The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-06-19
(continued from first pags)
Condoning Crooked Politics

acy there are a. number of men who
In the ordinary relations of life are
doubtless decent and reputable. Prob.
ably these men excuse themselves to
themselves for what they are now do
ing ON the ground that they are not
committing what the law recognizes
/ as a crime. 1t may well be doubted
whether on the whole our country
does not suffer more from the mis-
deeds of men who recognize as bind
ing on their consciences only the OBJ
legations of law, honesty. than 1t suf-
fers from the misdeeds of actual
criminals.
Men like Messrs. Crane of Massa-
chusetts, BROKER of Connecticut and
Nagel of Missouri, who trail behind
their holder associates such as Messrs.
Penrose, Murphy and Mulvaney, are
doubtless genuinely shocked at the
misconduct of a defaulting bank CASH
Ter or at the action of some small
election officials who on election day
falsifies the returns.
Yet the wrong to the American
people the damage to the country by
such action as these national COM
mitteemen have taken in deliberately
seeking to nullify and overthrow the
will OF the people legitimately ex-
pressed as to their choice for pres
ident is infinitely greater than the
wrong done by the tempted cashier or
the bribed election official. 1t has to
me been both a sad and strange
thing to see men hitherto esteemed
reputable take part in such action
: and to see it sustained by similar
MEN outside. | suppose the explana-
ton must be found in the fact that
In the slow but general moral ad-
vance certain men lag little behind
the rate of progress of the community
A. n 1n1a nj yl,arn fhait n
or fancied interests are concerned,
such men fail to recognize generally
accepted standards of right and
wrong until long after they have been
recognized by the majority of their
eellows.
Piracy Once Thought Honorable
There was period when piracy
and wrecking were esteemed honora-
t,le occupations and long after the
community as a whole had grown to
.eprehend them there still We're back
ward persons who failed to regard
them as improper. In the same way.
Qs late as thirty Years ago, there
were many men in public life who
while they would refuse to receive a
bride, did not think it Objectionable
to give bride, although now the
sentiment in Z the community has
grown so strong that it is no longer
possible to excuse the bribe- giver
any more than the -taker. In
the same way there are still in GER
tain parts of this country representa-
tives of a class far from uncommon
quarter of century ago. class
which regards an election as a game
without rules in which it is merely a
sign of cleverness to swindle and
cheat. Evidently the majority of the
men whose actions We complain Of or
the national committee still occupy
this attitude toward nominations al
though some of them may even rave
passed beyond it as regards elections
But on the committee and associated
with the men who ASSUME to be re-
spectacle there are certain represent
tatives of Mr. Taft whose presence
gives us cause to wonder whether
there are not far worse influences be.
hind the action of the committee
y than any at which I have guessed
Mr.. Stevenson, of Colorado, has APP
peared on the committee now holding
the proxy of one of Mr.. ,Taft's dele
gates, now that Of another. Judge
Beast and the Jungle" has given q
very graphic account of Mr.. Stew.
ensons political activities in Denver
j very greatly wish that every decent
man in the country, every plain
right-thinking citizen who Is in doubt
as to what the representatives of Mr.
Taft have done on the national com.
mittee would read this book of Judge
4 Lindseys and let him study the par
lin Which Judge Lindsey refers to Mr.
Stevenson and then let him think fol
himself just what IL means when Mr.
Taft and his associates accept the
help of Mr.. Stevenson and import him
from his own state of Colorado to ac'
for other states on the national com
- ~
gagged in the movement to rob the
people of their right to rule them,
Selves
Bitter Inscriptions Fight
Our opponents here in Chicago to-
day have waged such bitter and un-
scrupulous fight for the very reason
that this is no ordinary factional con.
test. The big bosses who control the
national committee represent MOI
merely the captains of mercenarl
politics but the great crooked tinan
eiers who stand behind those LED
captains. Those political bosses are
obnoxious in themselves but they are
even more obnoxious because the,
represent privilege in it's most sordt
and dangerous form. The majorit,
of the national committee in decid-
ing the cases before them have prac
ticed political theft in every form
from highway robbery to petty lar,
ceny. And political theft is as dis.
honest as and more damaging thar
/ ordinary theft. There Is no law tc
reach the offences they have com,
nlitted, but morally these offences are
far more serious from the standpoint
of the national interest than any o.
the ordinary commercial or politica
offences which expose the perpetra
tors to be brought before the court:
of justice. The committeeman re-
sponsible for such action need to bt
taught that the national committed
was created to be the servant and no
the master of the plain men and wo'
: men who make up the bulk of the
republican party. The party belongs
to the millions of the rank and file
1t does not belong to the handful OF
politicians who have assumed fraud
ulently to upset the will of the ranl
and file. The action of these mer
lis in no sense regular as they claim
Il to be. They in no way represen
the people, they in no way represen
the rank and file of the republican
party; and theft and dishonesty cav
not give and never shall give titlt
TO regularity.
Decide Future of Party
One thousand and -eigh
men are to meet here in convention
to decide the future of the republican
party At least seven out of eigh
of those among them who really rep