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Show What is Longed For SI THE RECENT political campaign was an ac- w'l tlve one; indeed, it grew to be furious to- hkII ward the close, but who shall say it was Kll not in many ways disappointing? In Milton's in- HfllM vocation, at the opening of Paradise Lost, are Hil these wonderful words: fill "What in me is dark, M H Illume, what is low, raise and support, mll That to the height of this great argument M M I may assert eternal providence (ful And justify the ways of God to man." y&jifl Coming down from that high plane and apply- ItJH Ing the same thought to the late campaign, the ill really thoughtful reader, and many who cannot wll express great thoughts, must have asked them- ill selves, after reading the speeches morning after ff morning, whether they filled the measure of a ' j H great free people's desire in setting forth the ' H reasons why certain parties existed, and why cer- H tain men were candidates. ,1 Of course, it is easy to say that this is merely k ,H a business country, and that all that is required m i, of a President is a careful business adminlstra- WM tiotf; but nevertheless, this great republic is the ' M last magnificent experiment tbpt the world has $ M seen of men essaying to govern themselves,- and M a presidential campaign ought to do something M morethan state the business needs of the people; i ,M it ought to be on a lofty plane, which ought to bring out all that is best in men, and instead of appealing to this industry or that for help, it L H seems to us there ought to be a showing made of H what the great country Itself needs, what it ex- H pects of its citizens, and its onward, upward way H ought to be pointed out so men would not mix H personal likes and dislikes in the campaign at , H H If we are to continue to exist as a nation and H grow greater and greater, then the deep inter- H est is not In how this or that man may carry on H his business, how this or that body of men are H going to vote, but there should bo such portray- H ing of high Ideals that the voter would lose sight H of himself in his zeal for the great .country in H which he has the honor to be a citizen. H We know it is easy for the hoodlums to sit H in the gallery and hiss at the performance on H the stage; we know that if the same hoodlums H were put upon the stage, each with his own role, I he would make a dismal failure. But still, there jH is something in the hoodlum's hiss which con- H voys the unspoken thought of the wiser man. jH In the old days in California, Gen. E. D. 41 Baker used to address audiences as a Republican JSLJH when Republican doctrines were not popular In SJM that state. Often at the beginning of his invoca- Kill tions there would be catcalls and hisses, some- BmSM times the insults went farther, but In a little Isl while that compelling mind of his, with a master- ful eloquence, which In him was a wonder, he 1 jlfl would beat Hie audience into silence, and after a II little there would be faint cheers, then louder $l and louder cheers, and at last ho would carry f?fl the audience by storm, because, through what he f H was saying, the dullest man would recognize that ffH he was speaking from the standpoint of justice, Jfl from the standpoint of a patriotism that was L Jfjfl ready to give up its life for native land, from the ! M standpoint of what he believed would result in H the higher enlightenment and the warmer love H of country of the American people. H There has been a little of that at times in the B latev campaign, but not very often. It has been H made up mostly of personal appeals to the pas- H sions and prejudices of men. There has been a H struggle with nearly all of the candidates to show M that the masses of the people were being op- H pressed, that the workers in the land were not re- H cervine Justice, and this has descended into vi tup.. and petty personalities unbecoming .a gre mpaign of a great people looking toward M the light, wanting something to fill their hearts, H to strengthen their hopes, and with hopes H strengthened, their patriotism intensified. H There has been a constant assailing of the H laws or the way the laws are being executed, a H constant effort being made by nearly all the can- H didates to prove that in some way the people H were being oppressed, were not receiving a fair H return for their toil. There has been material spoken at night to keep blatherskites talking all H the next day, and very little attention paid to de- H scribing what this republic would be if every man H was governed by law, every man's sense of jus- H tice was always appealed to, and what a hundred H million people of free men could accomplish if H they would all work together and if their motto H was always to be: "Our country when right, but M right or wrong, our country." The worst feature of American, civilization is the growing disrespect for necessary laws, but this fact has hardly been dwelt upon. We think it is honest to say that there has not been one illuminating discussion on the question of the currency, cur-rency, which governs all other questions. We do not think the tariff has been clearly explained from the standpoint of true business and for the welfare of the whole people. We do not think that the power of money has been properly discussed dis-cussed to show to the people that money is tho real power in this country, and that it cannot be done away with by confiscation, that while it is subject to law, while the laws ought to be most binding, but careful in their dealings with money and with the men who control great industries, still that power must be recognized, because the mass of the people who have not homes and depend de-pend upon their daily wages for support, can only look for that support through the great corporations corpora-tions that swing the public business in this country. coun-try. The most logical talker of them all was Debs. The trouble with him, though, was that the very foundation from which he talked was a false one. While he tried to picture what would be when everything was arranged on his basis, he had not the perception to see that were the experiment ex-periment tried, instead of leading up, it would lead down to anarchy, and that what he was really real-ly offering was a premium for incompetency and laziness. We are glad the election is over, and we have faith enough to believe that the verdict of the people was the right one, that God is still watching, and that as He has steered this republic re-public through all the breakers of the past, His hand is still at the helm, and that the wrongs which the people and the nation are suffering will, one by one, be righted, until at last the highest ideal of self-government will be obtained on our soil, and from us will spread over all the earth until the right shall triumph everywhere, and the chains which are now upon men's hearts will all be broken, and with a higher intelligence there will be more patriotism, with mors patriotism patriot-ism there will be a stronger sense of justice, that progress is at last the thing to be looked for, and that the forward march of the world, which began be-gan when our fathers framed our form of government, govern-ment, is to go on with accelerated step and stead- -ily increasing rhosts filling the ranks, until a bet-'1 ter world will be given to a better mankind. |