p. 16 | A TYPICAL CONDITION by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 31, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 22.

A TYPICAL CONDITION.

By Editor

To PRETEND to serve one master, and receive remuneration therefor, while really serving another, is criminal and inexcusable. This condition has been illustrated strikingly of late in the city of Philadelphia. To free itself from the grasp of monopoly, the city had acquired its own gas plant; but the members of the city council, against the most earnest protests of the people whom they were chosen to serve, have voted to lease the plant to a gas company. So vigorous were the protests from those who had a right to protest, that the police were called in to clear the hall. The property belonged to the people, and was being sold without their sanction, in defiance of their wishes, and they were subjected to forcible expulsion at the hands of the police for protesting. There could be no question but what the members of almost any city council would do as the people desired, if some other influence did not come in to make it greatly to their own selfish interests to do otherwise. It is openly alleged that this other influence was the other "master" which was being served for a substantial consideration by those who were being paid to serve their city. This is not the first experience of this kind that Philadelphia has had; and Philadelphia is not the only city nor the first city that has had that experience; more than that, this experience is not confined to cities—it is found in the Legislatures of our states, where laws innumerable have been passed for hire by those sworn to serve the best interests of the state. We wish we might say it was confined to cities and states, but it is not. The servant who serves for pay a power that did not elect him is found even in the legislative halls of the nation. The lobbyist with his "sack" is there to buy men, and the unfaithful servant is there to be bought, while ostensibly and avowedly there to protect the interests of his constituents. Such conditions are a striking commentary on the times in which we live.