The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1914-12-17
NON-PARTIZANSHIP.

i ence of the non-partisan election law
d 1t is related that Southern rusti
t visiting menagerie for the first tim
!. in his life saw a camel. He gazed a
5. it's two humps, long neck, splay feet
:. wabbling legs, ungainly head, an
;. staring open-mouthed at it's hideou
: uncOuthness, declared "sho there ain
Y no such animalew Legislators cal
: no more legislate partizanship out O
t politics than the colntryman coul,
e wipe out the "ship of the desert" b.
: denying its existence.
Partnership is natural, Unborn
! inherent trait of everything tha
, breathes, and you can no more elm
mate by law than you can legislatt
the blue out of violet, or the blood-lust
out of the tiger. The lower down the
scale of animal life the more concen.
trated becomes this partisanship and
the higher you ascend the scale the
more DIVERSIFIED it becomes. An ami
NAL is partisan only so far as him.
self, his mate and his helpless young
are concerned, not always that. A
civilized man is partisan in his
home, his family, his business, his re-
ligion, his politics, his locality, his
country, and hundred other things;
if he is not he is of no more value to
the world than the doll made out of
forked radish with a couple of half
burned matches stuck into it for arms,
that we played with when we were a
kid. The only human being free from
partisanship is the natural born idiot
| and he must be complete idiot to be
in this condition. The more DIVERSIFIED
partisanship is the higher the civili-
eaton, and the more concentrated it is
the nearer the approach to barbarism.
Formerly there were two distinct
partisanships in political campaigns,
personal and party, but last winter
the legislature eliminated, or attempt
ed to eliminate, party partisanship out
OF everything except state and nat
ional offices, and why they excepted
them the Lord only knows. Why
Republicanism or Democracy is to be
abhorred in county officer and to be
commended in Governor, State Aud
itor, or Secretary of State, no advo-
cate of the present system ever at
tempted to explain. What was the re-
suit of such action? Party partisan
ship was eliminated and personal par
tisanshir became rampant and we had
the stinkingest campaign in the his
tory of Minnesota politics. Family
skeletons were dragged forth (and
there are mighty few families without
a skeleton in their closet) and their
bones ratified. Every youthful foible,
and man who has never been foolish
is seldom wise, was publicly paraded.
Every lapse from virtue, and man
who never lapsed is either water
blooded or reared in solitude, was
dragged forth from obscurity.
Under this system any man who de-
sires to serve as legislator or county
officer, knows he must go through two
campaigns, primary and one for
election; he must wade through the
slush and mire of personalities and no
man, unless he is absolutely pure, and
they are scarce, or one who possesses
no sensibilities, feels like facing the
ordeal.
The theory that it permits good
men OF all parties to unite, irrespec-
tive of party affiliation, is more than
offset by the fact that it permits the
undesirable to unite, for sinners can
bunch themselves much more readily
than saints. Why a Republican can
not vote for good Democrat, instead
of bad Republican, just as well when
he is running on Democratic as on a
non-partisan ticket, is one of the
mysteries presented by modern mug
wumpry.
That this measure was nuts for the
interests is clearly shown from the
character Of the legislative vote on
the proposition.
What did the Republicans gain by
it's passage?
Its operation, by breaking down
party lines and lessening of party
loyalty, elected a Democratic Cover
nor, a Democratic congressman in the
Fourth District, and Progressive in
the Tenth. A Democratic State Sena-
tor and Representative from the Re-
publican Sixty-Second District, an
anti-Republican Senator from the Re-
publican Fiftieth, the same in the Re-
publican Forty-Seventh and an anti
Republican representative in the Fifty
first and no Republican gains were
made.
This may be good thing, but if
it is, the sooner the Republican party
asculates good-by to the control Of
Minnesota governmental affairs, the
better it will be for the State, for no
better extinguisher of Republicanism
has ever been devised than our pres
ent non-partisan election law.
AN AWFUL WASTE OF SPACE.