The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1916-07-20
MANUFACTURED STRENGTH.

| MANUFACTURED STRENGTH.
Being political editor for any
one Of the big metropolitan news
papers must certainly be an ideal
| job these long hot August days.
All one needs do it seems is pick
his candidates, decide in his own
mind just what sections of the
state he would prefer carrying
unanimously, and then give a fer
tile imagination free rein in in
forming the gullible public in
from one to four columns per day
just how many hundred thousand
votes more than his closet rival
the favored candidate has already
locked up in his travelling bag,
and how in the interests Of peace
and harmony there remains only
to make it unanimous. Such sor-
did and mimportant things as
facts need not enter into it at all.
Public sentiment except in the
making is an unknown quanti-
ty, and to the political writer
who obeying the financial in
terests behind the city news
paper on which he holds his job, is
factor that need not be consid-
cred. His job is to make public
sentiment, and, taking the theory
that it follows the band wagon,
he proceeds to manufacture in his
columns an imaginative band
wagon and wildly describes in
fervid language the blood stirring
tunes eminating therefrom, in the |
hope that the country vote, hyp-
notised by the music of the al
legged victorious ones band, will
renounce their choice Of candi-
date who will govern the state |
from the viewpoint of the rural
voter, and, like the children of the |
mythical village of Hamlin, fol-
low the modern Pied Piper into
the wilderness of a choice Of the
city's ward heelers for state Of
flee. Whether the newspapers
who publish these extravagant
political claims do so because of
a dearth of sensational news along
this line, or give these bald faced
apparently press agent written
stories|space in order to bolster up
the waning strength of a favorite
we do not know. If it
be the latter, then the political
1opesters are sadly ignorant of
the character of the average Dem
Dcratic voter Of the state. Of ,
course there are politicians of the
peanut type especially in the larg-
,r cities to whom the band wagon :
s irresistably alluring, and to
hese the exaggerated reports of
strength present great appeal.
But the average rural Missouri
7oter cares but little for the band !,
wagon. His chief concern in cast
ng. his vote for a candidate for |
tate office is the eligibility and c
illness Of the candidate for the Il
'ffice for which he is striving, {
md he casts his vote according to
lis best judgment for the man 2
whom he believes to be the best a
qualified, and not for some candi- {
late who either has pull enough I
n has a campaign "barrel" of
ufficient proportions to get his
,xtravagant claims of strength =
published as news" The type
# reading matter that the press
gents for some candidates for
tate office have been working in :
o the columns of the city papers .
nay be mighty good reading for !:
he professional politicians of the !.
zig towns, but when the folks out :
n the rural districts get time to 7
cad the city papers they want to
cad facts, and when it comes to !
iguring out whether a campaign :
tory is true or inspired, very few I
# them are feeble mif9ded. I
The Democrats of Bates county
RIO indeed fortunate this wear in a