Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-01-27

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my mothers room. Her door wa,
ajar She was near the window
kneeling there, praying-for me.
l had not been long in the legish
ture before saw that my positio,
was even more contemplate than
anticipated SO contemplate, indeed
was it that had l not been away from
home and among those as basely sit
uated as myself, it would have been
intolerable-a convict infinitely pre-.
ters the penitentiary to the chain
gang. Then, too, there was consola.
ton in the fact that the people. nv
fellow citizens, in their stupidity and
ignorance about political conditions
did not realize what public office had
come to mean. At home they VI,
lieved what the neutrality-suspicious.
newspapers said of me--thdt was
manly, Independent young man.
that | was making a vigorous stand
for what was honest in public at.
fairs" that was the honorable and
distinguished son of an honorable and
distinguished father" How often
read those and similar eulogies of
young men just starting in public
life! And is it not really amazing
that the people believe, that they
never say to themselves: But, if he
were actually what he so loudly pro.
fessCs to be, how could he have got
public office from a boss and a ma.
chine?"
l soon gave up trying to fool my.
self into imagining I was the serv.
ant of the people by introducing or
speaking for petty little popular
measures. | saw clearly that graft
was the backbone, the whole skele
ton of legislative business, and that
its fleshly cover of pretended public
service could be seen only by the
blind. | saw, also that no one in
the machine of either party had any
real power. The state boss of our
party, United States Senator Dunkirk,
was a creature and servant of corpor
ations. Silliman, the state boss of
the opposition party, was the same
but got less for his services because
his party was hopelessly in the mi
nority, and its machine could be use
full only as sort of supplement and
scapegoat
With the men at the top, Dunkirk
and Silliman, mere lackeys, I saw my
own future plainly enough. I saw my
self crawling on year after year
crawling one of two roads. Either |
should become a political scullion. a
wretched party hack, despising my
self and despised by those who used
me, or ] should develop into a lack
ey's lackey, or plain lackey
the lieutenant of a boss or
boss, so-called--a derisive name
really. when the only kind of boss
ship open was head political procurer
to one or more rich corporations or
groups of corporations | felt / should
probably become a scullion, as I
thought l had no taste or instinct for
business, and as | was developing
some talent for mixing" and for dis
penslng not air. from the stump
| turned these things 7Ter and over
in my mind with an energy that
sprang from shame. from the knowl-
edge of what my mother would think
If she knew the truth about her son,
and from a realization that | was
no nearer marrying Betty Crosby than
before. At last | wrought myself
into a sullen fury beneath a calm sur
face The lessons in self-restraint
and self-hiding | learned in that first
of my two years as assemblyman
have been invaluable.
When l entered upon my second
and last winter | was outwardly as
serene as-as a volcano on the verge
of eruption.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.