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Show AFTER DECEMBER, THE DELUGE We use the word, deluge, advisedly. A storm is brewing on the political horizon. All signs point to a spell of bad weather ahead. The stoim is duo to strike us shortly after the first of the year and it will be a deluge pure and simple an Inundation of new political ideas and isms, a Hood of far-fetched fads. The Hood will be upon the land for sixty days, or thereabouts. Then the deluge will desist, after which, we are assured, all our political ills and evils will have been washed away. From which assurance we make our own inverse deduction that what remains of persons and things political, including all those who promoted the scheme, will be as white and pure as the driven snow. And bo it is ordained that we are to be saved from ourselves, in spite of ourselves. If the plans of certain well-meaning but altogether alto-gether inexperienced persons prevail, the approaching ap-proaching sessions of the stale legislature will excel ex-cel a three-ring circus for versatility and startling performances. There Is a threatened deadlock in the permanent organization of the house. The fu-sionlsts fu-sionlsts promise to contest the seat of one of the Republican members of the lower branch of the legislature. Parley P. Chrlstensen is dividing his time right now between grinding his hatchet to tomahawk public utilities, and grooming himself as the dark horse candidate for the speakership. Another member bas prepared an election bill the contect of which covers some three hundred and fifty typewritten pages. A sweeping investigation investiga-tion of the official conduct of every Republican officeholders of-ficeholders from governors to dogcatcher is to be made on the presumption, of course, that only Republicans are corrupible. Several prohibition measures have already been drawn up for introduction, intro-duction, and the proposition looks like a sure winner this time. The cabarets are to be closed, and a Sunday blue law is on the way. The congressional con-gressional districts are to be rearranged so as to remove from the Republican an imaginary advantage. advan-tage. The state departments are to be placed under un-der civil service in order that certain Republican office-holders will lose their heads. The school system is to be "taken out of politics," and improved im-proved on. The referendum and recall is to be given to the people, whether they want it or not. All these things and many others are to be acted upon by the fusionists in a short, sixty-day session. Without going into a detailed discussion of the various propagandas mentioned, we are content to venture a prediction or two at this time. If our fuslonist friends succeed in enacting a majority ma-jority of the proposed measures, the bound volume vol-ume of the Session Laws of 1915 will compare favorably in size with the family bible and the dictionary. Also, in view of such prospects, the very best thing the legislators can possibly do tor themselves and the people, is to convene, pass the revenue and appropriation bills, draw their pay and go home. |