The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-06-29
DAVID K. FRANCIS.

thooc WHICH loretOlu Ill lu&uDrlOuS
accents how David r. Francis, if
elected governor, would prove an
enemy to the agricultural interests of
the state.
These morbid fancies seem to have
been cherished by'two classes - Uthe
radical republicans, whose love for
has heretofore only been
by maligning and abusing it;
and t2) by a class of democrats who
had axes to grind in other directions,
and whose interests or prejudices
caused them to see crooked.
We were told that Mr.. Francis was
a grain gambler, that he made his
money by dealing in options rather
than by the legitimate methods of the
merchant. This, in spite of the fact
known of all men who cared to inquire,
that he had not made an option trade
since the day he was nominated for
mayor three years before, and that
the house OF which he is the head
handles as much if not more actual
grain than any other west of the Miss
issippi river, a house that has exported
to Europe during the past eleven
months over IL 900 900 bushels of corn
and wheat.
We were also told that If Mr.. Francis
was elected governor he would use his
power as such to defeat just demands
tor legislation by the agricultural
classes; that he would i~nterpose him
self aud his influence, presumably his
veto, to prevent the passage of laws
against option dealing, against trusts
and other trade conspiracies, and in
favor OF state regulation of elevators
and warehouses. The changes were
rung on these tunes-down one and up
another highway they were varied
upon all the notes In the gamut. DEM
ocrats who wished to defeat MI. Fran
els began them they spoke them on
the hustiDgs, and they printed them
in newspapers. Despite all these MIR.
Francis was nominated on the first
ballot in a large and thoroughly rep
r%esentatiye convention, as the delega-
tons had been knowingly and care
fully selected by the electors in the
various counties. Then came the turn
of the republicans. With avidity they
seized upon the material manufactured
to their hand, and as thick as leaves in
V~allambrosa showered down In every
city, town and hamlet in Missouri, at
every cross roads and at every school
house, thousands upon thousands, aye,
millions, OF these prophecies, repro
duced upon little red and green and
yellow slips of paper. They came in
every mail, parcels from the stores
were filed with them, they offended
the light of day with their ugliness and
their iterance from every tree and post
and dry goods box. Such a flood Of
vltuperation in ink was never before
poured upon the head of mortal man.
And yet he survived it; instead OF
defeat he achieved victory; he was
elected governor of the great state of
Missouri, and entrusted with its chief
executive power. The crucial test, a
legislative session, has come and gone,
and how has he demesned HIMSELF
Have prophecies that he would be
to his duty for selfish ends
c)lne true, or have they tailed Of fulfill
ment2
In his appointments to various po-
sitions in his gift he has looked first of
TO the public interest. No man has
been chosen who was not OF the high
est character as a citizen or who did
possess peculiar fitness for tue
work to be entrusted to him.
The measures which it was vainly
hoped by his enemies he would antag-
onize were (1) the act to prohibit
fictitious and gambling transactions in
products; (2) fhe bill
against pools, trusts and trade con-
.piracies, and (3) the bill providing for
state inspection of grain and the regu.
alton of elevators and warehouses.
We heard a democratic speaker say
10 one OF the most intelligent audiences
which we saw during the anvas that
the people could trust David r. Fran
els; that even il ii were true that he had
L business which ran counter to the
general interests, that his ambition
was to make a good governor, that he
was a thoroughbred, and that he
would sacrifice o hundred such bust
Desses, if necessary In the line of his
duty, for his general welfare.
We do not assert that the necessity
has arisen, or thst he has had TO do
violence TO either bis convictions or
his interests, but we do say that he has
done his duty on these several Ques-
tons.
II was hoped he would not.
When the anti-option dealing bill
was on his desk kilograms few thick
aud fast asking the news. Did he
veto it? Not ct all; he never thought
of doing SO. 1t Is the law, and it is the
law with his name appended to it in
great big letters.
When the antitrust and pool bill
came to him the same thing occurred.
Prophecies we're renewed. He wouldn't
sign it. OF course he wouldn't. But he
did.
Last, but not least, of the agitation,
was that in regard to the grain and
elevator bill. This time the prophecies
were bound to be verified. The gov,
ernor was known to own some eleya-
tor stock. o, he wouldn't sign that
one. The people Of the state wanted
it; they had been trying for ten years
to secure the law. bnt the governor
and his friends had interests the other
way, and the inspection bill wonld
certainly be vetoed. Well that prophe-
cy, like all the rest, went under, for
the governor signed that bill, too.
The moral of it all is, that a manly
man will do his duty In public place,
even though here and there he may
have an interest. or a supposed inter-
,ast fhaf NAV haua m onIHa. II 70 ua.x,