The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1911-10-13
We HAVE POLITICAL REVOLUTION
Says Samuel 6. Blythe, Noted Writer, In
an Address Last Week


who was in Seattle last week, delivered
an address at the Montana state fair
Wednesday. He used very polite
words, but at that he said some things
that should make the .fatted crooks
open their eyes little. Here is part
Of his speech:
There is revolution under way in
this country, a revolution in business
and in politics. The potter term is
readjustment, but it is a revolution
just the same. Evidences have cropped
up in one place and in another. Those
are the skirmishes, the firing by the
outposts. Men, and strong men, we'd
ded to the old order of things, have
affected to scott at these manifestations.
No person is so blind as an old-timer,
and no person so impenetrably in the
dark as an old time politician. Still,
you cannot destroy fact by scoffing at
it. You may retard a truth, you may
reject truth, but you cannot rescind
truth.
This situation is nowhere more mark
ed than in our politics. The party
designation is no longer fetch. The
political boss is losing his power. The
slogan stand by the organizations"
provokes more jeers than cheers. With
in the past two or three years we have
seen the once solidifed republican
party split into two wide-apart wings.
We have seen also a similar division
in the democratic party.
Inevitably the political alignment in
this country will resolve itself into a
radical party and a conservative party.
1 do not apply the term radical in the
offensive sense in which it is always
used by hide-bound conservative. l
mean an advanced party, or a party
that shall advance, and a party that
desires to be let we'll enough alone.
Let we'll enough alone! That is the
philosophy of accumulation When a
man has all he can get he wants to be
let we'll enough alone.
This is nominally government by
the people, but as the people for many
years did not avail themselves of their
opportunities to govern, the control
passed to the hands of the few who
saw the advantage of being the govern
ing power. The people were careless.
The bosses were careful. Naturally,
there came the combination between
big business and big politics that has
controlled this country absolutely for SO
many years.
Power breeds arrogance, and arro-
gance breeds contempt. Big business
and big politics both grew contempt
uous. Each was so inflated that its
eyes swelled shut. Neither could see.
Neither cared to see. But presently,
here and there, arose man who could
see and rose to protest That protest
has grown from an individual to a ma
tional protest. 1t is growing every
minute of every day. 1t has already
caused a considerable readjustment,
and it will probably cause a much
greater readjustment. There will be
delays, no doubt, for all sorts of spec
ious arguments will be brought to bear
by the men and the interests affected,
but the slate must be cleaned, sponged
off and new start made. And it will
be.
1t makes no difference how much
you delude yourself or how clumsy and
Intellectual the first strivings for this re-
adjustment may be, the thing that is
coming in this country is representative
government, about which our statesmen
have prated for so many years, but
which we never have had. The people
of the United States are going to run
the United States and everything that
is in the United States.
A remarkable COW has developed in
the Shagit City circuit. Queen Lunde