IT ALL ADDS UP: Reform and the Erosion of Representative Governmentin Missouri, 1. Kenneth H. Winn. New York State Building, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri, stereo card by Slingley, B. L., for Keystone View Co., 1. Missouri Historical Society, St.
The Founding Fathers created a perfect government and political descendants like Lincoln only made it better. In the past there was no crime, no unwed mothers, children didn. In Missouri a century ago the . Beautiful women strolled in long dresses and fancy hats carrying dainty parasols to protect themselves from the summer sun. Men in funny pants, sporting handlebar mustaches, rode merrily on big- wheeled bicycles. Articles in category 'BBC' There are 4136 articles in this category.Life was somehow more relaxed, more pleasant. Young couples ducked out of the heat to sip lemonade. The church social gave the community its entertainment and crack- the- whip and red- rover gave children pleasures now lost to Nintendo. Politics was different too. Our civic culture was our public culture. In 1. 90. 0 rural boys went to courthouses to hear lawyers put on theatrical shows. Whole towns turned out to hear a politician give a speech that could last up to three hours. Patriotic occasions such as the 4th of July brought shivers of respect, not . The thought of putting up with flag- burners never occurred to anyone because none doubted that America was the finest country on earth. God in His wisdom had made it so, and our ancestors, guided by His hand, laid the foundation of our good fortune. In 1. 90. 0 everybody voted. In rural areas no one thought it a burden to walk ten or twenty miles to cast a vote. Politics was local and face to face; the politicians knew the people and the people knew them. And so on. Boy looking out of tiff mine. National Child Labor Committee. Chronic labor violence and endemic farm protest marked the end of the nineteenth century and the rise of the twentieth. Long hard hours of farm and factory work were a norm and child labor, even in dangerous occupations like mining, flourished. 9781606721810 160672181X The Chronology of Love, Abigail Anouk Orly 9780194788717 0194788717 Oxford Bookworms Library: Stage 1: The Coldest Place on Earth Audio CD. Fatal disease and disaster ran rampant through the cities and the countryside, killing many in the prime of their lives. The art of politics was very much the art of corruption. Corruption was a day- to- day thing; small bribes bought small favors. In the big cities and rural courthouses corruption thrived in a manner that Americans today associate with third world countries. By contrast, at the twentieth century. Society and politics have never been more inclusive. Politically, Missouri has never had cleaner elections, more fiscally honest government, or better- educated legislators, than today. Thanks to reforms at the early part of the century formal democracy has grown as well, with the adoption of initiative petition, referendum, and recall, and the direct election of United States Senators. This essay is not designed to celebrate the present. Our problems are too obvious for that. Nor is it intended to denigrate the past, for the past is too worthy of respect. History is too messy to put into an ideological straightjacket without doing violence to its integrity. Rather this essay is about the power of Missouri government, the attempts of Missourians to control the abuse of that power, and the effect that reform has had on representative democracy. We have wanted government to have the necessary energy to accomplish the ends we have assigned to it, but not so much as to endanger our liberties or pick our pocket. The response to the irresponsible use of power by politicians has been to check the power at every turn. Missourians have consistently taken power away from their politicians, undermined their political parties, created a large unelected bureaucracy to administer their government, and, in great numbers, stopped voting. Yet even as representative democracy seems to have diminished over time, most Missourians have seemed largely content with this trend, and should the past be any guide to the future, this trend will continue. In so doing, Missouri citizens, or at least those who vote, have sometimes responded with ham- handed measures that have kept government from performing its legitimate duties with efficiency or skill. Many reforms advocated as the harbinger of enlightened government have, ironically, often lead to greater corruption or have lessened democracy. Still, as clumsy and shortsighted as these attempts at reform may be, the apparently congenital urge to wrongdoing or power mongering by venal or ambitious politicians always leads to a fresh wave of rules and reform. Missourians have gained much during the course of the twentieth century and they have lost much too. The past does have a pattern and in discerning it we will not only better understand ourselves, but also gain a useful perspective from which we may better understand what is realistic for our politics and what is not. Missouri Gets Progressive: a Folk Tale. At the century. The state was at the forefront of a quarter century of farm protest that culminated in the Populist movement. In 1. 89. 6 angry farmers found their champion in the presidential candidacy of William Jennings Bryan and were decisively defeated. The public minting of silver was the determining issue. Farmers wanted to mint silver to counteract the long- term deflationary pressures of the era, while most Republicans and . At the Democratic National Convention Bryan dramatically declared: . You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. Industrial America had given Agricultural America a severe thumping. Bryan. Pressures for change in the new industrial America were hardly ebbing, however, this time these new forces were stronger, more powerful, and they came from within industrial urban society rather than from without. In 1. 90. 0 Missouri was home to one of the most important of the nation. Louis, with more than 5. At the time it was America. Like the other big cities it was justly famous for its filth and overcrowded ethnic tenement slums: the Irish lived in . Public health was an ever- present concern. Garbage was strewn everywhere. When it rained the mud in St. At night one might find prostitutes but, notoriously, not street light. In addition to these, St. Filthy smoke created by the cheap soft coal brought from the nearby Illinois coal fields darkened the day and filled the lungs; and the nation. To the extent that needs were met, it was through political corruption. Louis corruption was symbolized by the powerful Irish political boss . Despite later romanticized accounts, Butler did not have political control of the city and hardly a monopoly on corruption, but he certainly was the city. Louis enjoyed a competitive two- party system, and Butler was quite willing to work with Republicans as necessity dictated.) His minions engaged in conventional electoral bad behavior: they beat up politically incorrect voters, intimidated election judges, stuffed ballot boxes, repeat voted, and moved election polls to confuse supporters of rival political opponents. He controlled the city. He had neither the power nor the inventiveness of Kansas City. Louis nationally famous, then governor, and finally a contender for the presidency. Joseph Folk came to St. Louis in 1. 89. 3 to join his judge uncle in a law partnership. A minor participant in local Democratic politics, he gained a measure of good publicity for his work in negotiating an end to a particularly vicious streetcar strike. When approached to run for circuit attorney in 1. Democratic Party, including Ed Butler. During his campaign Folk said that he would come down hard on wrongdoing wherever he found it. The Democratic bosses paid little attention; they had heard it all before. To their shock, however, that is exactly what Folk did. Upon taking office he first went against those who corrupted the electoral process. Intense pressure quickly fell on Folk from people who told him to go after the Republican crooks but leave the Democrat crooks alone. His campaign reached its political apogee when, a year later, he went after Boss Butler himself. On a change of venue to Columbia, Butler was found guilty of attempting to bribe two members of St. Unfortunately for Butler his effort to dress like a farmer failed to impress Boone County. Folk was, in fact, a sloppy prosecutor and often achieved his convictions with the aid of sympathetic lower court judges. His convictions of the politically corrupt were overturned upon appeal with remarkable regularity. Folk was actually not principally concerned with sending people to jail; he was much more interested in changing Missouri. Louis Post- Dispatch, June 2. Used with permission of the State Historical Society of Missouri. In the process of prosecuting corrupt politicians, however, he made an important discovery. They all had ties to businessmen. They became collectively known as the . But here matters got more complicated. Their work gave them extensive business dealings with government. Many of these businessmen were shamelessly greedy, looking for the special privileges that only government could bestow. But the problem was larger than mere knavery. Even respectable businessmen were deeply implicated in political corruption. Work, jobs, and payoffs had to be made to get their goals achieved. Bribes were common, ordinary. Corruption was regarded as perhaps unfortunate, but that was the price of doing business. Everybody understood it, everybody did it, and nobody wasted much time agonizing over it. They may have been caught in a system, but they didn. For those in a position to afford such things, the system worked reasonably well. Joseph Folk. Corruption had become so established that his wholesale rejection of it was as shocking as a slap in the face. In 1. 90. 2 Folk brought charges against wealthy Kansas Citian Robert Synder (probably best remembered today for building Ha- Ha Tonka State Park. Louis Municipal Assembly members to create a streetcar monopoly. Priest, stated a bit more openly than was prudent the conventional belief that . It is a conventional offense.
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