Show ge aa M ah I 1 ri 0 U t till e vot 43 rm E FOR aa 14 0 WHO Z Is 10 7 Is 1 P va s FOP 9 beirl 1 4 ar E FO 11 6 v MIMI me 41 I 1 v V ap by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ITH the primaries prima rips in all ot of the states now W over and the candidates selected by the two major parties political interest now centers in the november election for months our newspapers have been picture galleries of would be ike looking personages who upon the repeated and urgent solicitation of their friends have consented to be a candidate tor for this that or the other office if by chance the voter has missed seeing therould alie would be benign in his newspaper new r he has had the opportunity port unity city to see it on a placard tacked up on every telephone pole in city streets and along country roads put but cheer cupl up I 1 you wont have to see these picture galleries much longer only a month more a month math of 0 activity by the politician and his friends culminating in the final effot effo t ot get out the vote and then it will ell be over are the american people less inter ested in politics than they formerly were some observers say yes and point to the pub pubic lc apathy that has been apparent apparel lt in recent years tills this year will not really be a fair test say others because its the off year 1 I e not tile year of a presidential election and no one expects a great show of 0 enthusiasm over politics in an oft off year of course there are several issues up for consideration this year but it yet remains to be seen whether or not they are genuine burning issues which will bring every qualified voter to the polls to say it with ballots here are some of them major or minor local sectional or nat nations ionn clear cut or hazy look hem over and see if any of them make you burn the eighteenth amendment the world court farm relief ku klux klan government economy waterways campaign expenditures league of nations lons water power development foreign debt settlements one or more of these issues may bring out a big vote in some states they may have something to do with the political complexion of the next congress and with fore shadowing the candidates and issues of 1928 the next presidential campaign year but to the average observer the election in november 1920 now looks pretty much like a matter of nothing to get excited about fact Is the politicians have had a pretty hard time of it tills this year keeping the american people interested te in their the politicians business of course it Is the business of mr voter too but he Is on the job attending to this business only one or two days a year whereas the politician Is busy with it days a year too many distractions north pole flights helen and suzanne playing tennis aimee merti erson doing her disappearing act gertrude eder ederle le swimming the english channel chann cl ru hu dolph valentino dying a iship whipping ping finish in the national league and a world series and mr dempsey and mr deciding the heavyweight lve in fisticuffs Fortun fortunately atey y for alein the crossword cross word puzzle Is almost posse andied and red grange has haq more fleetness than front page endurance nut but the voice of the radio Is still heard in the land and here we are in the midst of aathar her football season right at a time when political interest should be hottest I 1 it like that in the old days ah no I 1 go back to the pioneer days when we took our politics seriously and a political campaign was a strenuous affair talk to some of the old timers who either knew about it themselves or heard their fathers toll tell about the days when there were real stump speakers then there were the butcher boys who were distinctive of one era in the political history of 0 the middle west they dressed conspicuously in buckskin coonskin caps indian moccasins and red hunting shirts bated beted be ted at tile the waist with a broad leather girdle dl from which hung big butcher knives wherefore the name they were a swaggering boisterous unruly lot these butcher boys profane and rough especially when full of liquor whoop e e e im a bad bold butcher butr liep boyl im half man and half alligator I 1 was the cry they raised as they swept down upon some political meeting a yell that was half a boast halt half a challenge there was little chance for a dispassionate discussion of campaign issues at meetings in those days it if the orator was not howled down by the butcher boys he be launched into a bitter personal attack upon his opponent and tile the stronger lalk language adge lie he used the better his auditors were pleased when the meetings were over the butcher boys invariably mounted their horses and rode at ap break breakneck neck speed through the settlement hurrahing hur bur rabing for their candidate and jeering at hla his opponent for I 1 many years they held the balance of 0 power in elections but in later years the practice of carrying knives was frowned upon Ilo however wever the same class of voters survived under equally pretentious names such as the barefooted boys and the huge buge pawed boys until the idea of physical force dominating elections waned and the butcher boys and their ilk gradually disappeared those were the good old od days about which we hear so much the halcyon days of the pas past t the passing of which the sentimentalists so often mourn those who deplore the strong arm methods used at the polls ip some of the big cities of today might remember the butcher boys of the good old days even in those days when americans are supposed to have taken their politics seriously ugly it often required a special effort to get out the vote from the state of missouri comes an amusing story printed in a recent issue of tile the kansis kansas city star illustrative of that point the new rules and regulations about making life easier for the voters hav have e taken all the joy out of politics and d made it as tame and innocent as adame a game of croquet grumbled the veteran vateran politician ailing his odoriferous corncob with natural leaf lie ile was talking to some of the youngsters on one of the county committees who had staked asked him tor for a tow pointers out of the depths of his long and somewhat strenuous experience as an a party leader votes la is votes and sos sale you get tm em its nob odys business how bow the campaigner went on in tho the days when you had to do soma real to got an omee some giants gl antt were de men who knew what they wanted and how to set get it everybody livery body in the county did all their voting at the county seat in the tha forties the fabulous forties ita BS some writer in the saturday evening post has set not it down if you pet get to the th county seat you vote no absentee votes were counted then some times the polls polla were akert kept open two or three days daya you learned how now new york went about a week after the election or maybe two weeks weeks those good old days dayal I 1 peter marberry Mar burry was wag standing tor for the th legislature from macon county peter and tom dickson his right hand man counted noses and figured that when about all who could got get to bloomington the county seat had voted he would be about nty seven even shy of beating his opponent theres about sixty votes over in ten mile and round grove grov tow townships as hi Ps ali said dickson yes says the chief bu but t the they might to f well be at the north pole never walk thirty mile and back just tor for the run fun of voting they might it they had shoes ehl eh front marberry Mar burry who began to wake wak e up you buy a barrel of 0 those red bro gene gans at rod shacklefords Shackle fords store and I 1 believe I 1 can account for roost most of that vote no sooner aid than done dickson put tile the red shoes in sacks and threw ern em across two horses the road was nothing but a trail then shoes of an sort were a luxury when dickson got go out among the settlers they were ai aa tickled as children to see those red shoos hoes when a man tried on a pair and noy they fit dickson said think you could walk to bloom ington angton in those could I 1 17 just try me all right lets go to town and those shoes oboes are yours santa claus had bad come out of the wilderness defore long dickso n had men following him around want wanting i n g to take on that shoo proposition sixty pair quickly found owners and a lame man agreed to go to the county seat it if he could ride the horse A they neared town one on of the me settlers tas casually asked by the way be a good man to vote tor for representative you might try Mar marberry burry dicksa suggested lie ile sent me out to give elv you those shoes shoeb it was no trouble every man voted RC cording according to the dictates of his conscience and the joy over possessing a re real a 1 pair of red shops shoes marberry Mar burry wag wa triumphantly elected by his brogan brigade that was good politics and the people patted dickson on the back for being so wise in tor for his bis man the veteran paused to knock the th a ashes s hen out of his pipe preparatory to r reloading e oa ding 1 I tell you tellers he declared Jec lored lared it if you want to win in politic policies you got to think speeches dont make mak no votes lt it takes headwork heavy campaign expenditures in ID two states this year have brought to the fore again the discussion of proper and improper use ue of money in politics As usual when this or uny other evidence of corruption in modern politics comes up there are thi those thise se who shake a mournful head anil and mi murmur I 1 r it me ike this in tile good old days but it if we may judge from the testimony of contemporary authorities politics w waa as more corrupt a hundred years ngo ago than it lias has eer been since faike the case of illinois for instance illinois which had its senator end now shares with pennsylvania general criticism for excessive campaign expenditures governor r ford ord Is authority for the statement ement that during the period of 12 years 1910 neither the people nor their public servants ever earned die di that alint government might he made the instrument tf to accomplish a higher lil glier destiny tor for the people and that the professional politicians enjoyed an unparalleled reign of graft good old days why not the bad old days |