The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-06-16

OLD style leaders TcSdIu slAC Pohe~
truths which alone insure the progress
of the nation, and will hereafter COM
pletely dominate it, as the mere mean
ingless babble of political infants
They have grown old in the belief that
money has the right to rule, and they
can never understand the point OF
view of the men who recognize in the
corrupt political activity Of railroad
or a trust a most dangerous kind VI
treason to government by the people.
When party leaders go wrong it re-
auires high sense of public duty, true
courage, and strong belief in the peo-
pie for a man in politics to take MS
future in his hands and stand against
them.
PARTY REGULARITY
NO LONGER SUPREME.
The black shadow of party regulari-
ty as the supreme test in public affairs
has passed away from the public mind.
It is a great deliverance. The man
in the street no longer asks about a
measure or policy merely whether it
is good Republican or good Demo
cratic doctrine. Now he asks whether
it is honest and means what it says,
whether it will promote the public in
terest, weaken special privilege, and
help to give every man fair chance.
If it will, it is good, no matter who
proposed it. If it will not, it is bad,
1t is a greater thing to be good
citizen than to be a good Republican
or a good Democrat.
The protest against policies for rev.
enue only is as strong in one party as
in the other, for the servants of the
interests are plentiful in both. In that
respect there is little to choose be-
TWEEN them.
Differences of purpose and belief be
tween political parties today are vast.
ly less than the differences within the
parties. The great gulf of division
which strikes across our whole people
pays little heed to fading party lines,
or to any distinction in name only.
The vital separation is between the
partisans of government by money for
profit and the believers in government
by men for human welfare.
When political parties come to be
badly led, when their leaders lose
touch with the people, when their OBJ.
| ject ceases to be everybody's welfare
and becomes somebody's profit, it is
time to change the leaders. One OF
the most significant facts of the time
is that the professional politicians ap
pear to be wholly unaware of the great
moral change which has come over
political thinking in the last decade
They fail to see that the political dog
mas, the political slogans, and the pc
litical methods of the past generation
have lost their power, and that our
! people have come at last to judge OF
politics by the eternal rules of right
and wrong.
COLLAR OF PRIVILEGE
CANNOT BE HIDDEN
| A new life is stirring among the dry
bones of formal platforms and artifi
cial issues. Morality has broken into
politics. Political leaders, trust-bred
and trusted, find it harder and harder
to conceal their actual character. The
brass-bound collar of privilege has be
| come plain upon their necks for al
men to see. They are known for what
they are, and their time is short. But
when they come to be retired it will
be of little use to replace an unfaith
full public servant who wears the col
lar by another public servant with the
same collar around his neck. Above
all, what we need in every Office is
free men representing free people.
The motto in every primary-in ev
cry election-should be this: Nc
| watch dogs of the interests need ap
ply.
The old order, standing pat in dull
| misunderstanding of the great for
ward sweep of nation determined
on honesty and publicity in public af
fairs, is already wearing thin under
the ceaseless hammering of the pro
| gressive onset. The demand of the
people for political progress will not
be denied. Does any man, not blinded
| by personal interest or by the dust OF
political dry rot, suppose that the bulk
of our people are anything else but
| progressive? If such there be, let him
ask the young men, in whose minds
the politics of tomorrow fret see the
light.
The people of the United States de
mand new deal and square deal
they have grasped the fact that the
special interests are now in control OF
public affairs. They have decided once
| more to take control of their own bust
ness. For the last ten years the de
termination to do so has been swell
ing like river. They insist that the
| special interests shall go out of poll
tics or out of business-on or the
other And the choice will lie with
the interests themselves. If they re
sist, both the interests and the people
will suffer. If wisely they accept the
inevitable, the adjustment will not be
hard. 1t will do their business nc
manner of harm to make it conform
to the general welfare. But one way
or the other, conform it must.
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