A Curse to the Country

By

H. H. Broach

From a reply delivered in a political
debate.

I was in hopes that we should go through this debate without your praising the Democratic Party, for last night I was punished severely by having to listen to another able gentleman praise the Republican Party and tell why it, too, should be supported. And since you have said so many fine and noble things about your party, let me briefly say this about both parties: As far as progress is concerned they might just as well be employed in making mud cakes or tatting. And one of the strangest and most unreasonable things that can be imagined is the spectacle of a supposedly intelligent people supporting and tolerating these twin organizations and their meaningless conventions year after year.

Both are tarred with the same stick; both are smeared with the same oil; both are covered with corruption; both feed at the same trough. Both hate reason and despise investigation; and both love sham and pretense, hypocrisy and greed. Both are continually playing the rottenest kind of tricks on the farmers and wage earners, and the only difference between them is that one is in and the other is out. That's all. And does anyone think there is a normal child in the whole land who believes that men like Doheny and the rest donate hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly to the campaigns of both parties and thus play both ends against the middle, and yet expect nothing in return? You might think so but no one else does.

Almost every one who is not dumb and blind now knows how all sorts of wholesale plundering and looting have been going on for years and years under Democrats and Republicans alike. Under the last Democratic administration it was war suppliesairplanes, guns and ships. Billions were squandered and stolen outright. Washington was a robber's roost for respectable thieves and pirates-known as "dollar-a-year" men. These gilt edged bandits-far removed from danger-plotted deals and steals and stuffed their pockets to overflowing while brave men bled and died on the battle fields of France. These gold dust hounds, it will be remembered, ordered over a million sets of double harness and over two million nose bags for only 391,000

horses and mules. They ordered four horse brushes for every animal belonging to the Government, and a typewriter for every soldier in the service.

They "spent" a billion and fifty-two millions in airplanes, and not one had reached the front when the armistice was signed. They "spent" one billion one hundred and ninety-one millions for guns, and squandered and stole nine and a half billions in the aircraft and shipping boards, and awarded fat contracts right and left to their own firms and friends like drunken sailors. And not one of these thieves was ever sent to jail.

And now under the Republicans come the rottenest and blackest kind of deals and steals in connection with the highway robbery of sick and wounded soldiers; the selling of Government oil leases; the smuggling of prize-fight pictures; the selling of whiskey permits to the highest bidders; depositing public funds in private banks, and the refundings of taxes mounting into the millions. These deals and steals have made all previous ones fade into insignificance; they have cast fumes of disgust and brought assurance to the common crook that his is a noble profession. And this wholesale graft and grab, these steals and deals of highwaymen, pickpockets and sneak thieves; this buying of government officials the same as you buy oil-all of it will continue as long as the government remains in the hands of the old party politicians. Make no mistake about that. Our whole history proves it to any one with a grain of intelligence.

Neither old party has ever originated or been responsible for any reform or constructive change. In their day, neither would go forward for the abolition of black slavery or the enfranchisement of women. Both have simply taken advantage of the reforms after they were well under way, and climbed on the band wagon after it got going. Neither appeals to thought or conviction. And in neither are the voters called upon, or expected to think. The leaders do that. You voters simply do the voting. And the leaders are rank strangers to history and social science, and know but little about our economic needs. But what they do know is how to rob, how to gouge, and how to fleece the people -and do it legally. If what they do doesn't seem legal, they make it legal, and that ends it.

The very existence of both rests upon the blind prejudice and indifference of the masses of the people, and they are kept alive only by fake issues and a strong itch for office. One year you talk of the tariff, the next it is the "full dinner pail," then "trust busting," then prohibition, or a personal contest beween two wellknown men, or something else. Yesterday it was a League of Nations; today a world court. When one fake issue doesn't work, another will. But always the results are the same-a confused,

bewildered people used for tools and fools, tricked, gulled and betrayed.

And what do you voters have to say about the selection of an old party candidate? What control do you and the rest have over him? Don't forget that whoever pays the fiddler calls the tune. The dividend mongers and coupon clippers cannot be forgotten. And so a "regular" party man, a man chosen by the leaders of either of the old parties, can no more represent the people than the king of Siam can represent the State of Texas. There is absolutely no excuse for the existence of either hoary party. Old partyism is on a level with totem worship. It is on a level with sectarianism in religion. We don't need them, and the only reason the average man can think of why we must have them is because we have always had them. He simply takes it for granted that they are necessary. But very often the ideas everybody takes for granted are the most stupid.

The Burlesons and Palmers, the Tafts and Falls, and the Daughertys and Burnses, are all simply the creatures of the old political parties. They are a curse to the country and an insult to the intelligence of our people.

Tears and Progress

By

H. H. Broach

From a short talk made to a New
Year's gathering.

It's very pleasing to come to such an unusual affair of this sort, and join with you in seeing the old year pass on its way. And what a year it has been-misery and suffering, work and struggles, disappointments and disillusions, tears and sorrows, and some progress-just the age-old story of life.

Perhaps you know its story only too well. And there is no use going back over the things that have been done foolishly, for now the year is about dead. All our mistakes and failures, our stupidities and follies, our heartaches and wounds all these miseries that have gone to make life weary in the past year, all of them are now behind us, gone into what we call the past, never to return.

Just now, as usual, many are happy, or think they are. Many more are sad. And we might well say to the greedy and heartless, to those who are not disturbed about little human beings ministering to our needs and pleasures, who think it all right that tender hands and weary little bodies should slave away in the beet fields and canneries, in the factories and in the mines; to those who are quite willing that millions of desperate, hungry men and women should now tramp the streets begging and pleading for a chance to work-to each and every one of these, we might well say: "Eat, drink and be merry, if you can, while others are in misery, rags and tears." We might wish them well, for the holiday season comes but once a year.

And to those who are weary and discouraged, whose hearts are heavy and sad; to the bread winner who could not secure enough to provide the little things that go to cheer the young and the old, and to those who are tired and who would willingly give up the struggle to each and every one of them, we might well say: "Sorrow, pain and discouragement come to everyone. No one escapes them. Set-backs have been the lot of all. Changes often come suddenly and unexpectedly. So don't be without hope. The past cannot be changed. We must make the best of it. But the future is ours-ours to do or die."

What the new year holds in store for us, no one knows. We know it will not be a summer's dream. The struggle and quarrel between men, the cheating and hating, will go merrily on. And the mad race for money, power and position will not come to an end. Each of us will continue to be tossed about on the sea of fate, driven here and there, and each one will do about the best he knows how. New ones will join us in the race of life, without their consent, and old ones will depart against their willbound they know not where. Most of us who remain will simply take life as it is, living on, hoping and dreaming, loving and striving, and nerving ourselves to meet the hard rebuffs of life.

That's the game and we must play it. But the game is still on, and we now know more of life; we know more about one another; we possess more knowledge; the past year has taught each one of us lessons of priceless value. We have learned that our problems, our weaknesses and shortcomings, cannot be cured by closing our eyes or running away from foes, and we can do what we ought to do, and can be what we ought to be-if we will make up our minds and stick to our highest hopes, not to our doubts and fears.