People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1894 — Some Suggestions. [ARTICLE]

Some Suggestions.

Ed. Pilot:—Now that the election of township officers is changed from the April township election to the general November election, we are apt, in our zeal for the success of our state, county and district tickets, to forget the importance of selecting proper men to manage our home affairs. It seems to us that it would have been better to have allowed our township election to be held separate from other elections. Then township matters would have received more attention for state and national politics would have been out of the way. We are now hearing but little if anything said about who are proper men for trustee, who will make a good assessor; it is all about congressmen, state legislators, etc. What officer is of more importance to us than the township trustee? He levies a good part of our taxes, spends a great deal of our money, he oversees our roads, employs our teachers, sees after our poor; in fact, no officer of government, state, national, or municipal comes closer to the people than he. We have often heard it said, and we believe it too, “the township trustee in this state has too much power.” While other officers have their work and duties plainly laid out before them, while they have only columns of figures to add and blanks to fill out, the trustee has to study and plan; has to hire, buy and sell. It is not every man who is an honest, good neighbor, who can read and write, that is fit for a trustee. That man who is best acquainted with the needs of his township, that knows something of its roads, that has a knowledge of and an interest in its schools, that man who, in addition to these qualifications is honest and has good business judgment is a suitable person for trustee whatever is his politics.

We hope in the election of township officers this year, our voters will not allow party prejudice to lead them into the support of incompetent and undeserving men. Will the Populists rise above party in the coming election and see to it that none but good, competent men are elected to fill the various various township in this county? Whenever our party has the majority it of course will elect good men. In every township where it holds the balance of power, it is its duty to throw its support to the best man. If unfit men are elected in townships where our votes could have defeated them and put in competent officers we are surely to blame. Let’s not carry party too far in these local elections. A Populist.

The storekeeper who expects to do much business in 1894 must practice the lesson taught in the following story: Two frogs found themselves in a pail of milk and they could not jump out. One of them was for giving up and said to the other. Good by; I sink. I die.” Said his mate, “Brace up! INep a jump in’ and see what, turns up,’’ So they kept a jumping up and down all night and by morning had so churned the milk that it turned to butter and they jumped off the butter to the ground. Applied to business the fable means this: If you want the business of 1894 to exceed that of 1893, “keep a jumpin’.” Don’t cry, “I sink, I die!” The merchant who continues looking for bad times will not survive to see good times first. C irry a level head, buy standard goods and keep a good, clean stock an attractive store and advertise with bright, attractive ads.—Ex.