Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1896-02-05

Grams whose claims had been rejected
at the pension bureau, and in the benefi.
cent dependent pension law, which
was the work of his hands. The pas
sage Of this law was secured only after
a long and bitter struggle, but
its Justice has stood the test Of
years Of trial, and at the last
meeting of the Grand Army of the Re
public, at Louisville, received the de-
cided approval of that body. Incidental
mention may also be made of his re-
port on Cleveland's wholesale veto
slaughter of soldier relief bills during
his first administration; a document
which demonstrated the president
hostility and duplicity, and which
dealt with forceful ability on the abuses
Of the veto power. This report was
circulated during the first Harrison
campaign with telling effect.
The Debs Instruction is still fresh in
the minds of all, for it cannot be for
gotten. No such interruption to the
commercial pursuits of great people
ever occurred in country not retching
in the throes of formally proclaimed
civil or foreign war. Encouraged by
the success which had attended their
operations, the leaders Of this move
ment sought legislation in congress
which would give security to their
further proceedings and absolve the
participants from responsibility. They
had induced senator to pre-
sent and urge resolution
which granted this immunity.
Whereupon, by concerted action, hun
dreds of kilograms were shoWered upon
senators and representatives demand
ing their support of the Kyle resolution.
The reply to this demand by Senator
Davis was the only one which was in
slant, direct and effective. Within
half an hour, of the receipt of the only
telegram which asked for an answer,
he sent back one which found it's way
to the public, and before the day was
over, people everywhere were reading
it with admiration. The text of that
answer is as follows:
81 have received your telegram. I
will not support Senator Kyle's resolu-
ton. 1t is against your own real well
fare. 1t is also blow at the security,
peace and rights of millions of people,
who never harmed you or your associ-
ates. Ny duty to the constitution and
laws forbid me to sustain a resolution
to legalize lawlessness. The same duty
rests upon yourself and your associates.
The power to regulate commerce among
the several states is vested by the con-
stitution in congress. Your associates
have usurped that power by force at
Hammond and other places, and have
destroyed commerce between the states
in these particular instances. You are
rapidly approaching the overt act of
levying war against the United States,
and you will find the definition of that
act in the constitution. I trust that
wiser thoughts will regain control.
You might as well ask me to vote to
Dissolve the government.
All who remember those exciting days
will recall how this message illumined
and vivified the darkness and paralysis
that hung broodingly over the land. It
was written in no spirit of arrogance,
but as the kindly, yet firm, counsel of
one who had spent his best years and
spowers as the steadfast friend of work
ingmen, and by the vast majority of
those to whom it was addressed, it has
not been unappreciated or misunder
stood. Its effect was almost marvellous.
For week the administration had
been paltering with it, and it was not
until the echoes of the universal ap-
plause with which it was greeted
reached the White House that the
power Of the government was invoked.
The oratory of Senator Dauis is char
acterized by gravity and intensity, and
is the farthest possible removed from
the sonorous, orotund, gestulatlve style
known here and the world over as
American spread-eagleism. He never
loosens the national bird from her
perch simply to hear her scream and
witness the Tapping of her wings to-
ward the empyrean. But while out of
full vocabulary he writes better than
most scholars, he speaks better than he
writes. His truest measure can be
taken when he speaks extemporaneous-
ly on a subject of breadth and impor-
lance. Then he displays his ablest
powers and compels attent ion. He is
never heard in frivolous debate, and for
this reason he is one of the, few SEN
ators who never talks to vacant seats in
the senate chamber.
Senator Davis is a man of studious
habits. If he were not man of affairs
he would grow into book worm. AS
it is, he grudges the time as half ill
spent which keeps him from his library
And it is library which any scholar
might gloat over In literary way ne
has his fads as most men have. His
pet one is Shakespeare, of whose works
and time he has been an ardent student
since childhood. He has studied
Shakespeare on various lines, and on
one, some years ago, he published vol
ume, held in repute by Spakespearean
scholars, entitled ''The Law in
Shakespeare. " Another of his fads is
Napoleon; and there are few works. in
English or French, relating to him or
the events of his period, which are not
to be found on the senator library
shelves, Another is the great Fox, of
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