Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-02-22
THE Fun OF LOOKING ON.


Gus fashion that when public melee
was going on it was usually the in
npcent hystander' who suffered more
injury than the participants. 1t looks
about that way in our municipal
miXup. The citizen has TO so ahead
paying the bills for all this mummeiy
and putting up with the disgrace ana
disadvantages resulting from the
struggle, and stands very little chance
for his condition to be improved, no
matter which way the cat jumps. If
it were not that all have to suffer
these disadvantages alike. the situa-
tion would be decidedly comical to the
looker-on in Tulsa. On one side
there are men seeking to gain polti-
cal advantage and using the power of
the state and the moral sentiment of
the community as stepping stones to
help them reach their ambition. They
have the advantage Of appearing to
iiSHt loi law enforcement ana CIVIC
Righteousness, and under that dis
guise have enlisted the earnest sup
liens. Those who know them best,
however. have serious doubts of their
ability or intention of giving the city
any cleaner government than it ha..
had in the past, but that all this cam
paign for reform is temporary de-
vice that will be dropped once they
sain power. Meanwhile the tax
payer has to foot the bills. On the
other hand there is a mixed tinge of
both comedy and pathos in the en-
traVagant attempts of the "ins" to
retain public favor and discount the
agitation of the "outs'.
AS long as men are bounded into
the courts to answer for failure to ac-
complish impossibilities 1t grows in.
creasingly hard to get any honest
man to undertake public service. If
those who wish to see the city re-
formed would only put on their study
ing caps awhile they would see that
the course being pursued is defeating
its own ends. The best man on earth
could not do his full duty and remain
in office, and these same reformcrs
would be among the first to thirst for
his official blood. The man VINO
the law, untempered with judgment
and discretion, would soon find this
same reform bunch clamoring for his
downfall. Under the circumstances
it is not strange that good, honest men
are shy of offering themselves for
public service, for there is no line of
conduct they can pursue but would
leave some loophole for their enemies
to invoke the law and call for their
suspension from office.
To the man outside looking in 1t
would appear that the present emer-
gency is a choice between two owls,
with the taxpayer officiating in the
role of a goat. He can have no sin
cere interest in the triumph of either
faction, for he knows by history and
experience that the result Will not re-
lieve him of evils from which every
growing municipality has to suffer;
so the best he can do is to laugh at
their contortions and cheerfully walk
up and help to pay the cost of this
two-ring circus. We may see better
days some time, but it will be when
partisan considerations are laid aside
and personal ambitions and grudgcs
are buried in a genuine desire of the
majority to elect good men to office
and to give them support and coop.
Grafton in the performance of official
duties. No city government can be
better than the sentiment of the citi-
| zenship, and no good man can rectify
its evils unless he has the unselfish
! support of its people.