The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1916-01-20
Don Caffery Denounces the Ward Bosses.

Don Caffery Denounces the Ward Bosses.
/ The following paragraphs are from ar
address delivered by Don Gallery at New
Iberia, December 18th:
The contest now, as it was during the
lottery fight, and as it has been in every
fight since, is between political health ano
political diseases-between government by
| free citizens and government by conspira-
| tors-between the industrial progress which
honest government radiates, and the in
dustrial stuntedness which crooked gov
eminent vomits forth.
The lottery was fought not so much be-
cause it was evil in itself, but because i,
had become prop to an evil political pow
err. That power had enough props besides
the lottery to survive the loss of the lottery.
Besides the lottery, it had crooked regis
tration and a crooked count. 1t had a
wink and nudge from the assessor for
the property holder. 1t had bacon and
bread for the man out of job. 1t had the
saloon. Notwithstanding all that, it went
down to defeat in 1892 and again in 1912;
and weakened as it is by the good govern
ment victory; disgraced as it is by its orgies
in the Parish of Jefferson; piloried as it is
for having plastered the City of New Or
| leans with debt for the feeding of its bench
men; and repudiated as it was when the
people refused to trust Constitution Con-
vention controlled by it, it is ripe for another
defeat at the hands of Thomas c.. Barrel.
What is it but a system of slavery we
are living under when men like Edgar H.
| Farrar are locked out of Constitutional
Convention by set of naughty turkeys
calling themselves Ward Bosses?
| What is it but system of slavery, when
few men get together, and pick out Mar
tin Behrman for president of Constitu :
tional Convention that Edgar H. Farrar is
not permitted to sit in?
How like slavery is bossism and ringism
How it breaks the spirit of independence
and of ambition! How it doles out bread
and ignominy together! How it cripples
and slaves the young ambition that, in tine
morning of life, comes forth to conquer the
world, and which might enrich and ennoble
and beautify the world by conquering it,
but which in the evening, is turned into
fawning plotting Uriah Heap, selling low
assessments, and sitting in committee or in
the House, or in the Senate with a collar
around his neck!
1t was this slavery which we fought
against in lottery days; and tits this slavery
which Thomas C. Barrett has promised our
people to Danish from our midst forever.
"Oh," you will say, "but this is pro-
hibition fight, not one for abolition
What does prohibition prohibit? TN
tell you the first and surest thing it prohib-
its. It prohibits the ward boss. Down
with the saloon goes the ward boss. Like
the lottery, the saloon is an incident. Like
the lottery, the saloon has been seized upon
by the ring politician as weapon, as a
fortress. And if edo not slay the power
OF that ring politician, he will STAY our
leaders; our patriots; our builders of the
State; our moulders and hopes of the fu-
:ure, and in the dead corpse of their genius,
be still breathes the spirit of that cold and
selfish and petty. lust for the pay check
which be calls ambition.
Prohibition does not prohibit, they say
Well, the ward boss prohibits. He prohibits
equality at the polls. He prohibits the
plain American citizen from exerting any
force or any thought in all public affairs;
and yet that same plain American citizen,
who is made anullity by the boss in all that
pertains to liberty will often, very often,
throw his chest out and say, when we ask
him to make the boss nulity by taking
away his saloon, "What? Deprive me of
my liberty to call for a cocktail? Do you
want to make me Turkish slave? Give
me the saloon and liberty"
The greatest of all prohibtionists is the
Ward Boss. He prohibits free thinking
and free acting. He prohibits merit getting
into the public service by any other avenue
than the infamous one of "Pull'' or the
degraded one of Delivery of your friends
and relatives at the ballot box He pro-
hibits public spirit, for when people are
in bondage, the fear of Herod is, stronger
than their love for their firstborn.
He prohibits all progress for there can be
no progress without justice, and govern
ment by the Ward Boss is government
based upon favor and not upon justice.
What progress can there be when the
public service becomes huge mess of
pottage which is dished out to none but
those willing to hold their jobs in order that
they may echo the will Of Ewing, Fitzpat-
rick & Company?
Oughta man be permitted to sacrifice his
convictions and his manood for the sake of
JOB? Ii vast army of men are reduced
to that kind of servitude and political beg
gary, in order that they may get place in
Gods sunlight, is it not time that we should
look to the foundations OF the State to see
whether they rest in honesty or whether
they rest in fraud?
Vote With the Women and Children.
The following paragraph is taken from
statement issued Satnrda v shx, rol D |