Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/113

Rh of course, have its shortcomings and make its mistakes, perhaps serious ones and plenty of them. But as long as the growth and action of public opinion in the body-politic is free and genuine, the good sense of the people may be trusted to bring about in time the correction of errors and of existing evils—not completely, perhaps, nor perfectly, but measurably, sufficiently to make things in the end come out about right, to keep our system of government in steady working order, and to secure to our people more freedom and contentment than they would have in any other way. Paradoxical as it may sound, this is the country in which, so governed, things may go badly in detail, but yet well on the whole. This is, and will remain, true, provided always that we do not permit certain evil influences in politics, tending to obstruct the growth and to pervert the expression of an honest public opinion among the people, to continue and become stronger than they now are. The most obvious of the evil influences in politics I speak of are money and the machine.

I know there always has been, and always will be, some money used in elections for perfectly proper ends. But it is a notorious fact that sums are now spent in Presidential and even in State campaigns which a generation ago would have been thought fabulous; that the election of United States Senators by some legislatures occasions financial arrangements as large as those of the starting of a big bank; that in some Congressional districts and some municipalities the cost of a canvass is enormous; that much of that money is used for the purpose of bribery in a variety of forms; that not a few constituencies, not long ago pure, are thoroughly debauched, and that the evil has been growing and spreading of late from year to year. Indeed, we have reached the point where the raising of big sums for use in elections is officially recognized as a