The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-09-13
WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT

The editor of the Courier-Journal is
| doing some of the very best efforts
of his life. Old age has mellowed
and matured the writings of Colonel
Watterson, and some OF his latest ed
itorals are the strongest and most
brilliant that he has ever written IN
a recent issue OF the Courier-Journal
! there appeared a more vigorous arti-
Gle than usual under the caption,
when Thieves Fall Out"
Well that is what has happened
and is still happening to the republi-
can party The pot and kettle are at
shovel and tongs, and are calling each
other names. Penrose is telling
things out of school Archbold has
told on the colonel also, and We dis
cover what We all along believed that
those in authority in the republican
party have been living in a whited
sepulcher. The outside is a thin We
neer, covering all sorts of putridity.
The worst of it all is, says Colonel
WattersOn, that no one appears to be
shocked. He says that Penrose
scarcely tells us anything that we did
not know before What else could
have been the meaning of Roosevelt's
letter to Hartman and his talk about
practical men, such as you and -"
Whenever the republicans have come
to blows we have had a stencil. Who
does not recall the quarrel between
Foraker and Taft in the 1908 cam
paign, and the effort to ruin Foraker?
The seat of the disease is the popular
Indifference. Even the mob is not
stirred to mutiny and rage. Nobody
is surprised, or alarmed
The corporation robs the public and
the officials rob the corporation. The
big rogues set an example to the lit
tie rogues. The little rogues are ev-
erywhere. The iron drives so deep,
the wounds of the body polite and
the body corporate are so dispersed,
that the very remedies proposed
brighten the timid and confuse the
just
Wrong has gone so long and so far,
unpublished, and is withal so rich and
powerful, that where it cannot plead
statute of limitation, or remove it's ill
gotten gains to places of security and
concealment, it is yet able to buy i'm
munity.
Thus within a single generation
the protective system has done it's
perfect work of debauching an entire
business fabric by the conceit that
special privilege is public policy and
the law of the land, and that they who
are strong enough and slick enough
to get their hook in the government.
have a safe and sure thing.
,, The above is but synopsis of what
the great editor says. He concludes
his severe arraignment as follows:
What can the people do to be saw
ed? First and foremost, they can, as
they will, elect Wilson and Marshall
That, however, is but stepping
stone. After that, what? They can
begin to reflect upon their own neg
lect of their public duties, and at least
use more discrimination in nominal
| ing men for office. They can cult
vate longer memories touching the de
! linquency of men who have held Of
flee They can hold their nominee
for office to a fuller accounting They
| can close their ears to sound and fury
and keep their eyes open to facts.
They may be sure that they, them.
selves, are incredibly to blame both
for their blindness and their partyism
/ Corruption has no politics. A knave
Is knave no matter what he calls
| himself, or how loudly he declaims
1t is the standard of public integrity
which has steadily lowered the last
few years. The leaders of politics
and business have lacked for thought
full and constant popular censorship
The voters need to look to themselves
| if they would better their would-be
| servants.