Life — January 4, 1906 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“White there is Life there's Hope.” XLVI Js N. 4, 1005, I HE. reluctance of Hf | former Governor | f Hj oaen to be se y 0 Y varated from his late job as boss of the Re- publican party in ew York State is almost tragic \ [4s ally interesting W Mr. Odell has 10 seemed wi th agree to almost any or anybody, provided only th he was permitted to agree. Any good man would suit him for Speaker of the Assembly if y it was recognized as necessa ry, or at least expedient, that he should be suited. No reforms were too drastic for him, no measures of policy too ideal, if only he could adopt them before them as his What he can: ud indeed can hardly be expected to concede. is that his st political conduct have be and, and ta; recognize, a t his bolt is st ndards On strated to be so selfish and so low that he is far worse than useless to. the Republican pa y in New York. He is graced politician; that is the trou ble; and unless it crn ae der a dis; onstrated that the Republican organization in New York is quit of him. i is sure to be enthusiastically beaten the next time it goes to the polls. It is impos- sible 10 show him friendly considera- tion, to spare his feel to ict him down easy. The price of the restor: dence in the an party in New York is com- tion of any degree of cont Repul plete and conspictous detachment from Odell, He dies hard. He charges Governor Higgins with plicity, and the President with _ meddlesomeness He makes various complaints, some of It all \ man who has mixed up his private business concerns with his political actions, official and other- wise, to the extent that he has done, which are interesti reading avails nothing and who has been caught at it to the extent that he has been caught, is of LIFE- no further immediate use in the poli- tics of New York State. The Quay has passed, even in F vania, The Odell period has clearly passed in New York ansyl- HAT must be peculiarly rasping to Mr. Odell’s sensibilities is the knowledge, which, of course, he must possess, that other men, less able than he, but with standards no higher and in conduct no better, are still polit- ically alive, He must feel that some i his him to the wolves of reform to save “them- associates are throwin) selves, Perhaps they are, but they They might be gen have no choice crous if they had the choice, but they haven't it. They may be saved without Odell. but they cannot possibly be ed with him, Really, it looks as if ew York State might be going to have an approximation to popular ermment again; Governors for a that guard the interests of all the peo- ple, United States Senators fit to rep- resent nearly eight millions of popula tion, a Legislature fit to be concerned with the interests not only of that great pop commercial and fiscal interests tha: center on the Island of Manhatt lation, but of the enormous ourse, the realization ¢ this last pos sility seems almost. fimtastically re- teven such a State Legislature mote, | as th in it, and Ways responsive to the direction of able leaders and the press- at Albany always oa ure of public opinion. A State Legis- lature is only a tool, It makes a p found difference who handles it and whose interest it is worked s if New York State, probably other States, might profit- ably add to their governmental appa) tusa new feature, to-wit,an investigat- ing committce that should meet an- with power to summon wit sses and to inquire into anything that needed looking into, And if we could have a new State Officer, a grand inquisitor, who should put wit- nesses to the torment before the com- mittce, would it not help let daylight into the dark places? Certainly the oldest inhabitant can hardly remember a more important work for the popu- ization of righteousness than has been done by the Armstrong Commit- tce with the aid of Inquisitor Hug observe that that fervent young writer, Jack London, is ving lectures this season. He was in Boston last month, and held forth to the Harvard students among others. Heis as interesting a piece of human raw-material as there is on exhibition. He is a good writer, a man of talent and of a striking, though limited, perience of life. One could wish though, judging from reports of his deliverances, that he might sit for a time longer under instruction, before diffusing his formulas for maki world over. He was divorced and re- married the other day, and the news- papers have been adorned with pictures of his various fates, preliminary, tem- porary and subsequent. -One of them pore him two children! One wonders why a pre ional wild man, such as jou he, who avows profound dissatisfac- tion with the prevailing order of things, should continue to pay to that order the compliment of gettir ried at all. He is quoted as saying that there are now banded together in the mar- world 7,000,000 revoluti ists who pro- pose to upset all existing governments, and fix things over. And he says he isone of them, Well,well! He seems to prefer the untrammeled life, There are adv wild state, but its satisfac to be Aceting, and the civilized condi ges about the irresponsible ns are apt tion is thought to have much the bet ter of it in permaneney re are great drawbacks to the civilized state. The restraints on which it rests often result in grievous hardships in indi vidual cases. All we nced say is that it seems to be worth to society what it costs to individuals. comicbooks.com