The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-06-30


comes more and more complex
as the nation is lifted into loftier
and larger spheres of being.
This IS what primary elections
mean-the initiative, referendum
and recall. These can not be
sneered out Of existence, and
some machinery must be devised
to permit a full expression of
national opinion on public ques.
tions as often as it may be need
ed, without the trouble, pense
and decentralization of such
elections as we now have, de-
pressing business, and throwing
our citizenship into confusion.
Our elections have become al.
most d national curse. There is
no reason the postofice de-
partment OF this government
couldnot do all of this work with
no more trouble to the average
citizen than is required to write
a short note. No real reform
has ever been attempted along
this line, and the masses of the
people until recently have ac-
quiesced in the unchanging stat
US of the Republic, and the po-
litical barnacles will never sug.
gest any change which would in
terfere with the methods of
franchise which keeps them in
power.
Our political mechanism is so
cumbersome and so wrapped up
in red tape that the average bus
mess man can not do his duty
as a citizen without a degree OF
sacrifice that he refuses to SUBJ
NIT to. Here is where the pro-
fessional politician romes in, and
with his pirate code Of ethics,
governs the country. Just as
the Pretorian legions sold
Rome's imperial sceptre to the
highest bidder, so do the ma.
chine politicians in the great
centers of population barter
away the rights and prosperity
of productive labor for trust
made gold in this Rupublic.
IS FARMER TO BE FORCED.
There has been a great COM
plant about the high cost of liv.
ing. That is all very well; but
what about the profits of pro-
ductive labor? The ouly way to
cheaper the cost of living is for
more people to live on the farms
and they will never do so unless
the profits are made more at
tractive. What is there to keep
the energetic and ambitious boy
on the farm? The cry, ''back to
the farm" is a mockery. The
city calls, and the lights of the
great white way" blind his eyes
to the beauties of country lanes
and blooming fields. He hastens
to find fortune in the market
place, where traffic makes gold
by its very touch. The farm is
abandoned as the last resort and
fixed fate of the dullard and in
competent.
History teaches US that ma.
tions draw their true wisdom, +,
unselfsh patriotism and untaint'
ed virtues from the deep wells
of a contented agriculture; from
those who live in the quiet coun.
try places of the land, who have
the time to think soberly, who
live temperately, and commune
with God in the temple of his
untarnished skies. These are
nation builders and nation
savers. How can we maintain
this mighty fortress in the soul
ola people, if we destroy, or
permit to be destroyed, the COM
fort and polSe OF mind so de-
pendent upon a fair reward for
toll?
We have no standards set by
noble birth in America. It is all
based on the individual. Our
government is absolutely origi-
nal in this respect, and we have
reached a point of complex COM
mercial and political life, where
we mast either take a step for
ward or backward. With the
problems confronting US. it is
impossible to stand still. The
purely selfish appropriation of
the comforts and blessings of
material life for the use of fav-