Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-07
WlScONSIN'S ILL WINDS

SENAIOR La tOILEIlE Ns.oi1
- over his opponent in the kepuoneah
primary in Wisconsin by approximately
14O. 900 votes of poll that didn't total
100000 illustrates one of the important but
little considered facts of contemporary po-
litical history. That is. the continuing
ability of scattered minorities to turn elec-
tions for good and evil. and in fanaticai de-
votion TO small causes blind not only the
average voter but themselves to greater ones.
Thus neither Mr.. La Toilette nor his
opponcnt. ". A. Garfield, stood in the prl'
mary campaign for any clearly recognizable
principle. La Toilette is not even a con-
sistent progressive. though progressvism Is
deep rooted sentiment in his state. lie
is not a radical in the true sense, though
radicals are numerous in milwaukee ana
clamorous for leadership.
Garfield, on the other hand, was not the
ideal conservative. He is the type of man
who feels that he has earned n monument
when he puts himself in stern opposition to
everything that doesn't happen TO have the
sanction of the elders of the G.. q. y. He
labored under what. in some parts OF WIS
consn at least, might properly have been
called the handicap of the Anti Saloon
Leagues Endorsement. He and all other
dry" candidates but one were showed
under.
There will be jubilation in the camps OF
the light wine and beer folk. of course. But
the fact remains that La Toilette was car
ricd through on the crest OF wave OF small
dissatsfactions unrelated to one another ana
expressed rather bl!ndly by various groups
of voters without any definite progressive
purpose.
He was not so much wet as an anti
dry. So the thirsty aided him. He was
supported him, though they have no notion
of what La Toilette or any one else ought
to do to corporations already hard up ana
weakened BY over regulation. Ho was anti
Administration, so all the people who feel
that the country might be better managed
gave him their votes. The important thing
to observe is that La Toilette is another of
the men who win elections not because OF
what they are for, but because of the things
they are against.
We are too ready in America to give aid
to the destructionsts rather than to people
who want to construct. The reason seems
to lie in the psychology of the highly
organized minorities which take unto them
selves a cause or evolve one out of thin air
and promptly forget all else. We have labor
clamoring to rule and capital clamorins to
rule The Anti Saloon League believes that
it holds the secret of happiness and poit-
ical wisdom and that every one should hold
it in reverence.
Doubtless you could count a thousand
organizations, ranging from the ku Klux
Khan to the societies formed TO encourage
bee culture in our higher universities,
whose leaders believe that they have better
formulas for government than that outlined
in the Constitution of the United States.
They are all energetically about the busi-
less Of putting themselves over
They do not really put themselves over.
however They put men like La Toilette
over on the country. For it is largely
because OF the inability of active mnoritics
to forget their fads and their fanaticisms
and unite in support of the simple and
great and neglected principles of govern
ment established in this part of the world
by the War of Independence that we are
coming to seem rather erratic nation and
one baffed by the newer problems OF public
administration.
1t was because Wisconsin did not vote
as State, but as n collection of bad. tenn
pered minoritcs that 1t will continue to be
represented in the Senate by what YOU
might call Big Noise.