y&i mww \ i j \v O y 7f*/r^? —IA'A/YTED £>OG<s C/WCrtTW/TH A SOFT CL/ATA/tf ROPE "REFORMED" REFORMER in politics is A sometimes a dyspeptic, but not always. He is also £ lives entirely impersonal $ $ and unselfish. But not al ways. And reform politics may be •classed as of two kinds the counter foil variety and the genuine. Independent, or reform movements 5n political campaigns, are intended to tie the breaking away of members of "the old parties and a consolidation of these "bolters' for the purpose of -electing a ticket which is supposed to be better than either of the old-line party tickets. Sometimes an inde pendent movement means this Some limes it means that a Democrat or a Republican who has failed of the regu lar party nomination has v becn per suaded to make* the race on the ground that he has been deprived of the nomination by unfair means. But 'the basic element of independent movements is always a claim toward u bettering of conditions, and there fore arguing a reform, politically. Then there i 3 usually the Prohibi tion movement to be reckoned with, -and this is strictly founded on reform principles. Or ihere may be an edu cational feature in the campaign which will prove to carry the balance of power as to votes, and which may toe adopted in the platform of either •of the parties, with a view to secure votes for (he whole ticket. Politics is largely a game of expedients, and ns the only things that count, in the last, analysis, a>-.j the votes, it follows, therefore, as the night the day, that votes are the prime necessities, and any expedient to catch votes is consid ered justifiable. Other phases of reform politics may •enter particularly into national cam ;iaigns, and may influence local condi tions enough to swing victory to a side which may be weaker on paper •than Its antagonist. in every large city and noticeably In my own city. 1 found two well de fined types of the political reformers, Willi a smattering also of what were known as "cr.inks," "dreamers" and "visionaries." One of the two types referred to was the hard-headed citi zen who, regardless of ridicule and dis co,, ragement, i-ifadily set himself to work to better the class of official selection. Without caring anything for party affiliations, liti associated with organizations which "went after" weak or unfit candidates, and supported and encouraged good candi iates for all offices, whether state, •county or municipal. This class of men accomplished, with the aid of decent politicians, a great deal of good. In the beginning, iikc all ifien actuated by really high motives, they were derided and lam pooned, and their lot, like the police man's, was not a happy one. But as time went on 'hey became a force which had to »e reckoned with, oven by Hie most ha uened of the "bosses," •xcepting in what may be classed as strictly "saloon wards." In the saloon wards, where the al dermen for instance, were saloonkeep ers, or where the saloon influence pre dominated overwhelmingly, the "boss es" did not mind reform politics any more than a rhinoceros would mind »be bite of a mosquito. I never could understand, knowing the absolute hopelessness of it, why the reformers would sometimes try to "break into" such a ward in an aldermanic cam paign. I remember very well the oc casion of a gentleman calling on me and endeavoring to enlist my services as a speaker in a campaign of this *ort. ■yon know the disgraceful condi tions obtaining in that ward?" he asked, inquiringly. 'Oh. yes," was my answer. "Weil, we want to put up a candi date for alderman there and see if we can't arouse the better element there. We want togo in and fight the saloons to a finish," was his next remark. "Whose finish?" said I. "Oh, we will probably be beaten," he admitted, "but we want to give them a campaign c>f education and en lightenment. What that ward needs, what every ward needs, is a chance to have its higher nature aroused. What they want, I'm convinced, is more op portunity to sea the light." "My friend," was my reply, "I've traveled some in that ward. What they want there is not more light, but more beer." Yet, despite sometimes misdirected energy, these men and their associa tions did much In making political conditions better. For that they de serve substantia] credit. So long as they were absolutely non-partisan they wielded considerable influence, and properly, but on occasion they allowed prejudice to bias them and did injus tice to good men. The other type of well-known re former was the one who continually headed "reform" movements. Ho might he a candidate for alderman, or the legislature, or congress. But wher ever there was a "kick" coming, and a meeting advertised to protest, or or ganize, this class would he on hand early and get the chairmanship of the meeting, usually coming out in a "ringing" spec-ch of denunciation against the infamy which the citizens had met to combat. This put the re former "next" if it was a proposition to nominate an opposition candidate, and he oftec <rc K away with the nomi nation. Or, if he was a professional man, a lawyer, a doctor, or a real es tate man, even, it was a pretty fair ad vertisement, wasn't it? Not so "poor" to have your picture in the paper next day, with a lons account of you, your business and your speech, etc. Some thing that would have cost you coin to have in the papers, and you got it for nothing. And then the reporters out to interview you and quite a rack et started about you. And in every large city I suppose there are only a few bright promoters like that standing around waiting to sell a gold brick or two. Some of these "reformers" were pretty fierce when they happened to land in an office. A few of them were swept into the city council astride the top of a wave of "popular indignation" and they were the huugry boys, some of them. They were simply on the qui vive to bo "approached." And when they were tempted they fell swiftly and without a sound. Their motto was that of the Hon. Webster Flanagan, with a different interpreta CAMERON COUNTY PRESS. THURSDAY OCTOBER 8, 1908. tion. "What are we here for?" was their slogan, and they went after fran chise "divvies" or any other "divvies" like a terrier after a rat. Real reforms were not so elaborate ly advertised as the sham ones; the louder the "holler" about the reform, the less genuine reform was in sight. And then there were the "fad" reform ers, going about seeking what they might devour In the shape of having unmuzzled dogs caught with a soft curtain rope instead of a wire noose, cab-horses provided with seats while waiting for a fare, the distribution of copies of Browning's poems to cross ing policemen, or some such similar projects. . There are sometimes uneasy people in every community who want to run the rest of their neighbors; the bigger the community the greater they are liable to be in number. And in a city of two millions of inhabitants they are sure to be found. They haunt the gal lery in the council chamber of the city, they inf.?st the mayor's office, t,hey surge in with the crowds having hearings in the public offices in the city halls, and whenever they have no connection whatever. Substantial reforms are of slow growth. It took over 20 years' steady work to drive the infamous justice of the peace system out of Cook county. Some notable reforn' rs went along very well for H tlnir until they got so prominent that they were offered a high-salaried political position. And then they dropped practically from sight as reformers and reappeared as pay roll artists. This caused at times a revulsion of feeling among the re formers at heart, but they did not let a little thing like that entirely discour age them. I got so that 1 could usually "spot" a reformer as far as I could see him. The majority of reformers are very busy walkers and talkers. They are not confined to one nationality, al though I should judge that the bulk of them are Americans. They all have "missions." If you agree with them, and do everything they ask, you are "a patriot." If you disagree with some of them in any way, shape or manner, you are either a scoundrel or without mental balance. Hut to be "a patriot" in the eyes of those who were fanati cal you must accede to their demands. "Patriots," said Sir Robert Peel, "they spring up like mushrooms in the night; I can make 50 patriots in a single hour; 1 have only to refuse some unreasonable or absurd request, when tip starts a patriot." There were a number of women re formers, too, during my political years and they were invariably enlisted on some moral question, as they looked at it, tobacco, whisky, child labor, the bettering of conditions for women, the saving of girls, etc. They were very much in earnest, faithful and enthusi astic to their ideals. Occasionally they succeeded, and at least, they never seemed discouraged, it. is to the credit of politicians in general, that they were listened to with perfect respect, even when it was apparent that conditions made it an absolute waste of time to discuss the questions. Sometimes an ordinance barred their way; at other times a stale law, or possibly the con stitution of the United States itself was a stumbling-block, but they were heard with patience. Reform politics during my day con cerned itself most particularly in re habilitating the personnel of the citj council. In this it met with substan ial success, and it waa the one excep tion to perennial reform which was genuine. Not that the reformers did not occasionally have "an ax to grind," but that, in the main, they aided the best candidates. liut at times they saddled themselves with some bogus reformer and jammed him through at the polls, felicitating themselves that they had "put another over the political plate" when they had in reality only added a "cheap grafter" to the city's pay roll. When this happened it made the regulation, gilt-edged grafters in the council indignant. Not that the "re former" should turn out to be "look ing for something," but that he so often took anything he could get. This made trade bad, for it scaled prices and such a re''niit to the ranks of cor rupt'on causeu a "bear" market in votes. A cheap scoundrel earned just as much contempt in the council as an overcoat thief earns from a railroad manipulator of stocks. I recollect the arraignment that one of the "regu lars" gave one of these easily pur chased "reformers." Said the "regular," puffing slowly at a big black cigar, the little finger of his left, hand adorned with a four hun dred dollar "shiner," and his shirt front sporting its mate, presented by his admiring "constits:" "I reckon I size that guy up right, at the start. I tell 'em I seen what kind of a lobster he is, the first flop of the box. I tell 'em, you watch him; he's no reformer, and he's no thor oughbred. He blows up in the stretch the first, time they're off at the gut. An', say! Did he? Well, he's elected all right, and he goes over an' hooks lip with the geezeer in the next ward that went in the same time he goes in. Them two frames up and goes out for the stuff. I)o they get it? Yes. they get it.and how much? Say, on the level now, on the square, they split three hundred between 'em for a little thing they pull off. A hundred and fifty apiece, see?" lie paused and took a fresh puff at his cigar, and resumed: "Why, if any cheap stiff 'd come to me and try to insult me with less than SSOO I'd throw the skate out of my office." And th« end of his cigar glowed with righteous indignation. (Copyright, by .Joseph B. Bowles.) Not Altogether Painless. Patience—ls that dentist's methods painless? Patrice—Not all of them. He has a phonograph in his offlc-s! —'Yonken Statesman. S The Place to Buj Cheap S ) J. F. PARSONS' ? Itejn, fIGIILI | CURES? Irheumatismi BLUMBAGO, SCUTICfiI INEUR&LGI& and! ■KIDNEY TROUBLEH H olMSf™ JSS3S?I&d Mlto£u* W P pJHI exwrV^ylt $ stance and removing it from ibe system, jfe DR. S. D. 3LAFID || I Of Brevrton, G»., writes: I d3gSK3fSSS3KS|; jFREEi jwf aieohoC'laudanum, °anu' cltior similar 1 { ■ Ingredients. ■ LarmNli*Bottle, "S.DROPS"(800Do«M) » • 1.00. i'w Bllt b7 Uru(|l>t«. H ■ BWANiON IKEOMATIB CURE COMPABY, g | H Ucpt. 80. 140 Lake Strut, Chloago. By TTHm <n* IfAMaM Gives you the reading matter ia a InlOWntS mUfIV" Which you have the greatest in - ■ ' .... terest —the home news. Its»very issue will prove a welcome visitor to every member of the family- It should head your list of newspaper and periodical subscriptions. G.SCHMIDT'S/ — HEADQUARTERS FOR ||p*,w~- FRESH BREAD, ll popular ""-si,.. % ißaljery, . ' CONFECTIONERY Daily D©livery. Allordern given prompt and skillful attentioo. \ Enlarging Your Business If you are in annually, and then carefully business and you note the effect it has in in« want to make creasing your volume of busi- WH9 raore money you ness; whether a 10, 20 or 30 Jvr Jpf w reac * every P er cent increase. If yoU iygßSplpr word we have to watch this gain from year to say. Are you y° u will become intensely in« MS RM spending your terested in your advertising, mJ HH money for ad- and how you can make it eu fif fH vertising in hap- large your business. M tei hazard fashion If you try this method we £$ as if intended believe you will not want to for charity, or do you adver- let a single issue of this paper tise for direct results? goto press without something 1 Did you ever stop to think from your store. how your advertising can be will be pleased to hav« made a source of profit to y° u ca " on us > and we will you, and how its value can be take pleasure in explaining measured in dollars and our annual I.on tract for so cents. If you have not, you many inches, and how it can be are throwing money away. used in whatever amount that Advertising is a modern «eems necessary to you. business necessity, but must If you can sell goods over be conducted on business the counter we can also show principles. If you are not you why this paper will best satisfied with your advertising serve j our interests when you you should set aside a certain want to reach the people of amount of money to be spent this community. JOB PRINTING can do that class just a little cheaper than the other fellow. Wedding invitations, letter heads, bill heads, sale bills, statements, dodgers, cards, etc., all receive the same careful treatment —just a little better than seems necessary. Prompt delivery always. if you are a business man, did you ever think of the field of opportunity that advertis ing opens to you? There is almost no limit to the possi bilities of your business if you study how to turn trade into your store. If you are not get ting your share of the business of your community there's a reason. People go where they arc attracted where they know what they can get and how much it is sold for. If you make direct statements in your advertising see to it that you arc able to fulfill every promise you make. You will add to your business reputa tion and hold your customers. It will not cost as much to run your ad in this paper as you think. It is the persistent ad vert is -r who gets there. Have something in the paper every issue, no matter how small. We will be pleased to quote you our advertising rates, par- I ticularly on the year's busi ness. J .. 1 MAKE YOUJri Arfi^AJL to the public through the columns of this paper. JET*- With every issue it carries WM * its message into the homes & and lives of the people. Your competitor has his store news in this issue. Why don't you have yours? Don't blame the people for flocking to his store. They know what he has. 3
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers