The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-07-07
HOME GOVERNMENT
Some Political History-Ins and Outs Of State and County
Politics. How People Fool Themselves While
Officials Fight Each Other. Problems Of
the Present Campaign.
the Present Campaign.

We, the people, are somewhat dis
satisfied with our state and county
government. We, the editor, having
observed how naturally and how
easily good men drift from good to
bad record and from bad to worse,
until they are absolutely selfish and
corrupt without realizing it, feel that
it is a wonder men are as good as
they are. Most men go into public
office intending to do their duty and
expecting to feel satisfaction in the
work and to win renown in the do
ing. They 500 learn that their
duties are very much more compli-
Gated than they expected to find them
and that they get blamed by some
body for what they do and by some
body else if they refuse to do it, and
the expected renown goes a glimmer-
ing. How a a man be honest and
receive the reward for honesty and
honor when he serve so many dis
honest people who can not see the
difference between duty and graft!
Constant bounding of a mar by his
enemies and the little jealous souls
who want to pull him down, either
makes him Indifferent or makes him
a strong character who stands ON his
own self respect and cares little for
the rabble and their petty opinions
and suspicious. If he is an officer
and does his duty he has little time
or opportunity to let the public know
what he is doing. If he holds an
office and goes about informing the
public of what he is doing in his
office, he soon ceases to do his full
duty and must practice deception or
quit. A large part of the public are
so dense, so silly, so lazy and I'M
thinking, that the four-fusher who
goes about the country cracking a
few jokes and telling what a great
mar he is or what great things he
is going to do, receives much more
consideration at their hands than
the quiet fellow who goes to his work
on time and locks his office after
all the rest have gone home at night.
The people of this state and perhaps
of every county in it, unthinkingly
place a premium upon clustering and
deception and discount conscientious
labor. They would never do it that
way if they understood the true con-
ditions, but it requires some read
ing, some study and some thinking
to understand things, and to arrive
at sensible cOncD usions, and it is
easier to laugh at crude jokes and
to applaud him who cracks the jokes
than to do the thinking. That is why
w elect such men as Moses Alex
ander for governor. He is a fluent
talker and a past master at covering
up n deception with another one
that looks plausible for the moment
or until it is compared with what he
says on the same subject to some
body else or at some other place.
There r always enough gullible
people to gulp down that kind of
stuff and go to the polls and top the
scales in the direction of their mo-
mentary decisions, and in that way
swing the election. But not all of
that kind of people are reached be-
fore every election, and some of them
go to hear somebody else talk and
become confused by the conflict of
ideas and do not know what to do
or how to vote, and the careful,
thinking element of the public do
not know what is going to happen
at the polls until it is done.
The politics of Bingham county
are probably in the healthiest con-
1ition they have ever been, but the
has such a low grade of citi-
thruout, and such an ordi-
nary lot of folks running for office
a rule, it takes the best they all
do to make ever a respectable
showing, and when they get careless
md do the worst they dare to 10 in
the business of a low
trade citizenship, it is too contempt
BILE a situation to pass muster ex-
with the low grade citizen-
hip that gave them their positions. !
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