Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-15

ERBEf[I oHfJINCER pTeulCIeu
years ago, after a visit to the
= United States, that the American
habit of acquiescing in petty tyrannies,
due to our all absorbing devotion to
business, would ultimately lead us into
difficulties of a most serious nature
out of which we would emerge with
the greatest difficulty.
Today we are realizing the truth of
that prediction. In San Francisco and
other large cities we are reaping the
fruits of years of Indifference toward
the impositions of predatory interests
which have corrupted public officials,
and gained control over the agencies or
government. So busy have Americans
been in developing the resources of the
country in conquering vast unsettled
territory, in building great fortunes,
that they have neglected their duty
toward the state So accustomed have
the people become to passing lightly
over small trespasses that larger impo-
sitions, usurpations of public rights on
q large scale, wholesale political tyr
amy, have come to be looked upon with
the same complacency. The result, as
Herbert Spencer predicted, is partial
decay of the social fabric.
Our whole political structure has
been given over to the spokesman. so
long as the spokesman has not eX-
acted too heavy toll, SO long as the
stencil of public dishonesty and official
corruption were not too offensive, SO
long as business was not interfered
with to any great extent, the compla-
cent public has submitted without muir
mur or complaint. The popular haDlt
of neelecting public duty has continued
and grown until predatory interests,
safely entrenched in public office, with
their control extending even TO tne
judiciary, have become emboldened 10
the extent that they offer brazen et-
frontery to the citizen who dares to
complain of their cupidity. The condl-
tion which Spencer predicted has come
to hand. In San Francisco IL mas
reached a climax. There the issue has
been called and the struggle betNeeh
the forces of honesty and corruption
has assumed the proportion of a civil
Real Problem Overlooked
But the effort to punish grafters and
eradicate graft is not the main PROB
lem to be met in San Francisco. Whel
the grafters have been punished ana
things have quieted down other graft-
ers may come on the scene ana repeat
the episodes of the Schmitz-Ruef re-
gime. The real problem is TO overcome
public apathy and arouse the cltizens
TO a realization or their public duties.
The struggle to recover our free IN
stitutions from the control of private
interests has begun. 1t Will be long
and bitter fight. 1t will not be accom-
pIished when the grafters and public
PARASITES are in prison or under con-
troi n will only be accomplished
when the public is awakened TO
realization of the duties which citizen
chin in a democracy imposes. Higher
standards of public morality must be
established and loftier ideals of civic
righteousness must be instilled IN the
minds and conscience OF the people
And so the League of Justice, III
seeking to promote justice, has found
that its task does not terminate with
the detection and prosecution OF graft
and grafters. 1t has before 1t the more
fundamental problem of educating the
citizens to a realization OF the dangers
which threaten Republican institutions:
The public must acquire the haplI ol
notwithstanding dishonesty in public
office: of condemning the efforts OF
private parties to corrupt, influence
and control public officials and pubic
bodies in order to gain for themselves
special privileges or immunities. AS
soon as the people come to regard
boodling as an evil; as soon as they
come to regard the CRATER as a crlIn-
inal and a thing to be despised; when
the man who loots the public treasury
or sells public privileges for his own
gain is classed, in the public eye, with
the man who enters his nelghbor S
house and steals his neighbor's pocket
hook. then the regeneration OF our re-
pubIic and the reclamation Of our free
institutions will be at hand.
Americans Too Easy-Golng
Spencer was once asked: do you
think it worth while for people to make
themselves disagreeable by resenttng
every trifiing aggression? We Ameri-
cans think it involves too much loss of
time and temper and doesn't pay
He replied:
EXACTLY That is what l mean by
character. 1t is this easy going readi-
ness to permit small trespasses, be-
cause it would be troublesome or profit
less or unpopular to oppose, which
leads to the habit of acquiescence in
wrong and the decay of free institu-
tions. Free institutions can be main
tained only by citizens each of whom
is instant to oppose every illegitimate
act, every assumption of supremacy,
every official excess of power, however
trivial it may seem. If, as you say of
the American. he pauses to consider
whether he can afford the time and
trouble-'whether 1t will pay'-corrup-
tion is sure to creep in. All these
lapses from higher to lower forms be-
gin in trifiing ways; and it is only by
incessant watchfulness that they can
be prevented
''As one of your early statesmen said,
The Price of liberty is eternal vigil
ance' But it is far less against for
eign aggressions upon national liberty.
In some private administrations which