox was a neformer
and was dismissed in consequence.
Corruption was rampant in congress.
There was the Credit Mobiler scandal
where Oakes Ames sold stock to mem
hor Ft,ra 10 lx
there was Secretary Belknap whose
family sold post-tradeships; there
were the Safe Burglary frauds, the
Star-Route frauds, the princely do
mains granted to the great railroad
companies. The debauchery of public
offices was so great that in 1880 Flan-
agan, the Texas delegate 10 the natio-
nal convention, openly propounded
the question What are We here for II
not for offices?" Our civil service
was the most corrupt Gf We except
Russia, Turkey and Morocco) of any
in the civilized or semi-civilized world.
About a quarter OF our revenue was
wasted or stolen. The desire of pub
lie officials and of all legislative bod
les seemed to be to cover up the I'M
pleasant reality so there might be no
scandal Hence there was no punish
ment, no terror to wrongdoers. Even
when an investigation was begun. il
was often kept secret; to make IL pub
lie was 10 involve unnecessary criti-
cism. Every Statesman's ear was laid
to the ground to catch, if he could,
the voice of his constituents, whether
they wanted what was good or what
was bad Every kind of clap-trap was
adopted to win popularity. The ideal
of the political chieftain was not to
lead the people but to keep abreast
of the times. The coach-dog theory
of politics was prevalent. The politi-
clan must find out which way the poll
teal coach would drive and then run
ahead and bark aloud. Sometimes the
coach went the other way ard there
was n hard scramble TO catch up.
! Senator ingalls, declared That purifi-
| cation Of politics is an iridescent
dream: the decalogue and the golden
| rule have no place in a political cam
paign-" The one thing upon which
. every statesman insisted WAS that he
/ should keep his own full share of the
. patronage. Political organizations
soTdid and corrupt and generally own
/ ed b. somebody. controlled elections
/ by dividing the votes into blocks of
five. with trusted man in charge,
with sufficient funds" when a gov
/ eminent was thus elected IL was nat
uraIly dominated by the special inter
ests, which secured its election and
which sought special privileges for
what they had paid. A tariff bin was
| drawn in their favor and our govern
menL was rapidly becoming a govern
ment of the interests, BY the interests
and for the interests. We had presi-
dents who were personally good men.
| but who had not wisdom or courage
| enough 10 stem the tide. Cleveland