Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-03-24
WILL A MAN CUT HIS OWN . 30.
THROAT TO SAVE HIS LIFE?
This Question May Be Answered When
We Know Whom the Republican Ma.
chine intends to Run for Governor

chine intends to Run for Governor
TT WE are to have Governor equal to
the job, the politicians will have to stop
dickering and begin to give serious attention
to the welfare of the State.
They are now concentrating their atten-
tion on their own personal fortunes. They
are using the governorship as u pawn in
the game they are playing to get control OF
the political machinery. They seek to con.
troll that machinery for their own profit.
One group is after profit in the way OF
greater political influence. Another group
is after financial profit through control OF
the men who will award contracts.
And so they are rushing up and down the
State. talking with big and little men in an
effort to make combinations which will en-.
able them to force their will on the party
and carry their candidate through the pri-
raries in May. Each little leader is de.
manding concessions in return for his sup
port. and the big leaders are consulting one
another, while each has big knife behind
his back ready to use on the slightest provo.
cation.
The kind Of a Governor the State needs in
the present crisis is a man who IS his own
master. He must be a man with sufficient
political courage to realize that he will
serve his party best by using all his energies
in the service Of the people. And he must
have sufficient driving force to overawe and
subdue the politicians who will seek to use
him to put over their own schemes.
1t is notorious that a thorough house.
cleaning is needed in Harrisburg. The men
in charge of spending the public money have
been Indifferent. They have allowed IN
Vulnerable abuses to grow up. They have
ignored the laws intended to check many of
those abuses and have given fat fees to their
favorites. There are useless departments
and overlapping commissions and bureaus.
each one Of which is filed with the de-
pendents of this or that political leader.
There can be no housecleaning without
hurting a lot Of politicians. Consequently
the politicians object to housecleaning.
They have prevented it in the past and they
will fight the nomination Of any candidate
big enough TO do the job. This does not
mean that they will oppose the nomination
of man who talks about the necessity OF
cleaning up the mess. They will talk about
II themselves in order to win support, be-
cause they know that II is necessary "to
pander TO the moral sentiment of the State
But whoever is supported by the machine
will be d man who can be controlled by the
mechine. This will be seen to. II he can
not be controlled through direct commands,
he can be controlled indirectly either by
blocking all his plans or by surrounding him
with men who will play him false,
While one group Of men is working to
maintain the status quo. another group is
actively engaged in the effort to extend to
the whole State the system of contractor
Dominate n that has been repudiatcd in this
city. Tens of millions of dollars are TO be
spent on highway improvements. If con-
tractor controlled Governor is elected he can
he trusted to annont a contractor controlled
Highway Commissioner, with inspectors who
owe their jobs to the contractors and their
friends.
And then the highway funds would be
sluiced from the State Treasury into the
pockets Of the contractor politicians.
If the state wants this sort Of thing 1t can
have IT, but If it does not went it the way
to prevent It Is to prevent the nomination
of any candidate for the governorship con-
trolled by the contractor machine.
II this city does not want its power to
clean its own streets taken away from &,
the aroused citizens must fight tho plan to
set up in H' rr!sburg the influences which
are hostile to the present plan.
McSparran, who Is 10 be the Democratic
nnp pIi6Ofa for l,oVprDOr 10 u1rnaT,, oh ,1i
that the highway funds have been spent ex-
travagantly. The nomination Of con.
tractor candidate would justify linn in
charging that it was intended to use the
Highway Department as an annex Of a
political machine for enrlching the poli-
ticians. The only way TO meet the Nc
Spartan charges Is by the nomination OF a
ran about whom there can be no shadow of
suspicion and who admittedly stands for
honesty and efficiency in every department
of government.
Not n Republican who measures uD TO the
required standard has been put forward by
amy considerable faction Of tho party. Some
Of them come nearer to it than others. and
some are 10 far below it that they ought not
10 be considered even for trading purposes.
And some with wide regulations and per-
sonnly unobjectionable are yet SO weak that
they could easily be bent to the purposes of
the men who are in politics for wha. they
can make
The occasion calls for a real man, but
only an incurable optimist can expect the
politicians to consent 10 his nomination. for
the right man would put n lot Of the old
Gang ont OF business within three months
after he took his seat in the Capitol m
Harrisburg.
A RELIC WORTH RESTORING