The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-05-08
POPULAR DEMANDS SWEEPING
ASIDE PARTY TIES
(continued from page IL

choice between the nominees OF one
political machine and the nominees OF
another political machine? We would
as leave settle II by the toss OF coin,
because, after one set Of men Is elect
ed TO Office, they take their orders from
the machine. We don't like the ma
chine and can't put II out OF business
and therefore, we cannot get access
TO our own government.
And why does the machine try to
conduct It's affairs with such separate
ness from what would seem to be the
very source of its power? Because
IL mas come about that we, the people,
are not the source OF their power;
the source of their power is, In the
main, derived from the men who are
conducting great enterprises OF bust
ness. There are men In every board
of trade, for instance, who are part
ners--intimate and constant partners
with political machines which the
parties they are connected with are
pretending to fight
The business OF politics at this mo-
ment Is to reconstruct our govern
ment by putting II upon Its right
basis again, which is the basis or
popular will and not the basis OF pri-
vate arrangement. The partnership
IA about to be dissolved by public
process: the partnership Is about TO
be made impossible by pitiless pub
licity.
have found audiences made up
of the common people OF this country
quicker to take a point, quicker to
understand an argument, quicker TO
comprehend a principle than many
college class that have led; not be-
cause the college class lacked inteili-
gence. but because class OF college
men is not in contact with actual
life. day by day, and body OF the
common citizenship Of the United
States Is In contact with actual life.
day by day. You do not have to ex-
plain to them what touches them 70
the quick.
II you will go out and explain to
the people what 1t is that ought TO
be done for their government, they
will waive all minor objections and
they will see to 1t that you are sus-
tanned in doing II.
The only thing you have to do Is
10 prove to them that you really mean
TO serve them, and that you are not
in the least afraid of the man that Is
crooked. The only thing you have
r., do with the man who is trying TO
do the wrong thing Is to make him
stand up In public and explain 1t. III
you find men button.holing you and
button.holing representatives and
crfticizing various measures which
have TO do with the public welfare,
hire a hall for them and get them to
get mn on the stage and tell you why
they are objecting.
There is nothing that so chills ar
dor for wrong-doing as exposure To
the omen air. I have been told that
II requires courage to advocate a pop
Mar cause. Unless | have misread
history. the only thing that requires
courage Is to oppose 1t. because the
thing that a man ought to fear Is not
the interruption OF his personal pros
perity, but the permanent disrepute
OF his name.
In the years gone by when | was
very literary fellow, used to enjoy
a certain grim satisfaction In hearing
certain public men make public ex-
cuses for their careers, for used to
know that II was quiet men. ike my
self sitting at study tables, reading
the records in which we are told how
posterity ought to think Of those men,
who knew that their voices would die
with the hour and that the record OF
history would rise up against them,
generation after generation, and those
who descended from them would wish
thew had never been born.