The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-09-09
INSURGENCY A MORAL ISSUE.

Il will not fight windmills filled
by the breezes from the lungs of po-
litical or personal enemies or cow
ards" said Speaker Cannon recently.
This is not riot, your majesty"
said the minister to Louis XVI, sit
is a revolution" So, too, Mr.. Cannon
mistakes the motive power. 1t is
not a breeze, Mr.. Speaker; it is
hurricane. Probably Mr.. Cannon and
his standpat friends realize this now.
1t must be obvious to even the dull
est standpatter that it was no mere
breeze that swept standpatism from
Michigan, Wisconsin and New Hamp-
shire the other day, or that enabled
Mr. Johnson, insurgent candidate for
governor of California, to carry the
primaries by a majority of $4,000
over Mr. Anderson, the standpat can
didate who was backed by all the
resources and tremendous power of
the railway interests. Everyone I'M
derstands what a colossal influence
the railways and their allied inter-
ests have exerted in the politics of
California. Indeed, for more than
score of years these interests have
dominated the politics of the state.
Mr.. Johnson, whose only political as
set was his reputation for civic honor
and probity had merely the support
of the Lincoln-Roosevelt League of
California, penniless organization
that was sneered at by the privileged
interests as a body of impractical
dreamers. And yet the hitherto in
vincible California machine was
swept aside, as chaff before the wind,
when the moral consciousness of the
people of the state was appealed to.
Such is the power of a moral issue.
Of course, it must not be forgot
ten, that Clifford Pinchot, lone blast
upon whose bugle horn is worth a
thousand men," stumped the state
on behalf of Mr.. Johnson.
But the Lincoln-Roosevelt League
of California, fighting it's local issue,
was fighting a national issue as we'll.
The people of California protesting
against the usurpation of railroad
privilege were. in effect, fighting
shoulder to shoulder with the peo-
pie of Kansas and Iowa against Aid
richism and Cannonism; they were
aiding La Toilette in Wisconsin, and
striking lusty blows on behalf of
Miles Poindexter, who is fighting
with his back to the wall for politi-
cal righteousness in the common
wealth of Washington. Indeed the
germ of political insurgency is the
protest of the people against the
power of privilege. The local mani
festation of such insurgency is de-
termined by the particular form of
political aggression in which such
privilege manifests itself. The CO.
hesive power of special privilege is
we'll known, and it's field of opera
ton is nationwide. 1t was newt
able then that insurgency should be-
come as wide as the nation, and that
is precisely what has happened.
The national league for the pro-
motion of special privilege has been
active for many years. Sometimes
working in the dark as the gum
shoe" brigade, sometimes in the open
with specious promises or appeals to
prejudice or selfishness as in the
present revival of states rights in
the conservation controversy; but
always with a view to the extension
of predatory privilege. And always
it is plausible. 1t is never in the
guise of a monster with horns and
tail that Satan beguiles the children
of men. but as an angel of light. In
surgency is simply nationwide pro-
test against the domination of spe-
cial privilege 1t is in the air. 1t is
based upon Righteousness and will
bear translation from the field of
politics to the realm of ethics. 1t
is invincible.
Special privilege must go. There