Newspapers / Everything (Greensboro, N.C.) / Nov. 11, 1916, edition 1 / Page 2
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mm. 'it! Is PAGE TWO '; Politics And Politicians. A great political campaign lile the one just closing is a distinct and important chapter added to history. There are influences in such a contest that touch the fundamental facts of government., and that reach forward to times and problems of which people now living can have no conception. When we elect a Presi dent we do something of world-wide and per manent interest, and contribute to the story of civilization and of the progress of nations cer tain material that is in the nature of things gravely and continuously valuable. It would seem to follow that the men engaged prom inently in this sort of history-making should be secure against forgetful ness and retain a definite and denoting relation always to the record of events which they were largely in strumental in bringing about. But in realitv such is not the case. Personal fame fades and disappears, while general facts and results are carefully preserved, and he is an uncommon lv fortunate man in politics whose -name- sur vives after him for a single generation. There have been" not a few men of superior ability and effectiveness in American politics at every period of our national existence men whose 'leadership was absolute and whose popularity 'was unquestioned and complete ;. and yet how many of them are today remem bered in anv true and sound sense? We doubt if the average citizen can give the names of the prominent politicians of any decade back of his personal experience and observation, to say nothing of what they did and in what manner thev impressed themselves upon the affairs of the time. Very few of us could tell on the spur of the moment who have been can didates for President and Vice-President in the various elections since the foundation of the Government ; and certainly it would puzzle even the best posted to name the principal Cabinet officers or ministers to foreign coun tries under the different Administrations. One of the most unmistakable lessons of his tory is that political distinction is a possession of singular uncertainty, and that political suc cess costs more and counts for less than any other in the world. So much depends upon circumstances, upon fluctuations of popular sentiment and accidents of time and place, that the man who follows such a career can never be sure of his footing and never safe as to his calculations. One day he is carried on the shoulders of an admiring constituency, and the next day perhaps he is scourged with curses and burned in effigy. However able and pru dent he may be, he is bound to make mis takes, and'' mistakes in politics are promptly and sharply visited with punishment. When he triumphs he invites envy, and when he is beaten he provokes derision. The power that comes to him when he gets into office is just as apt to prove a detriment as an advantage ; and yet without power he can command no fol lowing and unless he keeps himself in office he loses his connection with the practical side of affairs and passes out: of sight. The man who has made a business of politics foiiany considerable length of time will readily admit that he has not found it satisfactory, and that it would have been better for him if he had. chosen some other occupation. At best, the profit is so unequally proportioned to the eff"t that it does not pay in any respect. The sarfjc .'amount: of labor, care and perseverance applied to ordinary professional pursuits or business enterprises could not fail to yield abundant and gratifying returns. No one knows this better than the man who seeks of fice and wears himself out in soliciting votes and manipulating caucuses and conventions : but it rarely occurs to him to make personal use of. the lesson. Once a politician always a politician is the rule. There seems to be fascination in the matter which the victim is powerless to resist or break away from. The number of instances where men" have volun tarily quit politics is very small : and in every community can be found those who insist upon following that kind of life long after there has ceased to be the vaguest chance for them to derive any benefit from it. There is nothing to be said, of course, against the holding of office per se, nor is participation in politics to be discouraged. It ls-5v.er-v man's right and privilege to accept an official trust: it may indeed become his duty to do so. The case is very different however, when a man sets out to make a trade of office seeking, or when he acquires such a taste for that sort of thing that he is unfitted for any thing else. There are men in plenty all over the country who make themselves felt in poli tics and render good service to their parties without becoming so infatuated with the tur moil, excitement and maneuvering that it turns their heads and disqualifies them for legitimate pursuits, buch men are politicians of a proper and desirable kind, and their example is worthy ot initiation. Every citizen is under obligation to assert himself in behalf of .Wnat he believes to be correct and wholesome political prin ciples, and to give practical and earnest aid to the party which he thinks should be intrusted with the control of the Government. No fault is to be found with the man who stands up for us convictions ; and no harm can come to him by reason of so doing. It is onlv when he makes politics a regular trade, and" not mere ly an incident of his life, that he is in danger o benig deniorahzed. and undone-and against that danger every citizen should carefully tuard who does not wish to fill his davs with endless anxiety and tribulation, for which he can "t possdjly obtain a sufficient and satis Jattoiy reward. -o- mat was a novel election bet made at Chase J-'tv, ..Virginia, where one citizen with black co;orsnbvaiirhCIi ,Cd reecMo exchange colors bv the chemical process in the event t heir respective favorites failed in 1 the wire And at the present rate of dve Stuffs", mght prove alter all a rather expensive it mi wager. tour editions of The Recn-H ; going some, but the people wanV ti, and The Rer,i JL YiF. anted the news abl c. -----w Svv inrm th.KA -o- I ossunts are fnt Un i the 'sirnmon tree they comt high-i In The News. Naturally one wants to know what is the news but a day like this, and we take it that the news is something of a mystery. In all the towns and cities in the voting precints of the villages over all the Western World there are men casting their ballots, by Jinks, for the man of their choice. Yesterday we said to a citizen that we ex pected to vote today and cast a vote for Ma jor Stedman. He said: "Why don't you vote for Woodrow Wilson?" We asked him in What we thought was candor, why he didn't vote for Hughes . , "Away with Hughes," he exclaimed. And we said why not away with both of 'em and he saw the point. Under the law each man may walk up and register his vote. His solemn protest against right or wrong whatever he thinks, decides the game. And we boast exultantly boast of our free country and our free institutions where every man is a sovereign. . .' v And it is to laugh. To laugh long and loud and then laugh some more. A student who has studied the problems presented, finally, after weeks of fasting and maybe prayer, con cludes that a certain man who stands for cer tain things should be chosen to represent an intelligent people. He walks up to the polls and casts his bal lotsay to protect Society; to assist in the forward movement of a world that ever goes onward and upward and along comes some low browed vertebrae with nothing but a spinal column- who thinks he thinks and doesn't and kills the vote of the man who really gave some thought and some attention for the betterment of mankind. A man of affairs the man who has lost countless nights of sleep in attempting to bring out a system for the economic conditions of the world ; the "man who has done something worth while ; who has builded a factory or in vented something done a siunt that you or 1 would call an achievement and he thinks over what is best for mankind in general and he goes up to vote his sentiments and another Weary Willie of another school of thought an indolent vagabond who has had his poll tax paid by a scheming politician casts his ballot and renders the other one void. And down the line. And yet the man who is elected to the great est position within what we have foolishly and falsely termed the ''gift of the people" feels that a majority of the creatures of the earth have called him. It is a joke world wide and never ending. It has been on and will always be on so long as the people allow themselves to be deceived with what has been foolishly and improperly termed "popular representative government." There is no such thing and never can be until all of God's creatures who have a right to vote have the power to think. -o- Let's Get It Right. We were waited on by a Committee, self ap- Kvi.vv, iikj uuuui, nr-iviii u. hi urge i ne po force of the city to do a lot of things and lice We We have just a half notion, and it is predi cated on the belief that we know what we are saying, that the police force of Greensboro is at least an average police force. There mav be some violations of law. Doubtless there 'are. We cannot expect here on earth and here in Greensboro all that has been promised in the divine realities of a Christian world. There is much to do. We will say this, however, as a platform ll - .y-.uiv Auittii miuws or anv hort- ... j,uu,iL ullRld Knows wliere he is remiss in liic A,,- :t 1... mi . .1 herc tacts; write his name to his article we will undertake to publish his tale of woe, provided we can verity what he savs. If he can't, let him proceed legally. A newspaper isn't the clumping grounds for the private griefs of others. ; It is not a clearance house for the pressimist who has the belly-ache. This news paper is no Punch and Judy lav-out. It is here ta serve the public ; to buv news and sell it: to help boost the town and to trv. when it can make lighter some heaw hcari or make brighter some saddened home. It isn't goin to undertake to turn a slop jar of indecencv on some official simply because some sad" eyed man or woman looks at things through the wrong end of the telescope we1 lln -lT helPTbut Jtt as nearlv as wc can; love one another. " :' . .'.'. - o ' ' '" :: . y The Difference. "Onthe subject of Mexico," savs' the Yew A ork Uorld, "Colonel Roosevelt" and Mr 1 a.u snare a common purpose in their cm paign speeches. Jn attacking Pres dem w " reS IT th P-s to he record of his own administration. With chir actenstic recklessness, Col. Roosevelt dec'arJs -00 JZmg tHe i,Sn administration 000 Americans and 300 Chinese have been kill ed in Mexico, and that while he was President' no one dared harm a hair of the head of a Inl? l America i" y foreign country Dur ng the Roosevelt administration, while Mex ico was at peace under Diaz, sixtv Cer cans were reported killed. During the TafTvdnf; natZ'fSeCn r7oli trough": rest British, .Span.ards, Germans, japaiue a d Chinese, were reported killed 'Ph.. nffi;,i t 1 u .x " c 1 ne nirurcs are omcial. In the same spirit ex-PresiHnV 'P T?! ' Ai-L ,im if . trtcn he came" ill V' to ,vritc better ,ila:rMr."wt.N VherVr fa,c,s came Presidr-nt Ai . lr' AV "son be- lution TaT:tWas '"a of revo- prisoncr V -s Madero. while a Nm af in '' KUchi,,, of How It Happened. The Raleigh Evening Times, iirexplaining the justifiable error into which so many enter prising newspapers fell, in their commendable efforts to give an impatient public election news right off the reel and at the earliest pos sible moment, thus presents its own case: "A stranger situation in national politics than that which confronted the country when Tilden was elected and denied his seat, or that which put Cleveland in the White House in 1892, when the early returns seemed to point conclusively to the" election of Harrison, developed suddenly after midnight of. Tuesday. "Up to that hour every sign pointed to the election of Hughes by a vote which threatened to become a landslide. New York was clearly lost to Wilson, New England, it seemed, had gone against , him by heavy majorities. Pa pers like the New York Times and the Ne' York Herald, ardent supporters of the Presi dent and maintaining extensive news-gathering agencies, concecded his defeat. Only Chairman McCormick and the President's per sonal headquarters refused to be convinced. "After midnight, slower returns coming from the Western States hinted the achievement of the apparently impossible the election of Wilson without the aid of New York State. This has been dreamed of before in an election in which there are only two strong candidates, but it is yet to be realized in history. It has yet to be achieved. Miracles, political or other wise, do not consist in hopes but the hope is there, lively and growling, at this hour. "The Times newspaper, personally demo cratic in this election in the nation and be lieving that the hope of better things in North Carolina depends upon the continuance of the democratic party as at present constituted, is nevertheless independent. It is mentally free. It does not hesitate to give the news as it can get it, without color of desire. It does not hesitate editorially to express an opinion on the facts at hand, as it sees the facts. In that spirit it has at times criticised President Wilson but always because it has considered that the tendencies which he at such times was encour aging would work against the benefits of the democratic principles he was put in the White House to conserve. In that spirit it made the calculated guess that Mr. Hughes would win by a large vote, and issued an extra on Tues day night which announced his election as a matter foregone in all human probability. "If The Times should be mistaken in these estimates by the happening of -the. miraculous, it will be glad to have been mistaken. "It will grin in all good nature in the con sciousness that its discriminating readers will give it the credit of a scrupulous care and energy to give them something besides the un satisfying food of hope to feed on." -o If It Ends. If r the war ends and God knows that the end must come what will become of the three million munition makers in America!' Where will they turn their-hands -where' is 'employ -incut to be ottered them? A most, serious, proposition, and yt;t we. go along, buying twenty-four cent gasoline and joy riding to beat the band. Three or four million idle wage earners in America nothing to do and the Old World, with the war ended, sending to these shores cargoes of all kinds of goods and pleading for gold. The United States, prosperous, has loaned Europe oyer a billion of dollars and Kurope. when she goes to pay must insist that we on these shores take her products or she cannot pay. And even if we build a tariff wall high as the tower of Babel was proposed to be. even then, those goods must find here a market and what will the three million unemployed do and what will the employed do? Patriotism is a thing we read about in books. The mail order house, with its wonderful buildings and its millions already made, testi fies to the patriotism of the average man. If Europe will sell to this country things we need at fifty cents on the dollar Europe will wrap up the goods. You ' know this. We know this and there is no way around it. The man who has the bargain sale, and of fers real bargains, is the man who does the business. No doubt about this. And .when Europe wipes-her face of the clotted blood : when she sees her depleted treasuries: when she sees and understands that her millions of dead never again will be pro ducers :and that taxes are soaring out of sight her cry and her demand will be for gold. And America the Western World, with its hun dred million people will be her oyster. Take it from us the man who is elected President will have on his hands a chore that will not be easily done. . : o Dr. Byrd. As the annual conference draws near Greens boro is beginning to realize that she is about to lose one of. -her' most popular and useful citizens in the person of Dr. C. W. Byrd. now closing his fourth year as pastor of the West Market street Methodist church. And the worst thing about it is that two other states are trving to con vince him that he is more needed elsewhere than in this good state where he has labored so taithfully for many years. Dr. Byrd has proven himself not onlv a good pastor but. as man and citizen, one al'wavs to be depended upon to lend aid and suppo'rt to any movement looking to communitv better ment or having as its object the broadening of intellectual and spiritual life. Under the rules governing the Methodist conterence. which limit the serving of one con gregation to four years. Dr. Bvrd must sever his pleasant connections in Greensboro and seek-other heids of labor in this or some other state. This paper, along with his numerous other tnends and admirers, is hoping that his next charge w.U be not so far awav that he . cannot keep m touch with the things he has helped to set in motion and that he mav be a frequent visitor to the city where the collec- : tive latch string will always be on the outside. We are violating no confidence when we ( urge you to do your Christmas shopping now. It is not Butler and Bonds bt Cuba and . . i- . . l' i I if 'f ; r , ' ' ' ' r; 1; i V I Eieht Hours For Farmers. The present prices of farm products woul.d "seem to indicate that this theory, advanced by Wallace's l'armer, had already been put' into practice. Based on the declaration of the pres ident when talking about the eight-hour-day law which was enacted by congress to avert the railroad strike, that "The eight-hour day now undoubtedly has the sanction of the judg ment of society in its favor, and should be adopted as the basis for wages, even where the actual work to be done can not be com pleted within eight hours," the Farmer argues it this way : ' " "It is fair to assume that President Wilson would not intentionally exclude the farmers of the country from the benefit of the eight-hour day. No labor is more necessary to the na tion than farm labor. But, while there has been a gradual decrease in the hours of labor required of other workmen, there has been o decrease in the hours required of the farmer, except that caused by labor-saving machinery bought by himself. "If the judgment of society sanctions the eight-hour day as the period of work, and as the basis for fixing the wages, the farmer is en titled to the benefit of this judgment. If this claim should be granted him, it would of course result in very greatly advancing the prices of agricultural products. The farmer has been working all the way from eight to eighteen hours, depending upon the time of year and the character of the work to be done.' During the summer, his work begins at half-past four or five o'clock, and continues until anywhere from seven to half-past eight or nine. During the winter the hours arc shorter, but, on an aver age, he probably works more nearly eleven hours a day than eight. "If the eight-hour day is to be taken as the basis of compensation, then, if the farmer is to have a square deal as compared with laboring men, it will be necessary that the price of things he produces shall be advanced from 40 to 50 per cent. At the present time, the farm er gets less per year for his labor than an other class. The government investigations in dicate that on an average the labor return to the farmer in the middle west is around S300 a year, after allowing interest on the money in vested in the farm and farm equipment." and after allowing a fair price, for all the labor em ployed except his owiff5 That seems like a small wage. The farmer has been getting ahead because he is a capitalist as well as a workman; but after we have reached a fair fixed value for agricultural land, then the farm er must depend more and more upon his labor, and less upon the increase in the value of his lands. Consequently, in this readjustment of working hours, the farmer is entitled to be heard." -O- Christian Science. In all the strain and turmoil immediatelv preceding a national election, the Columbia. South Carolina. Record finds time to get awav from the sordid things of earth and think of higher and better things. It delivers a little Minday sermon in the following: "We have received from a Christian . Science practitioner in this state a denial of a news item said to have been puhlshed in The Record. We have searched for the item, which is said to have been a dispatch from somewhere in Oklahoma, but we cannot find it. "The Record has not attacked Christian Science. We have not attacked anv religious creeds or faiths. There is too little of any kind of religion in the world, and we believe in letting people have what they profess if it does them good. Almost any kind of church, if its beliefs are lived up to. will help man! Religion is a personal matter after all. and sal vation is for the individual. "Whether or not we could accept the doc trine of Christian Science, we could not rcadilv criticisc that belief or the people who compose that numerous denomination. Thev may be wrong, but one who visits their churches Van not doubt their sincerity or their profound earnestness, nor can he question their intel ligence. And one who reads the writings of Mrs. Eddy cannot but admire their deep spir ituality although he cannot accept the thcorv of divine inspiration. "The most comforting passage In the Bible is this: I know that mv Redeemer liveth.' And in religious literature there is a sweet comfort in the opening sentence of Mrs. Eddy's book: "To those leaning on the sus taining arms, today is big with blessings.' " o Lynch Law Vs. Anarchy. , Editor Bob Gray of the Raleigh Evening limes, is right in saying that: "Because thev invite anarchy is no reason whv the 1. W. W. should be treated to lynch law. Apparentlv that is what happened to them when they at tempted to return to Everett, Washington, af ter having been driven out of the town by a i sort of quasilegal vigilance committee. " It does not cary the case that thev fired first : the . responsibility lies with the sheriff and his posse who 'endeavored to create a quarantine of force i against an undesirable clement. "The I. W. W. evidently is composed of men who arc either criminal or insane, or both. : rhe remedy to be applied to them is one of law. To treat a mob with mob violence of that worst character which involves official aid is merely to confuse the issue and increase the danger. Recognize an association as a bod v. place its members under the ban, and the as sociation itself is perpetuated bv the color of persecution. To deal with the members of a class or a society effectively, it is nccessary that it be robbed of its power bv treatment of its members as individuals. "The chief difficulty in the way of this evil of the I. W. W. that appears spasmodicall v in various parts of the couutrv is that prejudice against the cult is swallowed in sympathy for . the individual when he is brought'to trial. The result is a tendency to rncourage and incite anrchy. even in the methods of fighting it. The I. . AY. had a perfect right to visit Everett; once there, it's individual members could have ' been held to a strict compliance with the law which would have taken all the fun out of their martyrdom and have saved the reputation of the community and the state. "Lynch law plus anarc'iy equals anarchv." .This s Sood foot ball weather and the thanksgiving game is in the keeping. GREENSBORO. N, c. , T- i ' Endorsed By ThcPeonle . Ihe. Raleigh News and Observer thus iVir tatcs itself on the general outcomeas s0 fa; ported: "The democratic partv of North Ca Una went to the people on its record and th magnificent majority given its state ticket Tuesday shows that the people endorse ? record. The democratic partv of the nati went to the people of North Carolina w !l record, and the magnificent majority- for I'J ident Wilson, the return to Congress of o, alone democratsjrom nine distiicts represent ed by democrats but the capture oFthc 01 district represented by a republican show that North Carolina endorses the record of th democratic national party. 0 "The democratic majority in North Carolina it now appears will be in excess of 50.000. Xot since 1900 has there been such a majority, ar.4 that it comes this year shows that the people arc stronger than ever for the Democratic par ty, evidence that it has done those things which' go to the service of the people. Honesty and service count and that is what is given by the democracy. L "There is great gratification in the success of Zcbu'on Weaver, democratic candidate for Congress in the Tenth District. This papcr has held that while the Tenth District was classed as doubtful it was in reality a demo cratic district with the vote close, and that if there was a full democraic vote that Mr' Weaver would defeat Congressman Britt. And the reports tell of the defeat of Mr. Brut Besides this there are a number of counties which in recent years have gone republican which elected democrats on Tuesday. "If has taken work in accomplishing the splendid results which have come, and there is great credit due Democratic State Chairman Thomas D. Warren and Secretary J. R. Collie of the Democratic State Committee, as well as to the various county chairmen. There has been work of the earnest sort all up and' down the line, as shown bythc majorities, and these show that work and organization count. The democratic party can well applaud the men who have been placed in charge of the fortunes of the party, for they have done things worthv of commendation." -o- Quite A Lot Of It. We note by our exchanges and some cae's have been tried in this town, that the crime of bigamy is;;on the increase. Over in Danville recently two front page stories were about a white man who loved not wisely but two wive well and a nigger who had plighted his troth and took on a couple of forlorn creatures as his very own. Lnder the law the man marryingjwo wives is supposed to be doing something approxi mating villiany. Despite the supposition vc find a great many muchly married men. When Artcmus Ward interviewed Brigham Younj, he said to him: "Mr. Young, thev tell me voii are a married man?" "Yes, I have forty wives." replied Mr. Young. "You are the most mar ried man I ever saw" remarked Artcmus in a" meek way. and let it go at that. But we doubt what Ward said. We hav e seen a man voktJ up with one" apple of liis eye and he came" near er being the most married man we ever saw, than had he had a dozen wives of different minds and moods. The world is undergoing an absolute trans formation onward and upward seems the motto of the Creator and we arc not keeping -step in our domestic relations. The old rail fence which protected the hearthstone has gone to decay. The bars are down. A differ ent age and a different timc changed customs and altered ideals are with the New Age and we haven't kept up with the procession. In the old fields where a rail fence kept the cattle on their own domain man has allowed inventive genius to surround his pasture with a barh wire fence but the same old rails decayed and decaying surround his home surround his domestic life and some of the youii bucks arc breaking through. All right to tell us what to expect. All right for ministers to explain that it man would understand the divinity of the marriage compact there would be fewer divorces: no bigamists but divorce courts and lawyers have gotten us far away from the sanctity and divinity of the marriage vow. Easy enough it seems now, for the passing' pilgrim to go down the pike and marry a wo man at every stop, the man who undertake .1. . .1. ... uic more is sent to jail the woman who jumps at inc. chance to harness "up is pom out as one who had htf 11 trcklfl Iirii-L--l 1 led T.ut - , . t . seriously, she is as much to blame as the lame duck who came her way she should stop and enquire and not make unseemlv haste. She should remember that P.tit mtlior. swon. ,r .-it-- S.llil.. K:ly .-1 11, 1, .r ,-(IH lli.-it w.tr Ami tMik Iht for Ms m.ite." In the Danville case, if the reports are ac curate as printed in the papers, all the man had to do was to tarry a short time in the town, and a half dozen buxom maids were ready 1 plight their troth. And what was the man. it do. poor thing but harness up. and undertake to let the loaded dice of the gods direct him? Was the woman who hastily consented to be come his wife to blame? We rarhcr hold. that, inasmuch as she must forever bear the bur den, it is up to her to find out who is who before she consents to change her name. o They say that if you give a calf rope enough it will hang itself but why hang the call"? o A Con-spiracy. The Charlotte Observer in big black !!' unfolds a con-spiracy of the republican intimidate the voters and send ther.i to tin penitentiary. However, perhaps -it is a -care. It wasn't long ago that Butler and Bond- wa to be an issue. Hut neither Butler nor t he bonds got in under the Avire. The republican cannot .hope to do much in this state at thi time. They arc not together however uukii I hey make it appear they are. 0 The report that' two (iuilford county ofiices had been captured by the republicans grew out of one of those dreams, of .the baseless fabric variety. The weather promises to he fair. Bm ')" ever heard the weather make a promise." - . -xy
Everything (Greensboro, N.C.)
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Nov. 11, 1916, edition 1
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