The Price of Carrying Water for the Political Machine

Adam Schmidt of Walla Walla seems to be finding out that when a man permits himself to pull another's chestnuts out of the fire, he must furnish salve for the burns himself. Yet from the time of his arrest, Adam has been assured of all the bail he should need. During what the machine organ terms his 'detention at the county court house,' he is said to have been assured by friends that if he would 'stand pat' he would be released on bonds pending appeal, and that if the higher courts should affirm the sentence, Senator Ankeny would induce President Roosevelt to pardon him in short order. Everybody in Walla Walla knows that Adam Schmidt was simply acting as the hired tool of others when he paid the county clerk $39 for the naturalization of 13 Russians, and that the managers of the campaign for the machine ticket at the July city election were responsible for his conduct. It is not just that the hired man should suffer the full penalty for his crime while those who employed him to do their dirty work should go scot-free. But in order to soothe the wounds of Adam, he has been assured that his friends will 'go down the line' with him so far as financial aid can go—not so much for love of Schmidt as for fear of what he might divulge if he were deserted.