Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/238

 214 T. W. Davenport. board methods. It is in this school, where the kindly and fraternal virtues are at premium and rascality at discount, that men get their reputation or private character as mor^] beings. Politics, on the other hand, is the reverse of indus- trialism in all essential particulars. In the first place, politics, though productive of great strenuosity, is nor a wealth-producing but a wealth-consuming employment. There is no distribution, for there is nothing to divide. There are prizes to be won, the emoluments of office, and while there ai'e many contestants, only a few can be chosen. And the nature of the contests admits of much diplomacy — in plain terms, secrecy, cunning, tergiversation. And as there is mutual suspicion of the employment of such methods, the tende.icv is from bad to worse. And when the contest is betwaeii political parties, the whole population is segregated into antagonistic groups animated by a partisan spirit which gives but little heed to the general welfare. Political parties are a natural evolution from the differ- ences of opinion among the people, as to the principles and policies which should govern in the conduct of the govern- ment, and as such issues must be determined by majorities in a pop^ilar count, it has been the practice in the United States to put the government into the possession of the candidates of the party winning at the polls— a custom as vicious as un- necessary, except as to those few offices involved hy the policies upon which the contesting parties differ. Thp grear number of merely executive offices, more than nine-tenths of all the offices in the general government, and a gr^atc-r proportion of those in the State governments, are wIidII/ un- affected by the incumbents' political opinions. A collector of customs must obey the law, whatever the duty, or whether he leans to protection or free trade. And the post master performs his legal duty whatever may be the shadi of his politics. Considering the vast patronage and power at issue in a political contest, there is nothing strange that the parties to it, animated by the war cry, "to the victors belong the spoils,"