Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-03-12
THE TIMES ARE OUT OF JOINT

''The times are out of joint," says the pes simist, gloomingly.
 Yes, they are out of joint beautifully out of joint: but it isn't anything to be pessmistic about
 The times are out of joint because the people are getting tired of the wrong way in which they were jointed. They are out of joint because the people, by their unrest and discontent, have un- jointed them for the purpose of rejointing them in a better way.
 Before the times got out of joint was when the pessimst might have luxuriated in his gloom; not now.
 Then the government was in full control of an organization that has prostituted it to the corrupt service of special privilege. The voters were partsans, not patriots. The party aim was the profit of the organization, not the good of the country. Men belonged to parties because of habit or inheritance, and supported them be- cause they always had supported them. Parties formed for great purposes had achieved those purposes, but lived on in spite of their lack of great purpose. Special privilege was in the saddle and riding hard; but it was riding for a fall
 On the surface, there isn't much change now. The same organization is still in control of the
 
 for the promotion of prosperity in the class at the cost of the masses. The same party exists, still without purpose, and nominally its mem bership is as large as ever But this is only on the surface, and the surface is a shell; shell that grows thinner and weaker every day, and that presently will burst to give new birth to government of the people, by the people and for the people. The hold of the vice regents of spe- cial privilege weakens Their hold on the peo- pie is entirely gone. Changes that have been gestating in the womb of time are about to be born. The people are awake alert, class con scious The hoodwink of partisanship has dropped from their eyes, and thus the god of things as they are has lost his most powerful weapon.
 What few years ago was merely party dis loyalty now is recognized as patriotism. Men dare to defy their party organization, and they find the people supporting them in their defiance. The party organization, corrupt and rotten is a mere skeleton from which the flesh of unthink- ing party allegiance has been stripped by the force of public intelligence
 Men who used to think only in terms of party good think now in terms of the common good. Men who confused the end of good government with the means of "party solidarity" have emerged from their confusion, and see clearly that the party is only means, not an end and that when it ceases to be practicable as means it ceases to deserve honor and support. The change has come so subtly, though swiftly, that many do not realize that it has come but it has come and it is the best thing that has come in many day.
 With the people seeing clearly, and determin- ed that government shall cease to be means of the many for the benefit of the few and shall become the means of prospering the many even if it withdraws from the few the un- fair privileges they have usurped it is no time for pessimism It is time for courageous and sunlit optimism.
 The times are, indeed, out of joint but the people have deliberately put them out of joint because they were wrong and they are going as to rejoint them the way they should be-