Arizona republican., 1911-08-14
The Lorimer Scandal and Public
 Opinion.


 Lorimer scandal on public opinion? The St. Louis Republic has been try ing to find out, and here are its conclusions:
 The reappearance before the pub lie this week of Charles A. White established a point from which to measure the proportions of a national scandal Many things have happened and many details have amplified the narrative since the East St. Louis street car conductor gave to The Chicago Tribune the story that was read round the world.
 "One phase alone of the scandal re- mains to be studied after its previ- ous almost interminable discussions. This is what is the actual effect 1t had on the citizen of average thoughts, aspirations, and standards We know what the moralists, the publicists, the men of a large range of vision think of it. What is the opinion of the upstate man in the remote back country, of the undem- onstrative urban voter who is never interviewed by the press?
 The tide of travel is heavy in the summer season. It covers a wide range of territory. It penetrates to out of the way places. It picks up in unsuspected spots all sorts of curious information, which it deposits at points touched later in its sweep.
 And so, whether or not he joins the tide of travel himself, one who keeps his ears open can hear maLy things about the Lorimer case which, taken together, may be assumed to be expressive of the private sentiment of some part of the country.
 "One thing he can hear is that the plain citizen, the back country man. the undemonstrative urban voter, is unbelievably wearied of the whole wretched affair. Its demands on his attention have been too great Its succession of collateral and only slightly related incidents he has ceased to follow and he doesn't pre- tend to understand. He doesn't find much zest in talking about the case any more, having talked about it overmuch already.
 Instead, he generalizes. They're robbers, he says dogmatically. The whole public service is a public serv- ice of graft, big and little. Some of- ficials may be worse than others, but by graft all rise, and unfortun- ately only some few fall
 This un-American cynicism about the integrity of popular representa- tives, however, is only assumed to avoid the phrases that have already become wearisome platitudes in pre- vious jackpot discussions. If dis puted, the data cited in support of these contentious is invariably the voluminous data of the Lorimer ex- posures. Not a few returning trav- eIers speak of having encountered this significant, dogged cynicism in various parts of the country. Be- lief in Lorimer's guilt is universal, unquestioning, ineradicable.
 How far this will influence indi- vidual action at the polls next year is something for further study. It is worthy of being watched. Ger tainly a very large number of voters will be found in a frame of mind
 
 political party's opsonic resistance to corruptive infection and capacity for self -purification are in inverse ra- tio to the length of time it has been in power.
 Tt may be that the senate verdict declaring Lorimer's immaculate in- nocence on a showing that con- vinced the country of his guilt, will seem, two or three years from now. one of the greatest blunders of this period of political history It seems to have made a more profound inn pression on the yeomanry than the Lorimer charges themselves.
 ''Lorimer was only one delinquent. When his colleagues brazenly justi- fled him the yeomanry argued that there must be a lot of other de- lnquents just like him.