The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1913-02-28
Look Before You Leap

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demagogue in a loud voice breaches
that it is not reason, or work, or
judgment that is required to gain
q liv ehoOd, but only that the
laboring man must crush the in
terests" with his ballot and all
things shall be added unto him.
1t may be considered perfectly
justifiable for campaign purposes
at least it has the sanction of GUS
! tom-- to wave the red bandanna
apd blind the judgement with the
faring torch. 1t arOuSes enthus-
iagum and affords excitement to
Ittose whose lives are devoted to
the grind of providing daily bread.
Fairy tales and promises OF all
the wondrous benefits to be de-
rived from casting ones ballot in
the right place are customary and
have the stimulating and ephemer-
al effectiveness of happy dream.
! Bit now in the cold gray dawn of
the morning after, when the red
bandanna has been folded-per-
haps forever when the campaign
torch has been eXtinguished, when
we have walked from the happy
dream TO the hard realities OF
common day, when the froth and
bubbles of campaign eloquence
have all subsided and nothing but
an enlarged head and an unpleas
ant taste remains to remind us OF
the orgy of politics through which
we have passed, it is good time
to have practical session with
ourselves aud decide whether all
this talk and promise has been pro.
giess, whether it has been battling
for the Lord or merely an exagger-
ated exhibition of self-interest.
1t is good time to consider, too
whether red lights and Berger
balls are a remedy for existing
dis, or whether they are not
merely stimulants-and danger
Gus ones at that. Stimulants may
be harmless for the man who is
strong enough to know how far to
use them, but it takes a pretty we'll
balanced head to resist the faSci-
nation of such honeyed words.
The level headed st. Paul
Though having no fear for him
SID said if it caused his brother
to offend, he would eat no meat
as long as the would lasted; and if
anyone thinks the siren talk OF
political promise that profit can be
had without labor is safe for him
self, it would be wise as pre-
cautionary measure for him to
consider the effect it may have on
the other fellow. 1t sounds mighty
attractive to tired man that he
can keep his hands in his pockets
and regulate the world with his
vote. SO he waits and hopes for
the millennium and in the mean
time the women must weep and
the little children are cold and
hungry. 1t is not a pleasant pic.
ture, and the politician has much
to answer for.
, There is also class Of mistaken
philantropists-men and women
, who should know better whose
Judgment is so warped that they
propagate the same error. Instead
) of teaching the unemployed that
: there is job somewhere and help.
: ing them to find it, they foster the
hope that all the sorrows and ills
1 Of this world can be abolished Dy
law; that legislation can cnre al
this indu strial distress. They re
? gard legislation as a patent medi
cine tina. can even dry up the muC
and kill the mosquito, instead OF
= being merely an expression of ed
! ucation and advanced ideas tina
. builds roads across the bad places
r and adopts preventive measure
against the propagation of obnox
:. ious insects.
q When the Lord God made tn
e announcement to Adam that b.
: the sweat of his brow he shOul'