The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-04-07
PARTIES
(By Robert QuiIlen)

the main highway south of my town
an oak signpost with outstreached
arms pointing the way to neighboring
villages. The names of the villages
were painted on the arms.
In after years the highway was
coaxed to another route by an engi-
neer who had an eye for grades, and
now the signpost stands in culti-
vated field Its arms point the
traveller along roads that do not
exist, and the village names that once
gave meaning to the signal have been
worn away by the rains and frosts
of many years. In summer when the
field is planted to corn, the waving
tassels hide the signpost from the
traveller on the neighboring highway,
but winter again unveils it and in
vites the mockery of those who pass.
We do not mock the past because it
is no longer useful We remember
the days when it served us well, and
forgive it much.
But one respects age only when
age is respectable, and impotence
strutting in robes of dignity de-
serves the hard jests it inspires.
Our signpost has not kept pace with
the march of civilization. 1t serves
only to remind US of day that is
happily gone. 't
Some day when 1 feel in the humor
for it shall visit that post, and on
ono of its naanipulaSs ar,,s 7 sb,I
paint the word Republican" and on
the other the word Democrat" And
the traveller will wonder to what
places or conditions the arms point
and whether indeed they have any
significance at all.
There was time when the two
great parties stood fer something
Now one is constrained to wonder
why the people stand for the parties.
The highway of progress has moved
away from them. The people have
gone forward and left them sodded
in the root-bound subsoil of a gen
GRAFTON that is dead.
The best synonym for Republican"
is Democrat and the best synonym
for Democrat" is Republican"
They are as like as two printed
wrappers from the same form in the
same press, and the wrapper is the
only valuable part of the package.
When man tells you that he is a
radical or conservative you have
some conception of his meaning.
When he tells you that he is a Re-
publican or a Democrat he has said
exactly nothing at all. The party
name stands for neither faith nor
purpose, neither plan nor principle.
In land seeking guidance it points
nowhere
government for the people has be-
come government for the Offices by
professional officeholders. The hope
and ambition and effort of each party
is to get strangle hold cn every
Office that has a salary attached and
hang on tooth and nail. Each man
who has made profession of ad-
herring to the pubic pay roll has a
profound conviction that a composite
photographer of America would show
his stately form in the exact center
and the nation as a misty and nebu-
lous background. In some degree he
has the right conception of the sit
uation, for the Government consists
in politics, politics consists in par
ties and parties consist in office
holders.
The people, who are the Govern
ment in theory and the nation in
fact, are without voice. Candidates
are selected by the professionals
after the deck is stacked. and
whether the elected official be Demo-
crat or Republican he will deal
thereafter as directed by the pro-
fessionals who put him on the job.
This year we shall have the privi-
ledge of voting for one arm or the
other of the signpost. No matter
how we vote the post will remain
fixed in its place, and the hurrah and
blare of trumpets that proclaim y
victory for one arm will signify nc
more than aflixing of one set of pat
riots to the pay roll.