The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-01-23
THE WEEKLY TRIBUNE.
POWER.
SATURDAY. JANUARY %. 1892.

Some men achieve greatness, and som'
have it forced upon them. Tom Powe
has neither achieved it, nor has it beer
forced upon him, but he has jumped
into notoriety at a single bound. a few
days ago he was known, where known al
all, as one Of Il brace of men who occupy
seats in the United States senate which
r~ightfully belong to tho Hons. w. a
Clark and Martin Maginnis. To-day the
eyes of the reading men of this great
nation are focused upon him. And he
attracted thcm all by ii little speech he
made in Helena The other day. 1t was
not a long speech. nor a brilliant speech,
nor one that will I've preserved upon The
pages of history beside the burning elo.
uucncc Of Cicero or D~rmosthenes. but il
was Il burner all the same.
His subject was a dry one-the irriga-
ton question buthc clothed it with gar
ments dripping with the eyudations Of Il
vcnonous tongue. and the drippings fell
upon Justice Field OF the United States
supreme court, and upon United States
Senator Warren OF Wyoming. and Incl
d~entully upon Col. Wilbur +. Sanders
The discussion Of his subject did not re-
quire the bringing in the names of these
gentlemen. lie could have emphasized
his points and clinched his arguments by
legitimate reasoning. But what does
Tom Power know about reasoning: With
ii skip, hop, and a jump he bounded from
California into Wyoming, and from
thence on Justice Fields neck in Wash
ingtOn. He didn't discuss his subject,
but asperscd men and criticised the ac-
ton of the United States senate.
Power set out to show that the Salt
Lake resolution. which recommends the
cession of the arid lands to the states
and territories III which they lie, was the
output Of a deep and concocted plan"
to throw those lands into the hands of Il
huge corporation. He confessed it was
some time before he discovered there was
a darkcy Of hcrculean proportions con-
CtdItV Ill lIlt lIliedJloh NObblilt. pui lc
found him out and sized him up when
the senate refused to pat him Power,
not the darkey) on the irrigation COM
mitteo, and his name (the darkey's, not
Powers is railroad" Mr.. Power also
makes the grave charge that the action
Of the Salt Lake congress was precon-
ceived and prearrangod before the con
gress met" and declared that the Mon
tana delegates didn't understand the sit
uation.
Now, all this, coming from Tom Power,
would be looked upon in Montana AS
harmless rot il he had not dragged in
the name of a MAJ whose shoe latchcts
he is unworthy to unbuckle in his dis
connected jargon before the convention.
In order to impress upon that body the
unusual gravity of the situation and the
danger to which the arid lands of the
country are exposed through the insid-
ious en~croachmcnts OF a railroad cor
pOratlnn, Mr.. Power charged that Justice
Field is Lobbying To get judges appointed
TO the bench who favor turning over our
mineral landa f., land Grant roads CotId
a more serious cburnr he mndc onains,
a su,rroc court iuiro than Ibis. If
tr,a .Juc,;ra E;cII should racs i, hi. roc
donation r,o,o ,bc lnncb at once. If nm
truc and b~,sr,css Thomas G. Power 10
crav., u.u,,,tly ,bo ro,.,yri-
So