The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-13
New York Superintendent Of
Insurance Speaks At Re-
publican Dinner
DEMAND FOR BETTERMENT
IN POLITICAL OFFICES
Charles j. BOnaparte Also Speaks of
Roftenness in Politics, and Says
That the People Should RE-
gain Political Power

Utica, y. Y, April 12.-The annual din
county was held this afternoon and at
tended by 700 men, for the most part anti
organization men.
The speakers included Charles J. Bona
parte, formerly Attorney General of the
United States; William Hotchkiss, state
superintendent of insurance and Congress
man George w. Norris of Nebraska.
Former Assembyman Merwin K. Hart,
president OF the league, in his introduce
tory remarks said the people, as hard to
fool as in Lincolu's time. were not de-
ceived by the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill.
and are tired of continued disclosures
about politics for revenue only"
Mr. Bonapartes address was an analysis
of the methods of bosses and rings. q
protest against the methods of both, and
plea for returning political power to
the people.
1.-THE mass of our citizens habitually
come to the polls, not to choose their
rulers, but to record preference be-
tween nominees of two usurping monopo-
les, he said.
Mr. Bonaparte said the leaders have
made their trade so dangerous. odious
and noisome, that against it every force
that stands for righteousness must be
directed tomorrow as it should be today"
Superintendent Hotchkiss said:
IN q message which still reverberates
the governor OF New York last night
recommended an immediate, impartial
thorough and unsparing investigation into
legislative practices and procedure That
same great executive a few DAYS ago
made a speech already historical in which
| the public demand for the uncovering of
| the secret places of political power and
legislative favor was voiced as it never
was before by the chosen spokesman of a
people,
THUS, within a week have two blows
been sturck at a system-rather a sys-
TEN within a system-of which New York
citizens have become weary. Executives
of great states do not speak thus with
out extreme provocation.
Through what a period have we been
passing? Until recent years considera-
tions on the side seem to have been smiled
at by the cynical; the boasts of some of
these in backroom talks led toward sew
eral of the disclosures in the inquiry now
closing. What an atmosphere was that
OF the capital city. Said one witness.
this is not a Sunday school; this is AL
bany.' Graft has been a subject for jokes
and the distributors of 1t honored in
song. And what shall be said of people
whose action at the polls or In convention
had made such things possible each
decade of late has seen the executive
stronger the legislature weaker: each
decade the people have come more dis
satisfied to trust a man. but the current
now is stronger than ever before. The
corrupt practices of the few, the plain
people are beginning to realize, and doubt
the reliability of the legislative branch
Stories from Mississippi contrast in lurid
vigor with those from. Pittsburg; New
jerseys officials OF late cast in shadow
even the daily tales about New York.
Carried to the ultimate outcome the pres
ent distrust of popular representation in
city councils, in state legisatures-yes,
even in federal congresses, means. sooner
or later. a practical despotism: a chief
tainshp which, while still elective, has in
1t all of the dangers against which our
fathers fought. God forbid that the
foundations of representative government
should thus be weakened.
"And so I take 1t our governor was
looking far into the future when he asked
a thorough and unsparing investiga-
ton into the legislative processes and
procedure What the people want is.
however, not so much a concurrent reso-
luton as an oncurrent revolution, an
overturn in methods, perhaps. rather than
in men. The cry just now is to investi-
gate. So be it."