The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-06-11
THE YOKE BORNE
WITH TOLERANCE

|
WITH TOLERANCE
1t must be plain to the average
John Smith. business man or laborer,
home owner or renter, good citizen,
taxpayer, and voter at election times,
that the part he is playing in the man.
agement and conduct OF his city, state
and nation is nothing to Drag about.
Things are done and he pays the bills.
Officeholdcrs he is supposed to select
are chosen for him and put into Of
fee through procedure in which he
does not participate. Funds are
squandered and he provides more
money to be squandered. Politicians
pull him by the nose and he stands
for it. Political machines ride over
him and he gets up to be ridden oyer
again.
In local. state and national affairs,
this good citizen is a nonentity. lie
may talk much but he does little. He
may tell his family at the dinner Ia
Bile that the country is going to the
dogs, and he may pound the table
when he says so, and fire may shoot
from his eyes, but he makes no move
to stop the slide to perdition. He
may denounce corruption in politics
to his cronies at luncheon, deplore this
| business of one man delivering a ward
in an election, grow purple in de-
claiming against slate-making and
slush funds ard machine delegates,
lbut he will busy himself with his per-
sonal business and his lawn-mowing
and teaching the baby to say daddy"
and wait for the convention delegates
and sate-makers to make voting easy
| for him. To cast vote at election
time is the great prerogative Of his
sovereign citizenship. He swells out
his chest when he exercises it. There
is a thrill in folding up the ballot and
concealing the marks he has put on it.
And the slate-makers and convention
engineers and machine bosses sit back
and chuckle at this good citizen who
has marched into the polling place
with the yoke about his neck, led in
| by nose-ring.
1t must be that this good citizen has
mad an opportunity to get fairly ac-
curate reflection of himself in the
mirror which the Senate campaign in
vestigating committee has been hold
ing up in Washington these last few
days. He has had the opportunity be-
fore, when matters in local admins
tration and state administration have
been given an airing. This good cit
izen who votes for mayors and gov
ernors and Senators and presidents
must have come to some conclusion
as to his part in selecting the men
who succeed to those high offices, as
he has learned how convention dele
gates are chosen and how state bosses
and district bosses gather in confer
ence and arrange to deliver the SOW
ereign voters of districts and states to
certain delegates. The sovereign vot-
er of Missouri, for instance, must
have a proud impression of the rep
resentation he will have in the Rebub-
lican convention in Chicago next week.
And as he has learned how the ma
chine in St. Louis and Missouri OPP
crates, how the boys from the va
rious districts are called in and given
checks and sent out to create" SEN
timent, how a state which was adj
mitted to be totally tied up between
johnson and Wood sentiment became
suddenly possessed Of an overpower-
ing Lowden sentiment, he must be
proud of the sovereignty of his citi-
zenship. The sovereign citizens of
Missouri must be proud to learn that
their sentiment is created" by con-
ference or two among half dozen
"bosses" with food of checks as
tonic. 1t is celebrating, indeed, this
convenience which has been afforded
good citizens, that they may awake in
the morning to find that sentiment
has been created for them, that a
presidential favOrite has been select
ed, that all they need do is go to the
polls and vote.
What will the good citizen do about
il? He has been bearing the yoke of
machine politics patiently and toler-
antly. Will he continue to bear il?
Is it too much to expect him to throw
it off and steer for himself? Is he to
be contented with the reflection he has
had of himself? Good citizens, here
tofore, haven't done a great deal in
matters of this kind. Perhaps they
may do nothing even now. Perhaps
the storm may blow over and all be
left serene and calm for the bosses
and machines. But the course a self
respecting citizen ought to take is
clear. He has power he has never
used. If he used it he could put ma
chine politics, in all of its ramifca-
tions' out of bvsiness.-St. Louis Star.