The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-02

lumbia, which position he now holds. and if the entire country had been searched no better man for the place could have been found If his committee and the Senate committee shall second him there will be a house-cleaning in this town be- fore the present Congress leaves off busi- ness. He illustrates the fine parliamentary instinct of John Sharp Williams, who was seeking a first-class business man as one of the minority of the District commit tee iu the Sixteth and selected Ben John son.
 Among our failures may be counted the American plan of city government, anu the capital of the republic is no excep tion to the general rule. Incompetency | extravaganza, favoritism and graft wait on every city government from ocean to ocean. Shrewd and interruptions men, eaten up with ignoble avarice as Troilus was with the lust of the flesh, seize on public utilities and operate them for pri- vate greed on the groveling proposition of the public be damned" This town is no exception On the contrary it is an eXaggeration in that particular. Those concerns are capitalized in enormous sums beyond their cost or their value and the public foots the bills of dividends on capital stocks that should be put on the footing of forged bank checks or counterfeit bank notes.
 It would be amusing if it were not ag- gravating to see how the thing is worked. Flattery of congressman and their fam flies is the favorte instrument and lor i years and years the corrupt interests se- 1 lected the committee on the District of Columbia for both houses of Congress l The Boss Shepherd regime reeked no more with corruption than did the Bab- ] cock regime. When it was proposed that D In1,, l,o .la District committee, the minions of graft and their masters were filled with dis may that Turned to horror; but without avail. Johnson had earned the place and Johnson got the place. Then they cringed, having failed to bully.
 There is tract of worthless land in the District of Columbia, located on Rock creek. It is proposed to sell it to Congress for a park at s6OoO an acre. l 1 believe it is A prominent member of l Congress from one of the gulf states l found himself in pressing need of 5000 and made note in bank for that sum- Recently the president of the bank began to labor with him to obtain his vote l for the Rock creek scheme. He got his money the day the note fell due, but he | never got the vote.
 They are not going to fool Ben John son No jobs will get through the com mittee while he is on watch. Perhaps
 he would get along better if he had more diplomacy. I was in his room one day
 last Congress, talking with him about the political situation in Kentucky, when
 a man came in and handed Ben a doc
 ument. He glanced at it and threw it aside. The stranger insisted on his read | ing 1t. but Ben said he knew all about 1t The man continued to press him, and Ben
 roared: "I will have nothing to do with you, sir; you are a crook and your scheme is reeking with graft"
 l The fellow broke for the door and Ben
 told me that it was a plot of a wildcat real estate gang to have the government ! to promote their business
 | l think It a public calamity that Ben
 Johnson was not selected as the demo- | cratic candidate for governor of Ken
 lucky this year. No state in the unfun
 IS in more sore need of strictly bust ness administration than Kentucky. and Of
 all her sons Ben Johnson is best suited
 to do the house-cleaning that Kentucky
 pound 10 have within the next ten
 years.
 l know his friends are disgusted be- 1 caHse of the treatment he got last spring: I but he is loyal democrat and will give
 loyal support to the ticket. But in 1915
 there will be another state election in
 the old commonwealth. and Ben John.
 son Is the man who should be selected
 to head the ticket
 Meanwhile, the District of Columbia
 needs him.