The Redwood gazette., 1920-05-12
POLITICS AND
THE CITIZEN
From the Saturday Evening Post.

There is a theory confidently be-
lieyed by most Americans, that II you
want to change anything in govern
ment you have ample power through
your vote. We regard the ballot as
our safety valve, and assume that we
are functioning beautifully in politics
If we take the trouble to cast it,. Most
of us have been afraid to go into poll
tics any further, for fear we might be
smirched. We have left politics to the
politician.
We have assumed that politics were
the affair of the gang hanging round
the city hall, the party conventions,
the presidential beekeepers, the man
ayers Of big campaign funds SUBJ
scribed by somebody US. Poli-
tics have been show, with free ad-
mission to everybody. But now the
tax collector has demonstrated that
politics is commodity for which we
pay as directly as for groceries or
suit of clothes. In fact, even though
you have the price of a suit you can't
get it until you pay for the politics.
Let us all go into politics. We have
to pay for politics anyway, so let's
get the best value. We shall never get
| it by changing our vote from one cleo
tion to another, nor by sending resolu-
tions to Washington or the state capi-
! tai when some of our personal inter
ests are at stake. We shall get value
only by giving value-by getting into
| the political game where it really be-
gins-with us at the town pump.
"What-me get into that dirty
game? Not on your life!" says the
average citizen.
Let us picture him as the average
| business man. He is not imaginary,
either, for dozens of business men
have made practically this same reply
when | first suggested the idea. 1t Is
proof of the average Americans neg
| lect of politics that he cannot even
get the point at first statement.
Mention politics in connection with
| himself and the business man sees
| himself running for office, with tha
/ fireworks and speeches and all.
"Why, / never made speech IN my
.life!" he protests.
! He pictures himself doing business
in the city hall with the gang leaders.
His only experience with politicians
has been, probably, when they extract
4 GU IIiOlty HUH tillOuSA SOuiC oub>
tie device that threatened to hold up
some of his projects, and it was
easier to pay for the sake of facility
than to get out in the open and fight
T the gang.
Now, running for office is about the
last thing in politics. Even the politi-
clans only do it every other year, and
difference between the average citi-
4 zen and the politician is that the form
er thinks it is all over after the elec-
tion result have been announced, while
the politician is busy all the time with
a kind of politics which the average
business man can play better himself
i Tammany, for instance, is playing
every day in the year the most attrac-
tive Of political games, one IN which
the business man would find himself
quite at home and be winner. His
.lonly hope of beating Tammany and the
q gang politician everywhere is to play
/ this game, and play it more skiilfully
i Tammany is constantly getting peo-
pie out of trouble. The political bass
i everywhere is part father, part priest.
Il Tammany is constantly getting peo-
pie employment, not merely in the
d city hall, where the jobs are least de-
4 sirable nowadays, but in thousands of
business establishments. In other
words, though the hall dons costume
and makeup every other year for the