The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-04-08
FOR CLEANER POLITICS

IA pun
ticians and Idaho editors, which all
self-respecting people and all the &C.
tors upon the stage of public life are
bound to observe and consider. A
most welcome condition to those who
desire to have cleaner politics and
purer patriotism in the conduct of
our state affairs. A condition that
forces the pretended patriot to take
his bearings carefully in the effort
to really be what he has attempted to
appear in his posing.
1t isn't so long ago that opponents
In politics abused each other indis-
criminately on the stump and through
the press, but that is out of date, and
now men seek to show the public how
interested they are in the veal of
the state, and how very patriotic they
are and always have been. In doing
SO they use the press and the tele-
graph, and the carbon copy" in writ
ing letters.
Two years ago the editors of the
state, most of them, Joined forces to
print Mr.. Brady into the office of
chief executive, and 1t was syste1nati-
cally carried into effect. Everything
read Brady, everybody spoke Of Bra
dy, and an enthusiasm was created
that resulted in a Brady sentiment
strong enough to result in nomina-
ton.
This year another man wants to be-
come governor, and it Is notable that
men who were the most active in
printing the present governor into
nomination are the most caustic in
their criticism of press comment for
any candidate. They are evidently
tired of it; it seems nauseating to
them, and it is right that it should
be. Men who have abused their in
struments, press-those who
have prostituted 1t and made it a
means of expressing feelings that did
not exist as was represented, unwit-
ingly rise up in alarm and disgust
at seeing the same instrument used
by somebody opposed to their own
desires.
One Brady organ of two years ago
accuses another one that was circula-
ing the same circular matter and
carbon copy" opinions for Brady at
that time, of starting out to favor
Brady this year and then of "hedg-
ing" in favor of O'Neil because, as 1t
says, Perhaps Brady failed to come
through" or the editor saw the
handwriting on the wall" rather than
by patriotic principle and firm be-
lief in the candidate being the right
man for the place he sought? -, 4
The finest and perhaps the only
II fhnf hn mt ~ thn
press of the state for their work of
printing Mr.. Brady into nomination
two years ago is that they followed
that old MOTTO Speak we'll of all
or not at all" They boosted Brady
first, last and all the time; they
lauded him to the skies and maintain
ed their stress until the bubble broke
at the convention, and then in the
throes of Titanic struggle where
men traded and fought and implored
and promised, state ticket was nam
ed, out of which Mr.. Brady emerged
pale, flushed, victorious by scratch.
And now the part that is exceed
ingly gratifying to his friends, ex-
ceedingly funny to the Indifferent,
and exasperating to those who have
turned against him, is that Governor
Brady has worked overtime to make
good in all that the Subsidized
press said he would do And now in
Justice to Mr.. O'Neil it can can on
ly be said that he too is mighty
good man, and by the time he be-
comes governor he too may learn
that he will have to recall some un-
wise promises or make some appoint
ments that are not for the best in
terests of the state. 1t is said of
Brady that he went to nine different
men in eighty miles, and promised
each of them the appointment for
state game. warden, and every man
of them probably went on record all
that spring and summer as saying
that Brady was man of his word,
and If what they say now. is true,
they must admit that they were talk
ing without knowledge at that time,
talking to influence somebody to sup
port Brady,-and that is all Brady
was doing if he did what they say
he did.
1t is exceedingly gratifying to see
men convict themselves at their own
game, and how much influence does
an editor expect to WELD this year,
after making a spectacle of himself
over the last campaign?