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Show I 8tfMi CM me W 33. M.'V; &&&mZt HCW MfS W l- 1 If L ' 7 By ELMO GCOTT WATSON ITU the primaries in Wul! of the stales now over nnd tlie candidates candi-dates selected ty Hie C&rtfizSzpi j two major parties, .J.y3iiS I political interest now centers in the November Novem-ber election. For months our newspapers news-papers have boon picture galleries of would - be - statesinenlike - looking personages per-sonages who "upon the repeated nnd urgent solicitation of their friends" have consented to be u candidate for this, that or the other ollice. If by chance the voter lias missed seeing the would be oflieeholder's benign phiz In bis newspaper, he has bad the opportunity op-portunity to see it on a placard tacked up on every telephone pole in city streets and along country roads. lint, cheer up I You won't have to see these picture galleries much longer. long-er. Only a month more, a month of activity by the politician and his friends, culminating in tlie final effoi-t ot "got out the vole," and then It will all be over. Are the American people less interested inter-ested in politics than' they formerly were? Some observers say "Yes" and point to tlie public apathy that lias been npparent In recent years. This year will not realiy be a fair test, say others, because it's tlie "off year" 1. e., not the year of n Presidential election and no one expects a great show of enthusiasm over politics iu an "off year." Of course, there are several issues up for consideration tills yenr.-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 sec-tional or national, clear-cut or hazy look I hem over and see if any of them make you "burn": The Eighteenth amendment, the World court, farm relief, re-lief, Ku Klux Ulan, government economy, econ-omy, waterways, campaign expenditures. expendi-tures. League of Nations, 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 Willi foreshadowing the candidates and issues of ID'JS, the next Presidential campaign year. But to tlie average observer the election In November, 192G, now looks pretty much like a matter of "nothing to get excited about." Fact Is, the politicians have bad a pretty hard time of It this year keeping the American people interested in-terested in their (the politicians') business bus-iness (of course, it is the business bus-iness 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 3G." days a year). Too many distractions North pole (lights, Helen and Suzanne playing play-ing tennis. Aimee MePherson doing her disappearing act, Gertrude F.derle swimming the English channel. Rudolph Ru-dolph Valentino dying, n whipping finish fin-ish In tlie Nation::! league and a World series, and Mr. Pempsey and Jfr. Tfioney deciding the heavyweight ;T;le In fisticuffs. Fortunately for tl em the cross-word puzzle is almost pase and Tied Grange has more fleet-nss fleet-nss than front-page endurance. Put the voice of the radio is still heard in the land nnd here we are in the midst of another football season, right at a time when political Interest should be hottest I It wasn't like that In the old days ah, no ! Go back to the pioneer days when we took our politics seriously and a political campaign was a strenuous stren-uous affair. Talk to some of the old-timers old-timers who either knew about it themselves or heard their fathers 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 the Middle West. They dressed conspicuously In buckskin, coonskin caps, Indian moccasins moc-casins and red hunting shirts, be'.ted at tlie waist with a broad leather girdle, gir-dle, 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. I'm a bad. bold butcher boy I I'm half man and half alligator!" was the cry they raised as they swept down upon some political meeting, a yell that was half a boast, half a challenge. There was little chance for a dispassionate dis-passionate discussion of campaign Issues Is-sues at meetings in those days. If the orator was not howled down by the "butcher boys," he launched into a bitter personal attack upon his opponent, op-ponent, and the stronger language he used, the better his auditors were pleased. When the meetings were over, the "butcher boys" invariably mounted their horses and rode at breakneck speed through the settlement, settle-ment, hurrahing for their candidate and Jeering at his opponent. For many years they held the balance of power in elections, but in later years the practice of carrying knifes was frowned upon. However, the same class of voters survived under equally pretentious names, such as the "barefooted "bare-footed boys" and the "huge-pawed boys," until the idea of physical force dominating elections waned and the "butcher boys" and their ilk gradually gradual-ly disappeared. Those were the "good old days" about which we hear so much, the halcyon days of the past, the passing of which the sentimentalists sentimental-ists so often mourn. Those who de plore the strong-arm methods used at the polls in some of the big cities of today might remember the "butcher boys" of the "good old days." Even In those days, when Americans Amer-icans are supposed to have taken their politics seriously, it often required re-quired a special effort to "get out the vote." From the state of Missouri comes an amusing story, printed In a recent issue of the Kansas City Star, illustrative of that point: "The new rules and regulations about maklns life easier for the voters have taken all the joy out of politics, and made it ns tame and Innocent as a game of croquet," grumbled the veteran vet-eran politician, filling his odoriferous corncob with natural leaf. He was talking to some of the youngsters on one of the county committees who had asked him for a few pointers out of tlie depths of his long and somewhat strenuous experience as a party leader. "Votes Is votes, and so's you get 'em it's nobody's business how," the campaigner cam-paigner went on. "In the days when you had to do some real 'lectioneering to get an ofllce some giants were developed. de-veloped. Men who knew what they wanted and how to get It. "Everybody in the county did all their voting at the county seat In tho forties the 'Fabulous Forties,' aa some writer In the Saturday Evening Post lias set It down. If you couldn't get to the county seat you couldn't vote. No absentee votes were counted then. Some times the polls were kept open two or three days. You learned how New York went about a week after the election or maybe two weeks. Those good old days! "Peter Marburry was standing for the legislature from Macon county. Peter and Tom Dickson, his right-hand man, counted noses, and figured that when about all who could get to Bloomington, the county seat, had voted, he would be about fifty-seven shy of beating his opponent. " 'There's about sixty votes over In Ten Mile and Round Grove townships," said Dickson. " 'Yes,' says the chief, 'but they might r.B well be at the North pole. They'll never walk thirty miles and back just for the fun of voting.' "'They might If they had shoes.'" "'Eh?' from Marburry, who began to wake up. " 'You buy a barrel of those red bro-gans bro-gans at Rod Shacklef ord's store and I believe I can account for most of thall vote.' "No sooner said than done. Dickson put the red shoes in sacks and threw 'em across two horses. The road was nothing but a trail then. Shoes of an sort were a luxury. When Dickson got out among the settlers they were as tickled as children to see those red shoes. When a man tried on a pair and they fit, Dickson said: " 'Think you could walk to Bloomington Bloom-ington In those shoes?' "'Could I? Just try me!' "'All right. Let's go to town and those shoes are yours.' "Santa Claus had come out of the wilderness. Before long Dtckson had men following him around wanting to take on that shoe proposition. Sixty pair quickly found owners, and a lame man agreed to go to the county seat If he could ride the horse. "As they neared town one of the settlers set-tlers casually asked: " 'By the way, who'd be a good man to vote for representative?' " 'You might try Marburry,' Dickson suggested. 'Ho sent me out to give you those shoes.' "It was no trouble. Every man voted according to the dictates of his conscience con-science and tho joy over possessing a real pair of red shoes. Marburry was triumphantly elected by his brogan brigade. "That was good politics, and the people patted Dickson on -the back for being so wise In 'lectioneering for his man." The veteran paused to knoc-k the ashes out of his pipe preparatory to reloading. "I tell you, fellers," -he declared, "if you want to win in politics you got to think Sneeches don't maka no votes It takes headwork." Heavy campaign expenditures Id two states this year have brought to the fore again the discussion of proper and improper use of money in politics. pol-itics. As usual, when this or any other evidence of corruption In modern mod-ern politics comes up, there are those who shake a mournful head and murmur, mur-mur, "It wasu't like this in tlie good old days." But wasn't It? If we may I Judge from the testimony of con- j temporary authorities, politics was I more corrupt a hundred years ago i than it lias ever been since. Take the j case of Illinois, for Instance, Illinois which had its Senator Lorlmer and now shares with Pennsylvania gen- j eral criticism for excessive campaign expenditures. Governor Ford Is authority au-thority for the statement, that "during "dur-ing the period of 12 years (1S23-1S40) neither the people nor their public servants ever dreamed that govern-ment govern-ment might be made the instrument j to accomplish a higher destiny for tho ; people" and that the professional ' politicians enjoyed an unparalleled , reign of graft. "Good old days"? Why not the "bad old days"? j |