Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 30, 1903, Page 23

Automatonism in Politics 10 HAS not seen and admired the discipline of soldiers? Their un- questioning obedience to orders; their unswerving loyalty to their commanders and their cause; thefr instant readiness to perform difficult and dangerous tasks at a simple word of command? They have excited and held our respect and admiration and enthusiasm be- cause they have subordinated the individual to the orgnnization and worked out results that would have been impossible otherwise. The same methods In later years have been applied to political warfare. The po- litheal machine is organized on the principle of the subordination of the individual to the will of the leader or “bess.” Private judgmert is submerged in that of the boss. Waeorkers are automatens, and regarded as 80 many soldiers in the ranks, so many Kkeys on the board, useless unless ready to give ingtant and unthinking response. This principle works well and for excel- lent results in the military service, beeause it is organized by the government itself and for public ends. It works out far differently and mest disastrousliy when applied to the civil service by those not necessarily a part of it and for private ends. The organization of civil servants on the same basis as military rervants, by the government and for the public benefit, ts one thing: their organization by bosses for their own benefit is quite another and has re- sulted in a prostitution of the public welfare to private interests and a subordi- nation of the ends to the means. In short, it has brought about a condition of affairs where the organization is made the end rather than as a means to an end. It has made the control of unscrupulous and selfish “bosses’” possible. The servant has beeome the master. The growth of the maechine in power and Inffrerrce has made automatonism politics possible. Men elected or appointed to serve the people are constantly found to be voting How Did Life Begin on Earth? INTELLIGENT eyes watch the earth from any distant planet they must gain their direct knowl- edge, first of all, through the light that the earth planet sends to them. The great mass of this light is, of course, reflected sunlight. But the earth also sends out a light from the side that is turned from the sun, when it is not flluminated cven by the'moon. This is light of two kinds: First, light crused by great mechanical ecauses, such as Northern Lights, lightnings, star show- ers and the red gleams of active volcanoes. The secomd sort of light is more mysteri- ous. It is light that depends on the exis- tence of organic creatures. The distant observer might perceive the great cities of man as faint misty stars— the work of man, the height of all organic development on earth. But long before that he would probably have seen some- thing more remarkable. He would have seen a diffused pale light, phosphorescent, hovering over vast areas. What causes these fireworks? Single-celled things —uni-cells, of the order of the atoms of whieh, muecus, myriads, The distant observer, then, would see the works of the two great opposites of world- life, This kingdom of the minute, the kingdom of the bacillus, Is truly great enough to make its effects seea afar through the uni- verse. Like a sandstorm that threatems to bury mankind, it sEweeps over humanity. And in this bacillus are traits that point to a life form beyond the limits that are drawn on earth for other forms of life. Everywhere we see the true vegetable, the true animal life, Hmited to certain grades of temperature. In the terrible polar eold life gradually ceases, In boil- ing water life ends. While the earth still was red hot in its interior, we picture life as absent from it, In the great glacial periods, it must have been destroyed in great areas of the earth, In the icy universe, in the star spaces, or on a planet for which no sun shines, we imagine again that life is wholly ex- tinct, Yet eertain bacilli withstand intense tem- reratures, high and low; temperatures that destroy the vital albumen entirely, This faet furnishes much food for thought. Involuntarily we are led to eon- nact it with the primeval existence of these uni-cells. The entire world of plants and animals shows a one-sided adaptation to certain conditions, with death as the result of any violent change. But the tough baecillus faces us like an arch-form of life that is far superior to these limits. It enables us to imagine a life that does not know any Hmits of temperature at all. This woulkl be a life corresponding to the life speculated em by Fechtner, who advanced the idea of an existence that has adapted itself through the eons to all the changes of temperatures and is as eternal ereatures the ocean singly only microscopical bits of illumine the oceans by their contrary to the wishes of the people. Val- uable franchises are given away and im- portant concessions voted to favored cor- porations in the face of public-spirited op- position. Why is this so? Because the so- called representatives of the people are automatons, respomsive te the commands, or “orders’” of the bess. They owe their efection to the boss and their re-election depends upon his faver, so they look to him first. One only has to observe the development of latter day politics in New York under Tammany and in Pennsylvania under Quay to be struck by the subserviency of the in- dividual to the organisation. On the plea that method and organization are essen- tial means to success, as every one must admit, they have been made the ends striven for, a most palpable peryversion. “Men whe will take orders,” are chosenm for respomsible positions and conscquently the public welfare receives secondary and incidental consideration. Personal inde- pendenee of judgment is distinetly at a dis- count. The man whe thinks for himself is liable to act on his own judgment and he cannot be depended upon to do the bidding of the bess. Therefore In the process of machine development he fs eliminated from the councils of the organization. Occasionally a candidate of independent proclivities is taken up because he has proven himself to be strong with the peo- ple, especially when the latter manifest an unexpected Interest in public affairs; or he may slip into office as an unknown quan- tity. The selection of Theodore Roosevelt as the republiean gubernatorfal candidate in New York in 1888 is an example of the former class as was the nomination of John Weaver by the republicans for the mayor- alty of Philadelphia in 1902. Roesevelt had come home from the Spanish war with a great prestige added to his already brilliant record as a civilian and as a faithful and honest official. The republican organiza- as the motion that is the cause warmth. The bacillus of today that can withstand 130 degrees Celsius of cold may be capable of existence in the ever-frozen space of the universe even now—the *“‘universe cold"™ that rules between the planets, between the solar systems and that lies between us and the moon, between us and Mars, and between the sun and its red double star, Such a bacillus gives point to the theory of Humboldt that life never began on earth through birth on earth, but that it reiched this planet through some agency that brought it out of the universe in the right moment, when the cooling earth offered the proper conditions. Tle suggested that such an agency might have been a meteoric stone, carry- ing the primeval germ of life in a fissure. We need not fall back on the meteoric stone. We have it in the presence of ba- cilli that can bear 100 degrees Celsius and more of cold. We might ask if the earth in its daring flight around the sun does not at times cut through cosmiec swarms of bacilli as it cuts through meteoric swarms? If the astron- omers of the Middle Ages who used to hold that all great comets brought pestilences of all tion wanted just such a man with whom to win the then pending campaign The man and the hour arrived together. So with John Weaver. Philadelphla had beem 80 mismanaged and her pelitics =0 cor- rupted under the Ashbridge regime that the people were on the eve of revolt. A mayoraity election was approaching and a man of Integrity and character was nceded with whom to win, and Weaver was chosen. In the case of Contreller Coler of New York, he was given the nominatien as the representative of the Brooklyn democ- racy. Boss Mecl.aughlin vouched for his regularity. Boss Croker accepted him oa the faith and credit of his brother Bo s" recommendation. They both made one of those mistakes that shrewd polfticians wil make and the publie was benefited. Unfortunately under econditiens as they have existed such must have been the ex- ceptions, because the voters have been negligent concerning men and me su:es political, and only occasionally vigilant. If they were always alert the results would be reversed. A revival of civil righteouc- mess is a good thing In its way; a per- sistence in civie righteousness is much bot- ter. All tde frequently voters allow their In- dignation to run I1ts course; or they be ome immersed in other matters and forzet their opposition; or they become appressed with the idea that it takes meore time and troulie than they can afford to give; or they may hesitate to offend a powerful political friend; or they may feel that op- position carried too far will result in some friend or relative losing his place. It may be one or all of these reasons operating together, The practical politiclan knows this all in advance, and he takes his chance: Ha knows of course that the sleeping lion of publie opinion will be awakened some time; but he feels sure that he will not stay awake long. He takes his chances as to the time of the awakening and its dura- to the earth, had been in possession of our present knowledge of bacilli, they might well have been led to imagine that the comet’s tail carried the bacilli of the pest and rained them down on the unlucky earth. These are dreams. Yet it {s undeniable that there is something weird about the properties of bacilli, something that points at one and the same time to the oldest ex- istence on earth and to the last living thing, man. Max Schultze counted 1,500,000 1ime shells of certain uni-cells in thirty grammes of sand. Now, remind yourself that thou- sands of square miles of the oceans are one single, compact layer of gray mud, and that this gray mud consists practieally of nothing except such shells. The whole bottom of the North Atlantic ocean from Greenland to the Azores fs so formed. It is the so-called eable plateau, and over its entire breadth, from the Brit- ish to the American coast, lies this mud. We marvel at the Cheops pyramid as a gigantic achievement of man. Yet long be- fore man upreared this royal mountain, uni- cells made the stone that was used by man afterward. They did not merely furnish material Convict Life in the South UBLICATION of stories of Srutal whippings at southern convict camps brings forth a statement from a trustworthy citizen of St. Paul, an ex-railroad man, who, through the misfortune of becoming stranded in Loulsville, used his union card AS a means of obtaining transportation to Meridian, Miss., where his brother resided ot the time. He was dragged from the engine tender at Links depot, Nashville, and thrown inte prison. His trial took place in the rear of a drug store at 10:30 o'clock on the night of his arrest, where some one fined him to the extent of twen- ty-four days at the eounty road workhouse, His story tells of being shackled to a huge negro, chased by ferocious dogs, foereed to work twelve hours a day ox the road, sleep naked in a reeking shack, and compelled to bathe in a swamp. Entering the shack the prisoners began disrobing, the weather being extremely hot, amd presently all were naked, save the trousers leg which protected thelr bare skin from the shaeckle. Then, arranged in a semi-circle before the shack, the prisomers were served with all the meat and corn bread they would eat. The newcomers devoured the fat perk and soggy corn bread with half-starved impatienece, but after six meals on the same greasy, sour diet, they turned sick at the sight and smell of the stuff and re- fused to eat it. Thus they went practically without feod. The march was then taken up to the melody of the rich negro voices, the crew marching out onto the county pike, there to labor as only a convict driver ean make his unfortunate victims laber. When a prisoner reached the workings he positively could not leave the rvad for twelve hours. A white man begged a guard for an opportunity to leave the road. The guard struck him on the neck with a cane. The white man meekly accepted the unjust punishment and waited until the guard was busy whipping a negro at the further end of the lime, when the con- viet suddenly struck his shackle with his hammer and started to run. He went through a burb-wire fence and started through a swampy field A hundred yards from the read he stuck in the mud. The guards did net follow; they leveled their long-barreied revolvers on the fence, took aim and fired shot after shot. The prisoner was struck Im the right hand by one of the bullets. He re- doubled his efforts, and fimally freelag himself from the mud, started for a grave- yard. As he climbed over the fence tne others could hardly repress a cheer, for they thought him gone. Just them a spade flashed In the air and a grave dQigger meounted the fence and informed tbe guards that he had “got’” the conmvict. That night before the conviets entered the shack they were compelled to Wwitness perkaps the most brutal beating a wounded man over received. The conviet uttered not a word, and, after twenty-five lashes had been admir istered, the man was turned over. He was whiie as death and had his mouth full ~f grass and cirt. He had evi- dently reso'vea to dle before he would cry out in azony and had fainted under the terviflc punishment.—Chicago luter-Oceun. By Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Secretary National Municipal League tion. His abllity to judge of these makes or mars him 08 a succes:ful politiclan, The problem of reformers {s to make the people realize what they have often heard, but as often digregarded that “Eternal Vigilanee 1s the Price of Liberty.” It {s equally the price of efficient government. In Greater New York this autumn will be waged a contest of farreaching Impor- tance. It will determine whether the voters of that city are to place their wel- fare of the city above that of their party or whether they will subordinate all el!se to party regularity. The Quays, the Platts, the Crokers and the McLaughlinsg have been made possible because of the indifference and forgetful- ness of the average elector. It is safe to calculate that the machine wins nineteen times out of twenty as an oid politiclan once told me. “Why?" I asked. ‘“‘Because people are tired of being politically vir- tuous."” Qreater New York is to demon- strate at the coming election whether the people of our metropolis have grown tired of “being politically virtuous.” 1If they vote to sustain the fusion movement as repre- sented In the Low administration, with all that it means for improved conditions, hon- est methods and a placing of public inter- est before all else, then a great victory will have been won; a .vietary of far greater importance than that of 1L That was pertly due to a reaction from the excesses of Tammany. A victory In 193 will repre- sent a deliberate choice of the better way; a deliberate intention to persist in the right path; a determination to continue the good work of the last two years. Let every friend of demoeratie govern- ment, and every well wisher of America unite their prayers for a great victory in New York this autumn ro that the shackles of automatonism in that city may be broken and every suporter of the ecause of munieipal betterment inspired to still more persistent effort. Philadelphia, Pa. enough for pyramids. The limestone, into which they finally changed, lies over the whole earth, now as hopeless deserts, then as beautiful Rivieras, as mighty cloud- capped mountains, from the western ocean to the Sahara and across the Caucasus to the Himalayas; yes, across India, Borneo and Java into the Philippines and beyond them over the Pacific ocean. And as the anclent culture built its wonders of pyra- mids from their deposits, so the modern culture has built its Parils, its New York, from the remains of dead uni-cells, Bar- bados is one mass of them. Vast sepul- chres of them are the chalk cliffs that gleam so picturesquely against blue spas. And in this chalk is baked the firestone, flint; the most impertant elemeut In the history of the culture of man. . From this fiint the first man fashioned the first implements and weapons; the spark that was made by it aecidentally in striking it against a plece of iron ore gave him the artificial fire. 8o the uni-cell be- came the veritable Prometheus of human- ity. ‘When man appeared first on the earth in times primeval, he was literally sub- merged In representatiyes of the realin of the single-celled creatures. Svery breath, every drop of water was fllled with them, As a few seattered peaks stick gut of abyssmal seas, so the few sparse types of true plants and animals appeared in the mist of uni-cells. Froin the beginning, the mass of these uné cells met man not as cmemies out ns friends—that is, they did their work with- out considering man, but in a direction that served him. When he Jecame an agricu’. turalist, this benefit increased immeasur- ably, for the bacterfa loosened his earth, helped his plants, and ruled mygsteriously while he plowed and dug. Now, in gray time primeval, long, long befcre man or the thing that was to be- come man, “lfe’’ must have appeared for the first time; In the Cambriam e¢poch, In whase deepest layers we perceive the first fossil remains of the earth's story. All theories unite on the one that the oldest lving things of that time were uni- cells. Whether or net they were uni-collg lke our present bacteria is of comparative- ly little importance. The mala thiug is that they were single-celled things. And it is established, too, how the gath- ering of certain uni-cells into a group first produced the living thing with scparate functions—the cell-communily. ¢ The cell-community wns the firs! great progress, the first great development in the measureless space of time, And through many strange fortunes, by many wild and mysterfous ways, passing through countless shapes, fearfid, horrilila and weird, man, the height of developmon -, emerged from that dhm, forgottem first it . ering of shapeless clumps—-wan, with the centralizing brain that the ecell-crpature plant does not possess at M, that the cel'. crenture has I oaly fuculty dewelopmen:, And yet tiis Busean brata s nothing other than a cetl commanitly n the cells community mau, WILLIAM BOELSCH.