Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-09-10
CLARK SPEAKS IN AUDRAIN.
A Republican Minister Who Opposed
Mr.. Clark Was Not Up on His
tory-Wltten and Sims
Spoke.

tory-Wltten and Sims
Spoke.
CENTRALIA, Mo-, September al
things continue to run in the "Blood,
Ninth" as they are running now, b,
November Champ Clark will have Lit
tie opposition. The gold standard Re
publicans are anxious to find some
body who can beat him, and are meet
ing with very poor success. The,
swap horses on him continually, ant
invariably retire them to the stablel
after one heat.
After Judge Wind got his JACKIE
busted at Ellsberry, General Thomas
Of Illinois, came into Clark's distric
and literally ran away from the none,
issue, leaving the field to Clark. No
satisfied with these experiments, to-
day at a picnic in Audrain, north o
Centralia, they brought up Rev. Mr.
Bassford, "a NorthernM Methodist preach.
er from WellsviIle, late of South
Dakota, and one T. A. Witten, a gold
Democrat from Kansas City. b. o
Sims, Populist candidate for Congress
also was on hand.
There was a great crowd and 1t was
a great day for CLARK and true DEM
ocracy. Witten spoke an hour, then
Sims half an hour, then Rev. Bassford
an hour, and Clark wound up in two
hours address full of facts, logic and
sarcasm. His only reference to the
Populists was the statement that il
the 9opulists were honestly in favor
of what they claimed to be they would
all vote for him, and that he believed
they were honest and would not waste
their votes this year.
Then he waded into Witten and
Bassford. The latter had discussed
the tariff, which seems to be the set
tied policy of Republicans in Missouri.
Bassford's information on the subject
appeared to be small. He made this
astounding assertion
"The Morrill, tariff bill was signed
by the last Democratic President prior
to Grover Cleveland"
Clark didn't believe he had heard
the preacher right, and he quietly in
quired:
"Mr. Bassford, did ! understand you
to say that James Buchanan signed
the Morrill, tariff bill? / Iwant to un-
derstand you correctly"
eyes," said the Dakota parson;
"that's what said"
Clark's face broke into a broad
smile, the Democrats chuckled and
the Republicans realized that another
champion of high protection was in
the hole. Bassford then sank weariiy
into his chair and Clark began thus:
"The Morrill, tariff bill was passed
many months after James Buchanan's
term expired, as temporary war
measure, and was signed by Abraham
Lincoln in the midst of the war. No
body then had the nerve to claim
that it was the permanent policy of
the Government. If my reverend
brother does not know more about
theology than about history, he's in a
bad fix. If he doesn't look out the
devil will get some of his parishioners
while he is trying to keep Prof. Tre-
loar out of my clutches"
He then summed up the tariff ques-
tion in few vigorous sentences, and
went directly into the financial ques-
tion, which he discussed in every
phase. Perhaps the most interesting
portion of his speech was his defense
of the Chicago Platforms criticism of
the Supreme Courts income tax de-
cision. He declared it to be the IN
alienable right of an American citi-
zen to criticise any public official for
any act, and that five Judges richly
deserved criticism for that outrageous
performance.
Reports from Audrain are that
Bryan and CLARK will carry the county
by 1000 majority, and the district by
between 1000 and 5000. Treloar's
skulking in the bushes and sending all
sorts of substitutes to meet Clark is
losing him the respect of decent and
fair-minded Republicans.