THIS is the verdict of a man, a politician, than whom, perhaps, no one in the United States is better qualified to express a reliable opinion. It is becoming more and more evident that the reason the people lose control of their own affairs, why they lose control of the government, is because of their willingness to sell or give away themselves. The corrupt schemes concocted in financial and political circles never could be carried out, were it not for the fact that so many of the people think they see temporary personal advantage in supporting such schemes. Not one of the great corrupting projects, of which the people so bitterly complain, could be carried out, were it not that the people here and there lend or sell themselves to the aid of such projects.
They are deceived by "gold-brick" financial ventures, because of their innate avariciousness, because of their natural disposition to nibble at the bait of promises to get something for nothing. They read or hear of men making fortunes out of speculation, and they would like to do the same; hence they are caught by apparent opportunities. They are deceived by political platforms and political "reformers," because they do not learn anything by experience, and many of them side with that which they think will win,—imagining that somehow there is to be an advantage in the glory of winning the day, and being in favor with those who succeed. But that which shows the venality of current, popular corruption is the disposition to sell votes—whether it be for large or small sums of money, or for other consideration. The authority to which we have alluded said in a recent public address, as reported in the Commoner:
There is corruption everywhere. I was down in Delaware, and I found that in Delaware, in some precincts, a majority of the people had received pay for their votes, and in some precincts even three-fourths of the people had received pay for their votes. The Baltimore Sun declared, after the election of 1900, that in one county in Maryland 25 per cent of the voters could be bought. The governor of Rhode Island has given statistics to show the extent of corruption there. I received a letter from a man in New York who asked, "How can we hope to win when a man with a quarter section of land demands $1.50 for his vote?" In West Virginia a man told me that, when he was on the committee, a voter came fourteen miles the day before the election to announce that he would not vote the next day unless he got a dollar. The public conscience has become so demoralized that I heard of one case where a town wanted to secure the county seat, and not being able to get the county seat away from another town, the idea of building a new county around the town was conceived. The leaders of the movement prepared a bill, and took it down to the Legislature, and they raised a fund of $50,000 among the honest and respectable business men with which to corrupt the Legislature; and, to be sure that the money was conscientiously expended, it was put in the hands of two prominent church-members to divide among the bribed legislators. That was in another state, but if I dared to touch on domestic matters in this state [Florida], I might possibly find cases that would parallel anything I have mentioned. Corruption is so common that people who know what is going on are seemingly indifferent to the effect that it is going to have on our country.
We can not discount the facts that show the extent and the wickedness of the corruption that exists in political, social, financial, and even religious, circles; but we can not ignore the other fact that all this is made possible by the corruption that is everywhere. And the most deplorable feature of the condition is that the people are being deceived by the assurance that they are "growing better." The "watchmen" whose calling is to give warning of the corruption of the last days are too ready to fall in with the popular wave by overlooking the root of the prevalent evils. They overlook, or desire to hide, the reality that the men who are prominently on the surface in all departments of life have come up from the masses by popular patronage or by popular preference. And the supply is fed from the great common resource. There is no permanent remedy in human resource, so long as ninety-nine men out of every hundred are restrained from being monopolists or dictators only from lack of opportunity.
The only remedy is in the eventual relief that comes through the "precious faith." To such as have this faith in the only true reform, the greatest of all Reformers, by His Spirit, gives these words of encouragement: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1:2-4. This is the only way of escape. Every other way leads through the bogs and quicksands of human ambition.