The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-20


 certainly not the good Of minority No part is equal to the whole; no in- ssitution, no class, no ideas, no ideals If the people perish, all is lost. The test of Greek ideals. Greek culture, Greek governm ment. is that the Greek race went under So with the Ro- mans And so it will be with us Americans
 The test of American ideals, Ameri- can morality, American government is the condition of the American peo- pie as a race, and what that VIII pc can be seen now in-New Englane
 s.I give the American race one more generation of domination in MasSa- chusetts,v said an official expert or t,ff-Ja rank in the State House at Bos-s eign peoples. they and their idea and culture. win reign here We are dy- ~ing, We are almost dead.
 ssyVhy don't you sound the warn fnE2' I asked
 Because" he replied. T don't see the use I know neither the cause nor the cure. 2
 Let us follow the trail of the causes and sec # they don't lead to q cure. not only for NeY England, but for all of
 The New Esnglanders do, they them selves succeed. The people of New England have peopled many parts or the West and there's stream or New England blood that has flowed rom te1e IN orths Atlantic clear across the United States to the Pacific shore I,ranctes of it have struck souths it has triclxIed far and wide and deep and high, and always it has shown itself strong blood and good It has carried good things with it wherever If has goneAgood. simple. pufes sweet Wha< does the West know that is ab1er kinder and braver than a scout from down Maine, a cowboy from New Hampshire, q prospector from Connecticut. or q rancher fr orn Ner- tsior1tz Before they succeed in life, | mean. And after theses the pion- eers the van came bringins culture. believe the main courses of the clear human stream could be traced by the line lines of New England architec- fur e=plain. sound and beautiful. Bur the surest signs are the good will. the conscience and the fdeaIisnl of the cunning builders of the big red barns and the neat white houses out West, and-rthe never failing. never succeed- ing desire for good government fDs their hlood-red cities and their black. ack states.
 How is 1t, then with the good old folks at home, and their zI5ure, old original New England states We have taken a run down through their history, and we. have got some doubts, I hope. We have seen in the history Of stheIr past the history of our pres-s ents How about their prese nt Sines they are ahead of us-and they are their present is our future What are the results to-day in New Eng land
 New England, as I said before, is the darkest part Of the United States. It Is corrupted from top to bottom. The people are corrupted. In Eshode Isf- and and Connecticut. in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, and in parts of Massachusetts, voters take cash bribes at the polls. This is the next to the Iast stage ef political corruf tion.
 
 Legialators are purchased every where in the United States The elected represe4 natives of the people self them out in all parts of the coun- try and that is bad enough. So long. however. as the people are Sound, ,rthere's a chance for loyal lead ership and reform. But when the people themselves sell themselves out for money. there is little hope left. That means that corruption, which begins at the top--whieh began cen furfes before democracy was thought of the corruption of the people means that the disease which begins on high has gone all the way through
 
 ton of society and the state
 
 One hears rurnors of occasional buy ing and selling of all sorts of people in all sorts of places. but feel pret- ty sure that generally speaking the bery- They are commonly fooled and indirectly corrupted. They put their own special interest above their own common interests, But excepting in the few places named, the eonnInion people do not habItually take. bribes --eutside of New England.
 
 In Rhode Island, where made a study of the conditions, cIergy1nen rondoned the system; and in Connec- sicut, where I live. my acauaintances, Knowing my curiosity about such things often ask me they arrive at the polls what votes are ttfetching..' Once on my way home met three de- scehdants of old families of our town who stopped me to inquire about their market. and when I told them that the leaders of the two parties had got together and were refusing to pay a cent to any. voter, my neighbors turn ed back with me. They t'w wouIdn't vote for nothing for nobody After another election I had what was char acterized as "a joke" on some of my friends discovered that while the white voters, selling by retail, had got $225 a head, the ..dagoes,'' going by job lots. had brought s2.50 a head
 
 Cheap Yes. these good. old, un- mixed New Eng1anders are cheap And so are their representatives. The first animation ever had of the cor ruption of New England was from the lobbyist of continuation of s.indepen- dentss manufacturers who had fought a trust with fire" in twenty-twe states. He said he had bought Mas sachusettz Legislators for as low az four dollars ($4) to vote for the same measure for which he had paid al high as $1,00Oe and never lower than $250, in Missouri (where he was ex- posed and where I met him. This was the cheapest bribery he had ever heard of. And Massach usetts is an exceptionally good state for New F-n<1aud This Nyfar-vr 5es1,l,xzjst ss 7,,7 or