The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-01-24
HOW TO OBTAIN OFFICE

General NJ. c. Butler. ex-senator
from South Carolina. delivered the
opening address at the GeOrg;a-Caro-
lima Fair, held at Augusta. Ga He
told the farmers gathered there how
the politician on the hot trail for Of
fee manages TO obtain the necessary
votes to elect him. General Butler
said he spoke from experience, be
cause he had been there.
He said:
Let me say in passing that all men
in public office under our popular
form Of government. are more or less
imbued with the spirit of demagog-
ISM speak from experience. And
it is right and proper they should be
it is their duty to please the people.
whose servants and agents they are
but there are different degrees of
demagogism. different in height,
breadth. depth and thickness. 1 do
not know that I can better illustrate
this proposition than by recalling an
incident within my own knowledge
I believe il was FrOude. the illustriOus
pubHcist and historian. who said that
in the early period of the career OF
julius Caesar the use of the tongue
was an important part Of the edUca
ton Of a statesman" and that Caesar
went to Rhodes when a young man to
learn this accomplishment under the
tuition Of an able elocutionist. I had
an acquaintance, a member Of the fed
eral house of representatives. who
was not Overburdened with brains OF
originality Of thought, but had cult
waited the use Of his tongue" until he
had expanded it into a fine art.
I said to him one day: How is il
you manage to get elected in the face
of such fierce opposiUon?" With a sig
nificant twinkle Of his eye, h. replied
BY flattering the people abusing the
political leaders. corporations and
people of wealth" We'll" I said
but don't YOU try to get the truth &C
the people and instruct them as faI
/ as you can on public questions?" The
truth be id" be replied. and the la
dies will remember that is his lang
uage. and not mine. Il am after votes
and if either must be sacrificed, the
truth must take care of itself want
the votes and the Office" This is a
typical case, and we have too much OF
it in our time for the good of the
country. Let's inquire a little into
what these combinations of capital
trusts, if you please-have done fOI
the people; make a sort Of inventory
Of their achievements in the past.
They have constructed. equipped
and are now operating, including ter
minals and sidings, about 100000
miles Of railroad, enough, if stretched
in a single track to girdle the globe
ten times. Within the memory OF
many of us it required 90 or 100 days
to cross the continent in OK or mule
teams, encountering and suffering the
perils Of the desert. storms, floods and
hostile Indians-today, thanks to ra
paciOus capital and the daring invest
ors, we can go over the same terri
tory in as many hours. More than
that we can, while en- route, indulge
in the luxury Of a comfortable bed,
with the best Of food, protected
against tn elements and other perils.
without a change of habitatiOn. This
is only a small example of what has
been done in our country in the mat
ter of railroad building and attendant
comforts. facilities for the transporta-
ton of business. from Alaska to the