Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-29

as calling to you as to myself. but you
Will not do it.
"Oh for little courage! Oh for Q
little bravery! No wonder the whole
state submits SO tamely when every
| student who comes to your institu-
| tion Is taught day by day to bow
the neck because you play the syco-
phant and sell your souls for an ap-
| propriatiOn."
These were hot arraignments and they
were untac,ful, but more and more they
the voters that Jeremiah T. Archer was
honest, and doughty champion. More
and more, what the people saw in him
was young man In white-hot earnest,
who never. paused to split hair: He
made the issue clear-Real Republicans
or false ones. Men were white or men
were black; they were for him or
against him.
| Sharp distinctions like these are al
| ways unfair. and none knew It better
| than Jerry but he, knew, also, that
| sharp distinctions were necessary In
order to align these people on something
and seperate the sheep from the goats.
Every day he let loose a ringing chal-
lenge Of some sort that went speeding
| over the city. and as 1t sped men
flocked to hear him speak. His utter
frankness charmed them as much as his
sound sense and his courage.
I'm not going to promise you ideal
government, he burst out one night In
South Philadelphia. because, I haven't
got any ideal men,. I'm not an ideal
man myself. But I've got ideals. and
I'll tell you what kind of a government
you've got now at City Hall
"a eoiored man wrote TO- me last
week from tho Fourth Ward. He is
one Of our division leaders down there.
He Is . man who works with his own
hands, but has been ambitious for his
children and has tried to give them .
good education. One Of his daughters
Il al aAvan SNNn -
equipped for teaching, and she has
had q city position in connection with
the playground work. But she was
notified THAI II her father-who is not
an Officeholder, you understand-did
not cease his political activity she
would be discharged. What do you
| think Of that? OF political organiza-
! tion that makes war on q helpless girl
| who. only two generations from slav-
| cry. has fitted herself for an instructor
of the young Of her own race? That
was last week; this week the girl was
discharged.
volts at wrongs like that. And they are
going on constantly. Every day police
men and dremen are transferred, sent to
districts ten miles from their homes.
an hour to come on the street car; and
this for no reason but to punish them
because they have got too much man
hood to violate the law and their own
conscience, and work against our cam
paign."
1t must be confessed. however. that
the number Of city employees who got
| themselves disciplined for refusing to
ganization was proportionately small.
| The contractor machine was firmly en-
trenched at City Hail. There were, one
way and another, some twelve thousand
these were easily made 10 feel thai their
| bread and butter depended upon defeat
| ing the Archer ticket. The spectacle Of
this vast army. fed by the city.
attracted Jerry's aroused attention and
Nov, Of course" he declared. every
man in Office has, got right to vote
scribed by law. but / want to serve
one notice on the jobholders of Phila-
delphia right now. There are men In
wears to violate the shern law. Such
men, If l go into .otfice. will go out.
and they will be punished, too.
II allow no man, to outdo me In ad-
Blankenburg, but want to tell you that
IL I'm elected, there will be no forget
ting the past The past will be re-
membered. Understand? There'i I,t be no
talk. no soft condoping and no tolerat-
ing of impudent and off1cious men who.
| for years, have used their public Of1ceS
as vantage point from which to op-
press and tyrannize the voters.
| Gwen throw 'em out!"
Whenever Jerry repeated this speech,
and he repeated It often. It was greeted
with roars of applause. "Throw-'em-out
Archer" some Of the reporters began to
call him.
"And when it comes to filling the
places made vacant by the cattle we
have turned out" Jerry used to go on,
| 'Ill shock some OF my political purist
friends by saying that SO far as the law
we'll ill those. vacancies exclusively
campaign. Those are the men who
have proved themselves in sympathy
with good government and they are
the men from whom we can expect the
kind of service that makes for good
government Moreover-and here's an
other Shock for the purists-the men
in office will be expected to work for
the best interests of this organization,
and the way they can do that Is by
working for the best interests of the
city Of Philadelphia"
Il But some of Jerry's most ardent fol-
lowers were alarmed by this. There's
such a thing as being too practical"
they urged. "Once you open the door
in this fashion where are you going
to draw the line? How are you going
to keep from building up an Objected
machine that will not mistake it's aim
and go to work for Its own emoluments
become, in fact, just another private
machine whose design is pap?"
But Archer was as frank as ever.
Ixl -Al