The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-05-17
WHO ARE THE Gull
Fable ONES
DIR. w. A. STEVENSON TALKED
TERRAIN CHURCH ON PRESENT
POLITICAL INDECENCY.

gave a discourse at the Presbyterian
church on the subject, who Are
Culpable for the Present Political
Indecency," using for his text, For
the people had a mind to work; our
God shall fight for us" He said il
part:
THE book of Nehemiah has to do
with a period of transition in the
life of Israel The Israelitish nation
had been for some time in bondage,
and while they were absent from
Palestine the city of Jerusalem had
fallen into ruins, the city gates were
burned, the walls were broken down,
the temple was in decay, the houses
had been pillaged and wild beasts
wandered through the once thickly
peopled city. Nehemiah, the cup
bearer to the king, secured a firman
authorizing him to rebuild the city
and reestablish the worship of Jeru
salem in the temple. No sooned was
the work of rehabilitation begun
than the Bedouins about began to
oppose it. Prominent among them
was Sanballott, marauding chief.
when any good work of con-
struction or reconstruction is under
taken there are always those who,
in the spirit of derision will say, 1T
never can be done But they were
wise for they Set watch and made
a prayer unto God
''All who mediate upon it must
be struck with the similarity of the
condition at Jerusalem with that in
our own state today. Engaged in
the great work of reform we are sur
rounded by enemies who say 1T
never can be done, that which you
build is so weak that if fox go up
against it he could easily knock it
down
With a supreme judge off the
bench for corporation complications,
a commissioner of insurance in the
tolls of investigation which show
graft, a secretary of state who has
resigned on account of completely in
that graft, an adjutant general a
thief to the extent of $4,000, no
other proof of political indecency is
necessary.
There are four persons or sets of
persons or agencies culpable for this
condition.
First, the officials themselves.
They are crooked They do not re-
cOgnize that right is an absolute and
not a relative term. Honesty is alb
solute and not relative. If the for
mer governor of this commonwealth
had spent less time in junketing trips
and more time in inspecting vouchers
the state could have been saved at
least a part of the $4,000 lost to
it. More care should and must be
taken in the selection of the officials
for our high offices.
1.-The second agency responsible for
present political indecency is the
modern political parties. Four great
parties have taken rise in the his
tory of our nation, each to fight for
.or against some great question which
threatened the life of the republic.
No party has as yet seemed to be
able to readjust itself so as to fight
some new great issue. There is a
new great issue before us. This is
sue is graft, Doodle, ring or corpora
ton rule. And the only way We can
fight this issue successfully is by the
organization of a new party, for the
leaders in the old parties are so in
extricably complicated with the very
problem itself that their members
won't nor can do anything to relieve
the situation.
Il would suggest an inelegant but
expressive name for this party-that
of 'Anti-Graft' But after all would
it not be a novel thing to have a
party name mean something again?
"The third class of persons culp-
able are the voters. They have per-
mitted themselves to be dictated to
and hoodwinked into voting for can
didates by that old slogan BE true
to the party Never thinking that
men who were thus making that
demonstration were furthering their
own ends.
1.-The initiative, which will give
them the power of originating legis-
lation, the referendum, which would
enable them to check or repeal any
undesirable laws, and the recall,
which will enable them to absolutely
control the actions of Dublic servants