The Kennewick courier-reporter and the White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1938-1939, 1938-09-08
Dear Editor:


the midst Of another political cam
paign and the candidates (bless
their souls) willing to lay aside
their private affairs and offer
themselves upon the altar Of public
devotion SO that the rest of us may
rest in peace and perfect conf
dence that our affairs are being
looked after in the most efficient
manner.
They are a hardy lot. They con-
stitute the one crop that never fails
to mature, never blights, never
frosts, yet never quite yields &C
cording to expectations. They go
about our fair land waving their
hands, beating their chests and
shouting themselves hoarse trying
to get the Indifferent voters to take
an interest in their own affairs
and making promises that cannot
be fulfilled and yet we all know
that IF our country Is to exist and
our civilization continues to func-
ton it Is necessary to keep the far
mer on the farm and the working
man broke.
AS a whole, we, The Great Am
erican People," have done very
well with the continent that friend
Columbus discovered for us. We
have been here something like
three hundred years and are still
going strong. We have preserved
our forests. subdivided, cultivated
and enriched our farm land, con-
served our mineral resources and
tried to make things safe for
prosperity, but we have made
mess Of our politics and finances.
We are q strong intelligent ma
ton Of highly educated people, but
are vainly trying to float the great
ship Of state upon a turbulent sea
Of broken political promises.
And that brings us to q discus
sion of our various political par
ties under whose names our office
seekers enroll themselves. When
nursery man wants to grow tree
he plants a seed to grow a root and
then buds or gratis it to produce
the kind of fruit he desires. The
orchardist then grows the tree and
as long as he gives 1t the proper
care 1t continues to bless him with
its natural increase. But, when
from neglect the top is allowed to
die down below the bud the root
may live and send up any number
Of shoots that may or may not
produce most any thing. So with
our great political parties. Under
jefferson the democratic party was
the finest piece Of independent leg
islation ever conceived by the mind
Of many, whereby a free people
might govern themselves and retain
their self respect. But from ne
glect the great tree was permitted
to wither and die down.
Under Cleveland it bloSsomed
forth into sort of hybrid social
ish gold standard freak that pro-
duced the greatest panic of our
time. Again under Wilson it pro-
duced a great crop of fruit that did
not pay for harvesting. We done
a great business and sold much
goods for a big price, but never re-
ceived any pay for them. The open
accounts are still upon the books
II refer to our unpaid war debts.)
Then after q few years of Hoover
drouth the great Democratic tree
began to flourish and send up a
great many water shoots, many of
which have borne no fruit and
much Of the fruit which has ripen,
ed has been of little value and too
sweet or sour for steady diet. I sup
pose we should pause in our mad
rush to say something about the
Townsend movement which is be-
ginning to assume national prom
inence as political party.
It has all the ear marks of per-
petual motion and up to the present
time no one has ever been able
to make one of those things work.
Their scheme is all right except the
idea of getting the money away
from the politicians after the tax
has been paid in. And if they could
solve that little problem there
would be nothing they could not
do. And with all due respect to
those who are older and wiser than
I am I will say that if these same
men and women had taken as much
interest in government affairs when
they were twenty-one as they do
uow-no one would be needing a
pension.
And that brings us down to the
party. And when ! say
down I mean Just that. Because 1
consider the real old line dyed-n-
Republican statesman the
owest form of human animal that J