Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-09
xYLoCEPHALIsM RAMPANT

SOMEBODY with money and chari-
table disposition should start a school
for wooden-headed politicians in Penn
sylvania. Incidents are forever cleaning
up out Of the news TO prove that the pro
fessional officeholders who do most of the
talking about the war are afflicted with
blank, incurable ignorance Of the wars
deeper aims, of its inevitable results, Of
its real meaning to the country. Recent
revelations of this weakness actually
clamor for notice.
In Washington an anonymous digni-
tary described as ga dominant political
leader in Pennsylvania" has charged that
Governor Brumbaugh accepted Che aid of
the German American Alliance when he
first sought his nomination. The possi
bic truth of the assertion and the serious
ness that such an indictment might have
had under other conditions are aside.
Mr.. Brumbaugh's righteousness when he
went into politics was spectacular. He
hasn't improved with experience. But
he cannot be helped now. And the thing
that leaps out from this latest arraign-
ment of him, that shines above its gro
tesque and ponderous pretensions OF
gravity, is the suggestion of the dark
ages of State politics, of a method that
can bring forward in days vivid with
new aspirations only a tattered rag of
worn-out issue without promise, with
out meaning, without any intelligent
regard for the real concerns of the State
and its people.
If the Governor had been attacked
tubaro bo ic ttyoal OF bo npiptc Ntbara hic
weaknesses are obvious, the charge might
have served its purpose and hurt his
friend O'Nel. Here again is the
familiar assumption of the politicians
that the people can be fooled, the SNUG
assurance that the eyes of the voters
everywhere can still be blinded with
superficial and meaningless pretensions.
The emanation from "a dominant
political leader in Pennsylvania" would
be unworthy of notice did it not run
parallel in the news columns with
another deiverance of a different sort
from a politician who is either more
honest or more intelligent than those who
happen personally to conduct the affairs
of Pennsylvania. "The war;" said Sena-
tor John Sharp Williams, of Mississippi,
at the Hog Island war anniversary cele-
bration, sis for democracy and for
humanity. After the war will come
greater task. We shall have to make
democracy safe for the world. We must
make men intelligent, just, fraternal!"
Intelligence, justice and fraternity are
terms almost unknown in the practice of
professional politicians in this State.
Plainly it is still the belief of dominant
political leaders that u hazy accusation,
with a bad odor to it, flung before the
eyes of voters is adequate to turn their
attention from basic truths, from the
sins and corruption and crimes of fac
tions. This method will not serve the
purposes of the bosses much longer.
Only a clustered mind will enter
tain the delusion that heelers and pan
handling ward bosses and contractors
will be permitted much longer to
degrade the institutions for which mil
lions of men are being called out to suffer
and die. No sane man will believe that
the soldiers who have lived in canton
ments, who have gone to France, who
have been called upon in millions to
endure pain and hardship in behalf of
free institutions will come back to vote
according to the fetid traditions of Frog
Hollow.
Is it to be supposed that the nation
must pay to the hilt and suffer immeas-
urably to maintain free government and
still tolerate system that prostitutes
and degrades this system to the cutters?
The soldiers from camps and trenches
and all those who are gaining a new
appreciation of the democratic theory
through their sacrifices must demand
change. And it appears that the new
condition will have to create new men.
The bosses in Pennsylvania have been
trained too long in the old school. They
are short-sighted The light of the new
day will blind them.