The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-02-11
LEADERS SHOULD
BE ACTING

This be a presidential campaign
year it will be necessary to take steps
to send delegates to the national con-
vention. and that will necessitate
earlier action than for state and
county campaign.
The above paragraph, mere men
ton of the opening Of campaign,
the coming of a privilege, that of ex-
ercising the rights of sovereignty,
the precious gift for which the revo-
lutionary soldiers starved and suf-
fered, makes the average citizen tired
and stirs in him feeling of disgust.
If it had that effect upon you, gentle
reader, it is both hopeful and dis
couraging sign. 1t is a discouraging
sign because it shows that you are
disguised with existing politics. 1t
is a discouraging sign because it
shows that you have forgotten the
original purpose and value Of politi-
cal freedom and have seen it prosti-
tuted to such low purposes that you
regard it as an evil and thing to
be avoided. More than that it shows
that you have sunk so low in your
relation to public duty that you
shrink from facing that duty square
| ly. You bear the same relation to
political freedom and the mainten-
ance of political rights as does the
man who knows SO much of un-noble
women that he feels an aversion for
all women.
That is a rather strong arraign-
ment, but the writer does not make
the facts, we merely state existing
conditions. The remedy is to stick
to that which is good and bar what
is evil in its tendency. II you have
been in the habit of tolerating politi-
cal grafters, stop such liberation. If
you have been looking with indiffer-
ence upon the acts of those who have
less respect for the public property
and public funds than they have for
their own and other peoples, it is
time for you to mend your views. If
your political associations have been
such that you tolerated some rotten
timber in your party for the sake of
the strength and success of the or
ganization and to carry out some de-
sire of your own, it is time for you
to get new viewpoint of your politi-
cal relations. If in the last campaign
you were making excuses for some
candidates rather than go against
somebody in your party, it is up to
you to choose whether you will stick
to and support a bad organization
or stand out for one of two things
political house cleaning or independ-
ence in your political activities.
No man, who analyses himself in
the light of the foregoing, cannot
support as whole such ticket as
the Democrats put up in the last
campaign in Idaho. By the same
token he cannot support such a ticket
as the Republicans put up in the very
famous campaign Of 1914.
Any citizen, who feels the cord of
sympathy that ought to exist between
Washington's soldiers at Valley
Forge and those depending upon his
own judgment and his own political
activities, must at this time deter
mine that unless political parties
make rigid selection of their best
timber, he will bury his political az
filiations face down and aid in the
slaughter of the organization that
seeks to put over some black sheep
under cover of pratisan strength. |
That old appeal, "For the good of
the party" will fall on ears that
translate only the echo, "For the
Of what ought to be-"