The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-09-08
The TWO GOPHER SENATORS.


nesota in the upper house of Congress
have made their first speeches in the
campaign OF 1900. Cushman X.
Davis delivered his grafton before the
Hamilton club of Chicago and was
applauded and Kissed by his Repub-
lean audience. Knute Nelson read
his to his neighbors at his home in
Alexandria and escaped the insult to
which his colleague was subjected in
the Windy City. Both speeches We're
printed in full in the Twin City organs
of McKinleyism and occupied several
columns of space. Very few, if any,
read them from beginning to end,
for life is too short to waste in their
perusal.
After CHANGING them over hurriedly
we are frank to say that Senator
Davis made the best of a bad cause.
| His address, from IL political stand
point, is infinitely superior to that of
Senator Nelson. The best REPUTATION
of his fallacious arguments can be
found in his own famous essay on
Modern Feudalism" which he read
at the University of Michigan at the
beginning Of his public career in Mill
nesota; for it is truly the very antith-
esis of that given by him last week
before the bOisterous members Of the
Hamilton club. Gladstone COM
menced his public life as tory and
terminated it as a radical: Davis be-
gin it as a radical and is now tory
Listen to the following in confirmation
Of what we say, and compare it to
what he said last week in Chicago in
behalf of the grasping corporations
that stand behind William Mckinley
and his oriental despotism:
"The spirit of feudalism walks on
the earth and haunts the institutions
of today in the great money and rail
road corporations, with their control
of all our finances and of the National
highways; their occupation of great
domains; their power to tax; their
cynical contempt for law; their sorcery
to debase most gifted men to the
capacity Of splendid slaves; their pol
luton of the ermine of the Judge and
the robe Of the senator: their aggrega-
ton MS one man of wealth so enormous
as to make Croesus seem pauper:
their picked, paid and skillful retaincrs.
who are summoned by the messengers
of electricity and appear upon the
wings of steam. Legislators are
bought and sold. The vulgar lob
hyist controls legislation. the law
makers being but his puppets. fashion
ing statutes to suit his DESIRES"
1t is hard to belive that Senator G.
X. Davis. the Paris peace commits
sionar. the advocate of corporations
ard the promoter of Imperialism. is
the man who gave utternnce to the
foregoing passage. Twenty five years
after its delivery he stigmatizes the
representatives of Democracy as
American Boxers" for saying what
he himself said with such vehemence
before lie became the picked, paid
and skillful retainer" of the pluto,
cratic horde In whose service he is
now engaged. When G. X. Davis
made the address from which we have
quoted there were not many Rockefel-
lers. Huntingtons, and Hills in the
country with their vulgar lobbyists"
to control legislation. Now there are
hundreds of them who employ gifted
men" like Davis to aid them in their
feudalistic robbery.
The address of Senator Nelson is
very disappointing from every point
of view. 1t Is solely devoted to the
Philippine Islands and is tissue of
Misrepresentation of the Filipino
leaders which he ought to feel
ashamed of. He says the Fifipinos
fired the first shot on the Americans,
and that it was treacherous, das-
tardly act for which there was no ius.
LITIGATION. Instead of following ''the
little Norwegian" in his tortuous
meanderings we will quote Senator
Hoar against him. In n letter writ
ten on Jan. II, 1900, that Republican
statesman says:
Il have read many of the dispatches
of General Otis. A few of these have
been published. Some of them have.
so far, been withheld from public