Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1907 — THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES TO BLAME. [ARTICLE]

THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES TO BLAME.

The following clipping from an editorial intbe Lake County Times the republican organ of Hammond, applies with equal force to local affairs in Rensselaer and Jasper county, and we want our republican friends who have always been voting ’er straight to read and ponder over it: "The greatest evil of Chicago today is the prevalence of the idea that party politics must be carried into local affairs. If the voters of Chicago disgusted and disheartened with the career of its officers would throw off the party shackles and regardless of political affiliations select competent candidatesfdt office and make it their business to elect them, the day of graft in Chicago would be over, and until the voters of Chicago turn their backs upon the old party fetich, and demonstrate that they are stronger than any party organization, will the present condition of affairs continue. "Chicago needs a good political revival. The throwing off of old party ties. The denial of the proposition that a man must be a democrat or republican before he can hold any office in local affairs. The blame attaches nowhere but on the people themselves. If they continue to vote the party ticket and elect incompetent and dishonest men to office because they happen to belong to their own political faith, just so long will such conditions prevail. "Let them throw off party shackles and party emblems and party ties and demonstrate that party politics can have no place in civic affairs and they will redeem themselves from the present disgraceful conditions. "Chicago and Cook county will never have competent and capable officeholders until they are selected and elected by competent, careful, determined citizens regardless of party.”