| Show I Government by Quantity hallowed tradition of ot government govi gov- gov i c 5 DEMOCRACY'S by majority has been given a new new nci twist pronouncedly noticeable in recent ye years rs and at no time as noticeable as right now While for a long time congressmen and senators have heard from rom home as outstanding issues have of come up the practice of telegraphing or writing to instruct them how to vote has nev never r reached the high point at which it stands today c J. J f The issue or measure which can start the most n me men marching on Washington or which can 3 k start tart the greatest flood of mail or telegrams the d desks of f r r toward the presidents president's desk or r members of congress is assumed to be the one oCt behind which the mass opinion of the United j y States tates stands t or which is entitled to receive conI con- con I f. f In past times interest has been centered A tt on and support gained for legislative or adminIstrative administrative admin- admin lr action by hiring special pleaders to go goto to the capital to lay the facts before the proper official ial personages The interests have been able of course to employ highs highs' high high- s' s v priced talent and the submerged groups the I. I forgotten men and the underprivileged i have fared ill HI because as the inarticulate and unorganized elements clements of the body politic th their ir small voice could not be heard Xi v still But this is not so today today Anybody dy who can cany 1 y raise the price of a brief slice of time on the theair 1 i air to ventilate his views can provide a rush V of business for the telegraph companies or Post Post- Po Postmaster t- t master General Farleys Farley's outposts Circular Circular Cir Cir- it cular letters to the electorate or rabble rousers at mass meetings and conventions can get t the e f c same resul results ts This is government by p quantity rather than tf n-tf quality of opinion n. n A As a matter of fact opinion fa does not enter into it in In most cases An appeal f for or con condemnation d. d or support of t this h. h IS measure or that can and does docs elicit a response by mail or lr 1 wire from hundreds of thousands of adult men v. v and women who know nothing whatever about if the virtues or vices of the matter in hand A 1 sc scattered few who may have read something r i l about the issue and still fewer who have actually read the proposed legislation may know something some some- 1 i. i thing as to its purposes and intents I 1 It would prove embarrassing no end if senators senators senators sen sen- and congressmen wired back to constituents t who thus address them asking their reasons reasons rea rca t sons Eons for urging that this bill be passed or the theother theother other killed There is no need for this however however how how- ii I. I ever for surely no one smart enough to have had himself himself elected to sit in in the halls of congress con con- r 4 l gress can fail fall to sense that in In most cases the constituent acts with more nore impetuousness s ess than J information They realize that the citizen back jack f home no matter how sincere is not voicing t his opinion but is echoing that of a single in inI individual individual in- in I or group If one of Father Coughlin's r demagogic schemes can win the advocacy of 1 listeners won over in fifteen minutes of incendiary oratory it is still the scheme hatched in a single fevered brain If the Kingfish can sell one of his work without notions to radio fans it still is simply the notion of this one arrant clown Quantity production of a cheap or useless political invention does not improve its quality Now this is not to say that the sovereign i American citizen should not exercise his right and privilege to let his representatives in office know his desires Those desires however should spring from his information and intelli- intelli j gence To 10 respond to the appeal of s some me paid propagandist or self-seeker self without knowing k r what it is is all about is to overlook the sage advice advice advice ad- ad vice of to his son Dont let anybody make a sucker out of you |
