The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-12
PLATFORMS AND LAWS

I I La MI NllO AMI In W
The average man in business regards his promise as
something to be fulfilled. 1t is as binding an obligation as
if it were a bond. Yet, so lax have we become in politics,
this same man, were he to engage in a campaign, would not
hold in high consideration the promises of his party plat
form or the pledges which he made upon his own RESPONSE
bility.
This is the fault of the people, themselves. They have
sneered at platform promises and have come to consider a
party pledge as worthless. They have seen politicians come
and go; they have noted the disregard of promise. So bad
had conditions become in this respect, that more than one
man refused, last fall, to become a candidate tor the legis-
lature on this account.
Often has it been said regretfully that this man or that
has got into politics" The regret was that he had con-
sented to mix in the messwhich politics had become.
There is no necessity for filth in politics. 1t is the fault
of the people that they have permitted so long the manipu-
lation of politics by men who have made it dirty-usually,
for their own benefit.
The year 1912 will be remembered as a year of awaken
ing and nowhere was the awakening more thorough than
in the attitude of the people of this country toward politics.
There was an expressed determination to clean up and this
determination took form so definite that it could not be dis
regarded.
Its effect was marked. The wave swept from one end of
the country to the other. How successful it was may be
judged from the character of the party platforms which
were put forth last year and by the attitude OF many of the
governors who have taken office this month.
Many of the new governors-Montana among them
have emphasized in their messages the necessity for carry
ing out the pledges of the parties which elected them; they
have called attention to the public demand that a party
pledge be regarded as being as sacred as a personal bond.
This, as it strikes us, has been the principal theme of the
governors tIlS HlOlltH III tIelI Official communications 10
their legislatures. Their statements have been positive and
their recognition of public sentiment has been general. The
people demand that platform pledges be kept. 1t will go
hard with that legislature which fails to perform this duty.
The performance which is req uired of the legislature of
Montana, in common with all of the legislatures, is that it
shall transform platforms into laws. This year, this task is
easier of performance than ever before, because never
before was there such positiveness in the party platforms.
These documents did not deal, to the extent that had
been usual, in mere generalities. They made positive decar-
ations. They defined sharply the purpose of the party
which they represented. So the platform this year fur
nishes the legislator a guide to the work which he must do;
his party's pledge is his winter program.
This, we say, makes the work of the legislature easy. Its
members know just what is expected of them; they know
the sentiment of the people; they know how the work has
to be done. The platforms contain a list of the measures
which the people have demanded and which the parties
have promised.
In Montana the three platforms contained essentially the
same promises. In at least one of the platforms these
promises were made with no expectation that they would
be kept. 1t was the avowed purpose of the republican plat
form committee at Great Falls to make a platform which
would be more radical than any other which had been
framed before theirs was made. On this account, the
republican platform was not taken seriously.
But the progressive and the democratic platforms
received the serious consideration of the voters of the state.
A democratic governor has told the members of the legs-
lature that pledges must be kept. He has placed it squarely
before the lawmakers; they cannot evade the responsibility
if they would.
The legislature is organized. The week was consumed
in preliminaries. Now it is up to the members to take up
the work Of making platforms into laws. The state expects
it and the state is watching. The state has learned that it
can make its own laws if the legislature fails to keep
promises.
ing us fairly. The official weather. re- which the onnpan accepts the depart