The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-11-03
'Spirit ROuSerS
By CHARLES PERRY TAYLOR
Secy. Washington State Federation
Of Labor.

What on earth would we do
For amusement
If it were not for politics?
Circuses come only twice a year;
Moving picture shows are stale,
And vaudeville is hackneyed-
But the mudslingers of politics
Never fail to divert
Hughes roasts Wilson, Wilson raps
Hughes;
Both seem to like it.
Mcbride calls Lister a waster,
Lister calls Mcbride a boozer.
And there you are.
Each rises in his exalted dignity
And disclaims intention
OF throwing any mud on his opponent;
| And then, 10 and behold,
Proceeds to plaster mire and slime
All over the landscape.
Why? Because the voters like it.
Because they enjoy hearing men
Blackguard each other;
Because the American people
Love fight, fair or foul,
But love a word fight
All the more when it is foul
Three hundred and sixty-six days
In every year, Sundays not excepted,
We gloriously patriotic Americans
Chase the almighty dollar
Until the eagle
Fairly squawks and gasps for breath.
Then on election day
We go down to the polls and vote.
Intelligently?
Not by a damned sight.
We listen to misrepresentation,
Slander, innuendo, inference,
Mudslinging, lies,
And we think we know how to vote.
Bah, bah, pooh, pooh.
We all want the political fleshpots.
All we care for is to be winner,
Or among those who do win,
So we can brag that we won.
But as for knowing the real,
The relative merits,
| OF the opposing candidates,
Not one voter in one hundred knows;
He only thinks he knows.
Brass bands, printed lies,
Political mudslingings-such is
politics.
But there is something at stake
This time more important
Than rivalries of parties or men.
That something is the liberty
OF assemblage, of press, of speech,
All citizens now enjoy.
1t is a heritage that is priceless,
One which, easily lost, will not
Easily be regained.
Referendum Measure No. 6,
The so-called anti-picketing bill,
Is hellishly vindictive and unjust.
There are others just as bad.
There is a proposed constitutional
amendment
That is a lie on its face.
Beat them all;
Every one is vicious.
If your house was on fire
You would not wait for legislative
action;
If your child had the smallpox
You would not call in a faith cure
Unless you were a fool
When your state government
Is in danger of being Hartleyized,
The thing to do is to agitate,
Educate, organize convince,
Every blessed minute you are awake
Until the last vote is in the box.
We are winning now, every minute.
All we need is persistence
Until the fight is over.
The controlled executive is trying
To get into the band wagon.
Pity the poor deathbed repentance.
But while converts come, sincere o.
not,
Their votes will be welcome.
, 1t begins to look very much
AS though we are going to beat
/ Every one of the Referendum
| Villainies.
: Now, all together, keep it up,
: Until the last money-muzzled legislato
Is driven into his hole forever
t This is a government of, by, and for
) The people, and this time,
} My lords in Olympia,
: The people are going to rule.
: That Halloween picnic given b
S Sheriff McRae and the Commerce.
d Clubs tin bulls will receive more a
n tention when the Journal has NOR
n time and space.
There is no socialist candidate WI