Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/18

Rh They forgave his transgressions as they would have theirs forgiven them. They gave Colby another chance, just as they will a drunkard or a thief or a captain of industry. Indeed, there is reason for thinking that Colby was helped by his bad record of errors. The people suspect (and very wisely, too) all superiority, and Colby's candid, free confession of ignorance and guilt, made him a fit representative of his neighbours in Essex County, New Jersey, U. S. A.

Senator Colby has been retired since; and Mark Fagan was beaten; and Lindsey may be, and Spreckels. "Republics are ungrateful," Mr. Dooley quotes, and he adds: "That's why they are Republics." The people are not constant. And the forces of corruption are. In Jersey the "interests" became alarmed at the issues the Colby-Fagan "New Idea" movement was raising: taxation; representative government; the direct election of the United States Senators; home rule; etc., so they threw into the situation a "moral issue," the liquor traffic. This is an important question, but it is so important that to drop it into a reform movement with other issues up, is to break up that other movement, and—fail to solve the liquor question. If I were a political boss, in danger of losing my crown, I would get the church to come out