WANTED-MORE THINKER
Knowles, Charles Edwin
Wanted—More Thinkers By CHARLES EDWIN KNOWLES IONCE talked to a man about the importance of requiring the electors to vote upon each office separately instead of providing them with a...
...This is the Intellectual Revolution...
...For example, he must not be influenced wholly by the eloquent words of men seeking office, but must take account of the sources of then campaign fund, note bow they voted in the past upon important measures affecting Special Interests and the public welfare, and observe who are supporting them now...
...Can you define "Cannonism...
...It is not unlikely that in view of the growing insistence upon legislation in the interest of all the people as against legislation in the interest of the few, we shall find many Special Privilege congressmen this year posing as progressives...
...Have you told him how you stand in the matter of "Cannonism...
...Intelligent Voting Needed SOME systems of nominations and election are better than others—just as some systems of book-keeping are better than others—and while it is true that we cannot cure everything by legislation, it is also true that much can be done for the Common Good in that field, and the responsibility is accordingly upon us, as citizens, to work for the establishment of that nominating or electing system which makes public officials the most responsive to the popular will, and for such systems of regulating public utility corporations as seem to be the best...
...When he says he favors direct nominations ask him what he means by direct nominations...
...And how about yourself, gentle reader...
...We must beware of such men this fall...
...the people need to know...
...Have you ever told your congressman what you would like to have him do...
...One of the greatest obstacles to the success of reform movements is this habit on the part of many estimable people of thinking loosely upon vital public questions...
...Did you tell him that conservation was dear to your heart, and what you meant by conservation, or do you know what things are essential to conservation...
...Do you appreciate that the elimination of "Uncle Joe" may not mean the elimination of "Cannonism...
...How many of your acquaintances, for instance, study political and economic problems and write their representatives telling them how they feel about these matters and inquiring where their representatives stand...
...Such votes are mill-stones on the neck of progress...
...NOR does an "education" seem to be a guarantee of thought and activity of a practical kind in civic affairs...
...The people of the United States are on trial...
...Thinkers are wanted to tear down these barriers and drive the enemy—Special Privilege—from the field...
...Yes, a good citizen must be suspicious, my optimistic friend, fcr we are engaged in a war—a war against privilege—a war as important in its results as any that has been fought by pen or sword—and the enemy will not scruple to invoke every advantage...
...Nor should his attention be diverted from flagrant violations of duty by some really good things the candidate has done...
...The battle lines run through every state...
...I suspect it is an old game for the adherents of Privilege to become leaders of a menacing reform movement until such time as they are able— possibly through plausible-appearing but toothless legislation— to bring about re-action...
...When he says he is a Progressive, ask him if he favors the Aldrich-Vreeland Currency law and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill...
...Sometimes sins of omission are as illuminating as those of commission...
...The enemy is behind breastworks of soph-istry, partisanship, sectionalism, prejudice, misinformation...
...When I had finished speaking, he said, "Yes, I believe in direct nominations myself...
...You can help to make that verdict "not guilty...
...Do You Heckle Your Representative...
...La Follette, Cummins, Bristow, Clapp, Garfield, Lindsey and a host of others...
...Voters Must Be Thinkers IN THESE days of still unshackled cunning, a good citizen, as intimated, must be more than a mere voter...
...If necessary, he and his newspapers will steal the livery of Insurgency in which to serve the Devil of Privilege...
...When he says he believes in the publicity of campaign contributions, ask him if he means before or after election...
...Wanted—More Thinkers By CHARLES EDWIN KNOWLES IONCE talked to a man about the importance of requiring the electors to vote upon each office separately instead of providing them with a straight-ticket voting device...
...Join the Minute Men of 1910...
...Did you watch your representative's vote upon the principal tariff schedules during the extra session, to see whether he was acting for the interests of the whole people or for the Special Interests...
...The-.very fear the political bosses show of reformation in the nominating and electing systems ought to be pretty good evidence, even to a dull mind, that legislation can do much toward bettering conditions...
...Ask him if he favors clothing the Tariff Commission with power to subpcena witnesses and examine them under oath...
...If he is to detect the true from the false and help progress, he must be a civic Sherlock Holmes...
...It is also well to note the things a candidate has failed to do...
...Will you be one of the Minute Men of 1910...
...Does he mean state-wide direct nominations with respect to all offices or direct nominations in spots...
...Consequently, many thoughtful votes are annually nullified by the votes of good but shallow-minded people whose idea seems to be that it is a citizen's duty to vote, instead of its being his duty to vote intelligently...
...They are for righteousness in the political and business world but, in effect, they are for it only in the abstract...
...When he says he favors a Tariff Commission ask him if ha believes in a small Commission like the present Tariff Board, with indefinite powers and which may not report directly to Congress, or a large commission specially directed by Congress to investigate all matters pertaining to the tariff and report directly to Congress, instead of only to the President...
...Did you urge your member of Congress last winter to work against the proposal to raise the rates of postage on the magazines, which are doing so much for publicity of thing...
...You can help by enlisting with those who are lighting for trua representative government...
...And in case he voted against the people are you going to take trouble to vote against him this fall and for some genuine progressive in his place...
...AS TO a candidate's position,—make him be specific...
...Who are they...
...The verdict will be guilty or not guilty of the civic "sleeping sickness...
...When he says he believes in making the railroads charge fair rates, ask him if he is in favor of physical valuation of railroad property...
...and at the same time you could probably have some fun with them by inquiring the names of their representatives in the state and national legislatures...
...He must be a thinker...
...Ask some of your acquaintances and see...
...The existence in our midst of so many loose thinkers is bad enough, but they make matters worse by insisting upon voting at the general election...
...Does he mean direct nominations of delegates, or the kind that does away with delegates...
...The moment we bring to their attention some specific remedy, such as simplifying our election or primary system, or physical valuation of railroad property as a necessary basis for determining the reasonableness of rates and the propriety of a given capitalization, they either show their ignorance of the proposition, as the man I have mentioned did, or their ignorance of its value by hurling at us such expressions as "You can't cure everything by legislation," which of course is beside the question, for no sane reformer or revolutionist ever did claim to be able to cure everything by legii-lation...
Vol. 2 • November 1910 • No. 44
