Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-10-04
When the Time Comes to Choose.

Noting the efforts which certain pro-
fessional politicians and their news
paper organs are making TO create
false issues with which to confuse
voters in the pending primary cam
paign and in the ensuing electoral
campaign. the Bisbee Review demo
cratic thus tersely sums up the situ
alton:
we have observed that one class Of
candidates and the radical Arizona
newspapers, are urging voters to let
by-gones be by-gOnes. OF course, they
do not put it that way. but this:
They say: 1t makes no difference
what a candidate has been in the
past; with what integrity and ability
he has served you and thereby given
promise of his future usefulness. These
things do not count nov. Unless he
has been closely identified with the
construction Of the constitution and
has proved himself to be friendly to
the so-called radical features of it, he
is not entitled to your consideration.
Conversely, we may imagine the
speaker continuing: 1t makes no diff
ference how untried a candidate may
be; how worthless his past has been;
how widely known his unfitness for
office was under the old regime. All
this must be forgotten. The slate
must be wiped clean. If he has voted
for the radical things in the constitu-
ton; if at that time he spoke for
them or wrote for them, he deserves
well of you
so, we have the spectacle of men
aspiring to high office for which they
have neither natural nor acquired fit
ness Their claims are based wholly
on their real or pretended friendliness
toward direct legislation and their
professed solicitude for the people for
whom demagogues in every age have
prOfessed solicitude."
Every sensible voter will have suf-
ficient time, however. in which to con-
slider his own interests as well as the
dust-t throwing antics of the sundry
candidates before voting at the pri-
mary election on the cath; and if it
develops after the primaries that I'M
worthy men have been put forth by
either party, there will still be time
enough for an analysis Of the record
and character Of each candidate be-
fore the election on December II.
And with sensible voters, the record
of any candidate in having advocated
or opposed this or that political plank
last year will count for nothing if the
candidate himself has a record for
in private life or in Of
flee. or is shown to be lacking in the
necessary for a satisfac- |
tory discharge of the official duties of
the office he is seeking.
The election of a man to office
amounts to the selection of an agent |
by the people to perform certain du-
ties for all the people. And such Sc
lection is analogous in every way to
the employment of an agent for the
of a big business estab-
lishment owned by a multitude of
Suppose, for example, some thirty |
thousand citizens of Arizona, being
in a business concern,
were called upon to employ a con-
siderable number Of men as heads of
the departments of that business. In
choosing from among various appli
cants for the jobs, would the share
holders say to themselves: 1--WE don't
care anything about the relative quail
fications of the applicants; we don't
in general fitness or special aptitude;
we don't care if he is dishonest; we
don't care if he is a booze fighter;
we don't care if he was crooked in
former employment and is crooked and
tricky in his dealings with his fellow
men; we won't care if he should waste
our money and increase our expenses
and make a wreck of our business;
we don't care if he is cunning, de-
,eitfui and untrustworthy. All we care
about is the fact that at some time
or other in the past, or now, he tells
Us that he loves us and that he be-
ieves' so and So"
On the contrary, the shareholders,
being sensible men, would say: 1--WE
must employ as the head of each de-
Dartment a man who has the best of
references and can prove to us that
ne is absolutely trustworthy and is in
every way the best man for the job"