OCR Text |
Show THE RICH BOSS AND THE POLITICAL BOSS. ( David Graham Phillips, in Everybody's Magazine, Maga-zine, thinks that power without a corresponding responsibility or sense of responsibility, is serious B iy threatening the life of the American people. B He follows Ills text with, a strong article. He B slashes the money kings and the political bosses, B but closes with the expressed belief that the peo-B peo-B pie will find a way to overcome the power of these B men. The unmerited power, of the rich will be B ovorcome, not by the people, but through the B shorticss of human, life, and the fact that there B is a law against entail in this country. The Astora B have ceased to be of any concernment in this coun-B coun-B try; so would the Vanderbilts have ceased to be B except that the founder of "the house" was shrewd B enough to apply the old purpose of the law of en-Bi' en-Bi' tail to railroad stocks instead of landed posses B sions. The "House of Schwab" is already crumble crumb-le ling; the "House of Morgan" will not longe sur-B sur-B vtve the founder as a money power; the "House B of Rockefeller" will last longer, for it is immeas-B immeas-B urably rich and the oil wells are still flowing. But B while men can become dangerously rich, there are B some things they cannot count upon. They can-B can-B not count upon having sons who will have the Bi ability or desire to do the work they have to do B? to order to plle up tlieIr millJons and crush oppo-Bi oppo-Bi sition or competition. B But the political boss is another thing and how Bj to extract his fangs is becoming a more and B! wore serious problem every year. B Nearly every state and nearly every city of re- B spectable size has a political boss, sometimes two B r tnrce of them. We have two or three of them B in Utah. The material they work upon Is the of- B flce-seeker and the prize offered is political rec- B ognition in case "our side" wins. How these peo- B plo can maintain their assumed leaderships year B after year is a wonder. It is a wonder, because B t the pettiness of results. If they "fail, it makes B no difference. If cast down, for a few days after H defeat, it does not last; with the next campaign B; they burnish up their "cheek" again and enter the B arena with the same old conlidence. If vlctor- B ious, the rewards they are able to distribute are B so small that one would think that even those Hj receiving them would drop on the fact that they B could have done better in legitimate buisness. "" BE There is something to a boss like Piatt or Hj Murphy of New York or Quay of Pennsylvania, B for they are generals in the business. They B know how to lay out a campaign, where to station B their attacking columns, and their reserves, and B who to delegate as corps, and division, and bri- H, gade or regimental commanders. But these petty R bosses, who depend upon false cries, intrigues, du- B PNcity and cold mendacity to carry their designs through are so contemptible that it is a wonder that they can maintain their influence. But they B do, and probably will continue to rise up and vex H the people for years to come. K How to effectually squelch them is a compll- B ated Problem. Our belief is that the work ought B to begin in the public schools. The principles K on which our Government was founded reduced H to questions and answers, and the history of our country politically reduced likewise to questions B na answers, ought to be printed and used as a B ext book and accompanying it, in the same covers B ! possibl. should be a sort of political catechism B th0 burden of which should be to impress upon B every cMd the great fact, that this, being a Gov- B rnment of the people, the Individual who fails B take an interest in politics, or who permits his B Wn Poetical convictions to be swayed by a boss B r tbQ asent of a boss, is shirking his duty. With B wUn na tralning and a few minutes of it daily, B qu'a be sufficient the young man would not be B novlce wlen in politics when he reached his" B withr. y' but would at once grapple intelligently H an i iCal questIons and would at once become B nor :ependent thinker and worker, and the ig- B of ant boss with nothing but his gall and wealth B mZThca would bQ t0 su a youth at a dis- m cont in flf teen minutes. B ery schol boy and girl in Japan since the Chinese-Japanese war, has been taught in school to hate Russia and, If a boy, to grow up with the expectation that sometime he will be a soldier or sailor to 'fight the Northern Bear. That is what has caused the Japanese people the masses for months to clamor for war. It Is one of the faults of our country that no more patriotism is taught in our schools. The way to teach that Is to give American children the chance to compare com-pare our own with all other countries, and then to Impress upon them their Individual responsibility respon-sibility toward their country. |