Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1922-06-16
OUR BUSINESS
A Front Page Editor


have permitted European propaganda to lead US
into the habit of speaking of OUR BUSINESS in
disrespectful and slurring tones and language
Sticking the gaff into public officials has become
one of the most popular sports. Everybody is
doing It, The very word Politics is spoken as
though tainted with fraud and suspicious
It we were all stockholders in any gainful cor
poration such as the Short Line or the Telephone
or in some great mercantile organization, and we,
all of u.s. assumed the same sneerng disrespectfui
critical attitude towards that organization az we
do towards OUR BUSINESS corporation which
call "politics" we would drive that enterprise into
bankruptcy in less than year.
Yet sspolitics" is as much OUR BUSINESS as is
the particular daily work which we do to gain
a livelihood
We are now just on the of an election in
which we will select cur precinct, county and
State officials and our congressman for the com
ing two years. These men will make and unmake
our laws They will enforce our laws. They
Will collect and dsburse taxes. They will,
in fact be charged with duties the performance
of which will very materially affect each and ev
erv one of us, not only financially in the form
of collecting and disbursing our tax money but
in the protection of lives and property and
our right to live the fullest and most enjoyable
life consistent with the rights of our fellow part
ners in this OUR BUSINESS. 1t seems useless
waste of words to say that these officials charged
with such vital interests of OURS should be Sc
lected from among our most capable, intelligent
and upright citizens. Yet we facing the facts
that we have permitted ourselves to fall into such
a habit of sneering at politics" and casting re-
proachful slurs upon OUR OWN BUSINESS and
those whom we select to transact it for us, that
the very class of citizens MOST NEEDED to fill
our offices shrink from public service and refuse
to place themselves in position where they must
stand our disrespectful and insulting attitude
towards spolitics'-OUR BUSINESS.
Can you imagine what would happen here IN
Shoshone if every business man took the same
attitude towards his clerks and employees we
do towards our public officials? What self-re-
spectng person would work for such an employer?
You know that every employer who took that at
titude towards his clerks would have to either
close out his business limit himself to the en-
plovment of crooks and grafters and lncompetants,
the very class of employees he insisted and pro-
claimed his others to be. Such an employer would
dscredit himself to such an extent that he could
not get away from it.
Are we such pack of fools that we connot see
that we face the same conditions in OUR BUSl-
NESS?
Our very attitude towards OUR BUSINESS tends
to drive competent and self-respecting citizens out
and is an OPEN INVITATION to the crook, the
CRATER the incompetent to step in. We, all OF
US extend welcome hand to the political faklr,
the self-seeking sneak, the dishonest and neon
petent We, all of us, put premium on the ln-
desirable and an unsurmountable handicap on the
desirable official We place between our citizens
and OUR BUSINESS, what the golf nut calls
hazard in the shape of wide deep slough filled
with the direst and hlthiest slime and human
muck we can manufacture and then offer the re-
ward of public office to the person willing TO de-
mean himself to the point Of braying this hazard
of ieers and iibes and SANDER and defamation.
We make a political campaign resemble PEE
eating contest in which open faced blackberry
pies are placed upon boxes before crowd ana
prize offered TO The person who, with bis hands
lied behind his back, can eei pie first We Oh
these political pies with all kinds Of hth Of SIAN
der and sneers and jeers and then inylte respect
able citizens 10 gel down op thelf knees before
the public and smear their faces ~ thqi dirty mess
for Nhei2 job as public oiiielpl uppsae1ns
Our BUSINESS
Is 4 ANY wonder lhai iakps arf nlehY p any
Noudor 1Aai Oun BUSINESS if elpdunlfa AZ AN
uoI0apnl manner liale Nf nol lpllled iperf
f0ndllions9 ls y sllpnRf llal plh hlainlo'
COOS hpgelps iop ollinns ~ ablllli lp ae''p oW