EDITORIALS
Patronage and Party Solidarity "To use patronage as a weapon in a struggle of convictions and ideas; to punish men who honestly believe certain things essential to Republican strength and success...
...If he will take with strong hand the leadership of the overwhelming progressive sentiment of the country nothing can resist him...
...The meat strikers may as well make it "for keeps...
...0. S." We have to be better than our fathers...
...guide to a study of this important subject we have seen...
...Such is the prelude to a little booklet on "Concentrated Wealth," which is Number 6 in Studies in American Social Conditions edited by Richard Henry Edwards...
...To those seasoned in political contests, there should be a degree of humor in the situation, if it did not disclose that the President, although he may hold views somewhat in advance of the old school politicians, is influenced by their standards of party discipline and their ideals of party solidarity...
...the twentieth century motto ONCE MORE the people of a sinking ship have been saved by the mystic ether-waves of the wireless...
...To the Interests, party solidarity today signifies an organization which they control,—practically the joint solidarity of leadership in both parties...
...Once there was no help save within the circle swept by the eve...
...It is a conviction...
...Out into the very element whose rage has brought death near, goes the call for help...
...In fact, the "hold up" of insurgent recommendations for appointments began immediately after the Progressives broke into open opposition to Cannon and the rules early in the extra session...
...Even though it be not reflected in a count of the votes in the Senate and House, it is strong enough in the nation to compel a hostile leadership and a reluctant majority in Congress to yield, if the President marks out and follows unswervingly the direct pathway to sound legislation in the public interest...
...The senses are supplemented by the mysterious ether which is too elusive for them...
...4. The Prevention by Society of Excessive Concentration...
...And it is idle for the President to presume that he can secure adherence from the progressive ranks for any policies, or support for any legislation reactionary in its character for the sole purpose of party solidarity...
...It is all-powerful...
...2. How the Great Fortunes Have been Made...
...Certain progressive congressmen were disciplined in the appointment of supervisors of census shortly after the adjournment of that session...
...It governs the location and control of railroads...
...The trust is putting the meat in cold storage and will dole it out to meat-eaters in future years—along with those eggs that were stored in the year of the big wind...
...The great unorganized American people are pitted against this centralized power...
...This end can never be attained through a cspartnership with the representatives of Interests, whose very existence depends upon resisting every advance of the progressive movement...
...R. H. Edwards at Madison, Wis...
...These were not cases of "preserving the status quo...
...This is most likely to occur when the administration finds its course the subject of sharp criticism such as the editorial in the Record-Herald above quoted...
...Representatives who had maintained the right to vote their convictions and express their views respecting measures and policies were plainly and authoritatively informed that because they were insurgents their recommendations, filed months before, were pigeonholed...
...Our consciences have been, equipped with the wireless, and the penalty of the new possession is that we must remedy evil or steel ourselves against its persistent "S...
...concentrated wealth" "The CONCENTRATION of wealth has become the mightiest undercurrent of our national life...
...Their recommendations for postoffice and other federal appointments had been "preserved in status quo" th?.t is, "held up" by the President, ever since the tariff struggle...
...The signal flapping from the mast, the rocket flaming on high, the distress gun fired desperately as the rail went under—these used to be the limits of the efforts of despair for those who went down to the sea in ships...
...The distresses we can neither see nor hear must call upon us as authoritatively as the gross offense to humanity that shocks the senses by its imperative nearness...
...or it will inevitably be less...
...If he should submit an administration bill that is wholly in the public interest the Progressives will support such bill...
...proposed solutions, there are listt| on: 1. Philanthropy...
...This was notably true of the three Wisconsin districts where Republican members had voted against the tariff bill...
...It warps the press...
...4. The Influence of Great Fortunes in Domestic and Social Life...
...THE ABOVE is taken from an editorial appearing in the Chicago Record-Herald on the morning of January 6. In the afternoon of that same day the Honorable Victor Rosewater, Republican National Committeeman from Nebraska, visited the White House, and when he came forth gave out an "authorized interview" from which the following is taken: "The President says he has not turned down recommendations of Insurgent Congressman, but is simply preserving the status quo to impress upon them their obligations...
...Public opinion is aroused...
...3. How the Great Fortunes Are Being Spent...
...If it is a bad measure, the Progressives will oppose it...
...His services to the people of Minnesota as regent of the state university and as President of the State Forestry Board, were notable for the breadth of vision and the understanding of public interest they revealed...
...The President and his advisors are entitled to know that this will not make the slightest difference in the action of progressive senators and representatives upon the President's policies or any of his measures...
...It affects the fiber of churches, colleges and homes, and it moulds the national ideal...
...In their unequal struggle they need the help of the President to lead them in their fight against solidarity...
...Intimations are given from time to time that the severity of the discipline may be relaxed in some cases...
...Nevel mind, Uncle Joe: there's the political cold storage...
...a good citizen gone IN THE death of Sidney M. Owen, Minnesota—and the whole nation as well—has lost an able champion of good government and social betterment...
...It is a general policy,—with shifty variations...
...Weak men may be frightened by the party lash...
...This he can do without compromising with the Interests or their representatives...
...3. Arrestive Taxation, a. Income tax, b. Inheritance tax...
...It sweeps into the hands of a few the direction of industry...
...Owen contributed in no small measure to the advancement of democratic ideals and measures...
...which was picked by the Alamo on February 4. These occurrences are becoming almost common, but they must have become still more familiar ere they cease to be to most of us a sort of miracle...
...The ocean is ceasing to be the grim solitude that the seaman has always known...
...The public is entitled to know that Republicans who are faithfully representing public interest are discriminated against...
...The list of books and articles cited have been admirably selected to cover the following: 1. Facts about American Millionaires: Statistics and Comparisons...
...It is well to have this patronage matter understood...
...It de-termines the development of natural resources...
...In other words, they will neither be coerced into support of bills, irritated into opposing anything in the public interest, or silenced in the free expression of their opinions of the measures, the policies or the acts of the administration by any course which the President may pursue regarding patronage...
...Also from time to time half denials of this abuse of the appointing power are given out from the White House office...
...7. The Influence if Great Fortunes Upon our Demo-| cratic Ideals...
...We must know that misery, whether near or remote, has been elim-inated from society, before we can turn in and sleep, lulled by the "All's well...
...Abuse of power may retard, but it cannot suppress a movement based on vital principles...
...of the watchman...
...The support of the progressives for progressive legislation, will be given without reference to patronage or favors of any sort...
...new men may be alarmed at the idea of party conflict, but in the end men of conviction are fortified...
...When the issues are made up, as they will be in the next political campaign, more clearly than at any time since the War, it will be demonstrated that men's records, not their control of political-appointments, will determine the result...
...S.O.S...
...That support will be accorded on conviction...
...Public opinion is educated, and the issue is strengthened and carried forward with increased momentum...
...As editor of Farm, Stock and Home, Mr...
...Speaker Cannon refuses to eat his crow—at present...
...It works beneath the forms of gov-erment...
...If it is partly good and partly bad, the Progressives will strive to perfect it...
...The Kentucky would have carried her fifty souls to the wreck-strewn bottom off Hatteras, had it not been for the initialed sentence "Send out succor...
...When Congress met in December the attitude of the administration against the Progressives was more pronounced and definite...
...He was always the implacable foe of political dishonesty and misrepresentation...
...It regulates the standard of liv-ing for rich and for poor...
...2. Righteousness in Methods of Accumulation...
...The new sensitiveness makes that certain...
...failing in that they will endeavor to frame and secure the adoption of a good substitute in its stead...
...to punish men who honestly believe certain things essential to Republican strength and success by withholding from them the loaves and fishes of patronage would be so petty and so silly that no administration could survive the ridicule, the scorn, the contempt that such scandalous tactics, such peanut politics would provoke...
...The candidates endorsed by the representatives were rejected and the President rebuked the Congressmen by appointing supervisors of the census hostile to the progressive congressmen in these districts...
...This policy of "preserving the status quo" or holding up progressive patronage is not confined to the progressives of one state...
...It is the best...
...All this is changed...
...If need be, the bird will keep a few months...
...That President Taft or any member of his cabinet should refuse to follow in the usual way, recommendations for appointments of postmasters, census supervisors, and other federal officials, because progressive senators and representatives opposed Cannon for Speaker, voted against the Aldrich Tariff Bill and denounced it before and after its passage, would be incapable of belief, if there were not indisputable proof such as we have in Wisconsin and other states...
...and the solutions that have been proposed to change the existing order...
...The thing that we cannot hear nor see nor in any way apprehend, carries our messages and binds us together in a world where "Send Out Succor" is the most potent of expressions...
...This study may be secured at the nominal price of ten cents, plus two cents to cover postage, from Mr...
...Our unselfishness must be greater than our fathers...
...And the President can secure progressive legislation that is worth while...
...A broader knowledge has perfected a more subtle appeal...
...any law for postal savings banks so framed that the deposits shall be secured to the local banks, state as well as national, or indeed any other legislation which effects a limitation on the increasing power of Wall Street...
...We recommend it highly to any person who is seeking light on the sources, growth and influence of the enorm-ous American fortunes...
...6. The Influence of Great Fortunes in Politics...
...The System is too deeply entrenched to allow to pass just for the asking, any railroad legislation of real value to the people, any conservation law that will give the public control of the great coal fields, water power sites and phosphate lands...
...or far worse...
...To senators and representatives classed as insurgents, the Rosewater interview was not news...
...If the President continues to place compromise legislation and party solidarity above all else, he will fail in results as to other measures, just as he failed in the tariff...
...And this is the watchword of the twentieth century...
...This is manifestly for the purpose of testing the quality of the Progressive and the strength of his convictions...
...Although designed primarily for use in social problems groups, still it may also be used for personal study...
...The use of patronage as a reward for the support of administration policies or as a punishment for independent thinking and voting on legislation, is a survival of the old discredited spoils system, which an enlightened public sentiment will not sustain...
...5. The Influence off Great Fortunes in Business...
...Popular recognition of the Civil Service principle makes an unseemly struggle over appointments to office such as occurred between Conklin and President Garfield altogether impossible in this day...
...And to cover...
...It curbs or liberates commerce...
Vol. 2 • February 1910 • No. 7
