Year: 1875

Thought of II Some Practical sugges-


tions.


Probably no phase of the political
system of the United States has attracted
more attention than the caucus. The
Social Science Convention lately held
considered it. The reading of paper
on the subject was followed by a dis
cussion. One ,ntleman said that party
action ought to ecure good results, and
that an improved condition of politics
could be obtained if the best men in any
party organizati IN would go to the pri-
mary meetings end caucuses. A gentle
man rejoined. He seems to have given
up our party mac hinery as failure. No
respectable NAL, he said, after one ex-
perienco of caucus, would be found
there again. Outvoted, overridden,
laughed at, SOM times "bounced out
by the wire-puI ers and managers who
were there swapping offices and look
ing out for them selves, he wouldn't put
himself in the ay of such experience
again. And the report added "As this
was manifestly !. true statement, it met
the applause of the majority, who clap,
ped hands loudly"


The New York Times, in reviewing
the discussion, says The caucus is at
present fact that cannot be ignored, or
much shorn of its influence, in our poll
tics. In this condition of things, both
science and con mon sense would say !.
"Reform the c. ucus." If the evil has
been traced to ,s-source, attack it there.
The men who ar formulating our social
science, and ella 'orately considering the
problems it has IN hand, should not for
get that one wa to correct an evil is to
show how it can oe corrected and this
instruction can e enforced by consider
ing the unlikelihood of any other relief.
If we cannot prevent the vice of drunk
enness, some of its evils may be mitigat-
ed f; if we cam It abolish the caucus,
we can do what perhaps is better, con-
troll it. If the p 'ople are fit for free and
popular governn ent, they are abundant
ly able to take c. re of the conventions.


No one disputes all this. No one
doubts the power of the people to con-
troll caucuses; only, as speaker says, it
is business for which they have con-
ceived such thorough dislike that they
cannot be induced to attend to it. And
yet there is no " ork of more Importance
to the citizen. of what consequence is
it to the farmer hat he raises corn or
cotton, if the pr oduct of his labor is to
be eaten up by ii corrupt government !?
Why shoulda merchant vex his days and
nights with the details of vast bust
ness, to find, in the end, his profits con.
sumed by taxes? Whatsympathy would
the unfortunate merchant find among
his fellows. who should say that the con-
tentions of trade were so distasteful to
him that he left all details to his subor-
| dinates2


l. 1t is idle to attempt to escape from
the law of compensation. We cannot
have good administration for any length
of time by accident or good luck. Gov
ernment, as q perfectly working auto
matte machine, has not yet been invent
ed, and is not likely to be even for an
other century. 1t is an institution that
will be none too good when perfected by
the best work of the best men of this
Or any generation. In this country it is
everybody's business. Theoretically,
all being citizens, all owe an equal duty
to the government. We are unfit to be
citizens unless we discharge that duty.
That duty, should lead every citizen to
bring about better order of things;
and he has no right to neglect that duty,
for by so doing he not only puts in peril
his own enjoyment of citizenship, but
undermines the foundations upon which
alone good government rests. Let the
men who want good administration do
their duty in the very beginning of po-
htical influence, and good administra-
tions will come as matter of course.