Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-05-02

of common counsel for those OF private
arrangement. In order to do this, first
necessity Is to open the doors and let
in the light on all affairs which the
people have right to know about.
In the first place, 1t Is necessary to
open up all the processes Of our poll
tics. They have been too secret, too
complicated, too roundabout; they
have consisted too much Of private con-
ferences and secret understandings, OF
the control Of legislation by men who
were not legislators, but who stood
outside and dictated, controlling often
times by very questionable means,
which they would not have dreamed OF
allowing to become public. The whole
process must be altered. We must take
the selection of candidates for ofice.
for example, out of the hands OF small
groups of men, Of little coteries, out
Of the hands Of machines working be-
hind closed doors, and put into the
hands of the people themselves again
by means OF direct primaries and elec-
tions to which candidates Of every sort
and degree may have free access. We
must substitute public for private ma
chinery.
It is necessary, in the second place,
to give society command Of its own
economic life again by denying to those
who conduct the great modern opera
tions of business, the privacy that used
to belong properly enough to men who
used only their own capital and their
Individual energy In business. The pro-
cesses of capital must be as open as the
processes of politics. Those who make
use Of the great modern accumulations
of wealth, gathered together by the
dragnet process of the sale OF stocks
and bonds, and piling up Of reserves,
must be treated as under a public OBJ
legation; they must be made RESPONSE
BILE for their business methods to the
great communities which are in fact
their working partners, so that the
hand which makes correction shall cas-
lily reach them and new principle OF
responsibility be felt throughout their
structure and operation.
What are the right methods Of poll
tics? why, the right methods are those
Of public discussion: the methods OF
leadership open and above board, not
closed with boards Of guardians" or
anybody else. but brought out under
the sky, where honest eyes can look
upon them and honest eyes can judge
Of them.
II there is nothing to conceal, then
why conceal It? If 1t is a public game,
why play It in private? If it is public
game, then why not come out into the
open and play 1t in public? You have
got to cure diseased politics as we now
adays cure tuberculosis, by making all
the people who suffer from 1t live out
of doors; not only spend their days out
of doors and walk around, but sleep
out Of doors; always remain in the
open, where they will be accessible to
fresh, nourishing, and revivifying in
fluences.
l, for one, have the conviction that
government ought to be all outside and
no inside. I, for my part, believe that
there ought to be no place where any
thing can be done that everybody does
not know about. 1t would be very in
convenient for some gentlemen, probab-
ly, II government were all outside, but
we have consulted their susceptibilities
too long already. 1t is barely possible
that some of these gentlemen are un-
justly suspected; in that case they owe
Ii to themselves to come out and oper-
ate in the light. The very fact that so
much in politics is done in the dark,
behind closed doors, promotes suspi-
cion. Everybody knows that corruption
thrives in secret places, and avoids
public places, and we believe 1t fair
presumption that secrecy means i'm
propriety. So, our honest politicians
and our honorable corporation heads
owe it to their populations to bring
their activities out into the open.
At any rate, whether they like it or
not, these affairs are going to be drag
ged into the open. We are more anxi-
Gus about their rep ltations than they
are themselves. We are too solicitous for
their morals,-if they are MOTTO per.
nit them longer 10 continue subject to
the temptations of secrecy. You know
there is temptation in loneliness anc
secrecy. Haven't you experienced It?
have. We are never so proper in orr
conduct as when everybody can lock
and see exactly what we are doing. If
you are off in some distant part Of the
world and suppose that nobody who
lives within a mile Of your home Is
anywhere around, there are times when
you adjourn your ordinary standards
You say to yourself: We'll, I'll have
a fling this time; nobody will know any
thing about it." If you were on the de-
sert of Sahara, you would feel that you
might permit yourself,-well, say, some
slight latitude in conduct; but II you
saw one Of your immediate neighbors
coming the other way on camel,-you
would behave yourself until he got out
of sight The most dangerous thing In
the world is to get off where nobody
knows you. advise you to stay around
among the neighbors, and then you
may keep out Of Jail. That is the only
way some Of us can keep out Of jail.
Publicity is one Of the purifying ele-
ments of politics. The best thing that
you can do with anything that is crook
ed is to lift it up where people can see
that it Is crooked, and then 1t will eth
er straighten itself out or disappear
Nothing checks all the bad practices OF
politics like public exposure. You can't
be crooked in the light. don't know
whether 1t has ever been tried or not;
but l venture to say, purely from OBJ
servation, that 1t can't be done.
And so the people Of the United
States have made up their minds to do
a healthy thing for both politics and
big business. Permit me to mix few
metaphors: They are going to open
doors; they are going to let up blinds;
tba,, orc ooipO RI drag sick things into