French Broad hustler and Western Carolina Democrat. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1915-1916, 1916-05-25
PORK BARREL PREPARED
NESS AND POLITICS.
(By Thos. J. Rickman.)

VI AAOH" u.
Editor Hustler:
A man said to us the other day, 81
wish I knew what is meant these days,
by the noise we are all the time hear
f1g about pork" and pork-barrel, when
Congress is referred to. For the life Of
me 1 cannot see where Congress has
anything to do with pork, for they have
got no pork and most of them wouldn't
know how t. raise a hog from which
pork is made"
Well, no doubt most of the Hustler
readers feel the same way about it,
but the truth of the matter is, we have
heretofore had some of that very pork
barrel dished out to us. when we were
not thinking of it. First we took some
of Uncle Sans pork n cleaned out
the channel of the French Broad River,
in order that we might run a steam
boat up and down that stream, but
somehow the Mountain Lilly" refused
to sail that river, even after we had
cleaned it out, and finally she turned
turtle and went to the bottom, and we
had to dig her out the best we could
and live on the recollection of what
we got for the cleaning-out job.
Now following that pork barrel bus
mess on dow to the present we have
statesmen who say that deepening the
river channel was no good. n the
thing to do, is to blast out the shoals
with pork and let the channels become
shallow. so corr VIII grow on the river
and also Mud Greek and other lazy
going streams. So now gentle reader,
Pork" simply means cleaning out the
creeks and then dream that steam
boats can run up and down their chan
nels-that is the pork from h barrel.
Well what about preparedness" We
can see none of that going on here in
Henderson County, and we are all the
time becoming more and more exposed
to the threatened invasion of the cruel
Germans. Why is it that present
Congressman, as well as those who
proceeded him, did not arrange when
they built a new ~postof1ce in Hender-
sonville, to build also a large tower on
top of the said new ~postofice and plant
~cannon and far-off shooting howitzers,
in the said tower. so that we might
shoot and NOV down the approaching
hords of Germans, long before the a
reach and destroy our beautiful little
city. That would have been prepar-
edness in a practical way. Some of
our practical statesmen also say that
since the wicked Germans have shot
down so many C~athed~als and sacred
churches and other ecclesiastical
monuments that we should now be
planting death-dealing guns in h Gu
paloes of all our churches and thus
prevent their destruction, by the for
eign lords.
This, my friend, is what we mean by
Ipreparedness-let all oud enemies ,
know what is here awaiting them,
should they attempt to set their I'M !
hallowed feet on our peaceful shores. ]
Well but what has all the above got
to do with politics, you have brought
politics into the game, now let us
know something about what is really
meant by it any way. for most honest
voters say they can see but little sense
i'll it, when the subject is examined
honestly. I
No sense in politics? why it is the
most sensible word in the English Ian
guage-it is a policy adopted to pro-
mote the welfare of the city, the coun-
ty, the State, yes, the welfare Of the
nation. 1t is the art of government,
the art of administration, the art of
managing all public aHalrs, promoting
public opinion, party management ana
governmental control. Demogogues. !
are rotten, but politics are pure and
righteous, so put down demogogues
but build up pure politics. One polt-
ical party should be as good. an anotn-
er, if founded on honest political pr1n-
cip1es, for their object is the same.
Woodrow Wilson and VIM. H. TAFT
belong to different political parties, 8
but their political principles are very
much the same, their political lifework
is to bring about the best government
possible for the United States to have.
There never was a time since the Uni
States Government was establish
ed when political matters were so well
balanced. so stable, so kindly spirited,
SO well understood. yes, and let US say,
so pure. as they are at he present day.
II you have been in the habit OF BELT
Ting politics never do so again.
MorQ anon