Imperial Valley press., 1912-10-25

lftteai headship, without responsibility
even to the people, state conventions
were wont to wait on their pleasure
The people, and the representatives of
the people, had turned over to them
the prerogatives of their citizenship;
and they had held these so long that
it was impossible to recover them by
anything short of formal secession
from their power and their parties.
They nominated governors to do
their bidding; they nominated judges
to do the bidding of the financial in
terests which supplied them with the
sinews of warfare; and they nominate
| comptrollers and taxing boards who
saw that the burdens of taxation rested
| lightly on the powerful and heavily on
the weak and helpless.
| The petty bosses in each county, see
ing the prosperity of the man higher
| up, emulated his example. In one
| county of New York state it was dis
covered few years ago that the coun-
| ty treasurer was in the habit of loan
| ing the public money to the county
Judge; the superintendent of the poor
purchased blooded stock for his own
use out of the money of his depart
ment; another paid his private bills
with checks drawn on the county funds.
! One justice of the peace in still an
! other county collected fees from his
| county for performing the maria ge
rite, under a statute which provide d
for fees for services in criminal pro-
ceedings In another county, one pub
, lie official was paid for 537 days work
! out of 365 days. Prisoners in the
penitentiary were furnished on an av-
erage of five pairs of shoes annually.
1t helped the political contractors. IN
one county it took IA days of service
at $4 a day to repair the gutter pipes
of the court house.
This graft went on, until, in these
| communities, man, especially any
man who pretended to be a politician,
was ashamed to be known as an hon
est man. 1t was an evidence of i'm
becility. So low was and is the tone
of morals among public officials.
An American army officer once said
TO me that the Spanish soldiers in Cuba
| were brave men, but they were hall
| starved, and had no stomach for d
| fight. The graft in the army con-
| sumed half the money provided for
their rations. How pathetic were the
| letters of those commanders of the
| Russian battleships on the eve OF
Vladivostock, bidding goodbye to their
wives and families, saying they were
| going to defeat and death because OF
the graft and red tape at home. How
long will America last under such con
ditions? Some day the test may come
| and we, too, may pay the penalty. The
| greatest foe of graft, and the greatest
moral force today in this country, bar
| none, is the national leader Of the
| Progressive party.
But some will say: Did not Roose-
| welt accept the aid of the bosses? And
the reply is that he did. 1t was the
| only way one could rise to power. Gov
ernor Wilson accepted the aid of the
/ Democratic bosses of New Jersey.
! was present at the convention which
| nominated him as the candidate for
| governor Of New Jersey, and 1 saw two
| delegations refused entrance to the
! hall in Trenton where the convention
| was held because they were known
| to be against Wilson. Not that Gov
| crnOr Wilson was responsible for those
conditions. But the fact remains that
| he might not have been nominated as
! a candidate without such methods. He