Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-08-16

Mr.. Walsh always is, but this year he
is even more so than ever. He looks
well and says he is feeling fine. He
was jauntily attired in a shirt waist, !"
and wore rough rider hat, which be-
comes him. was exceedingly anx-
ious to get an interview with him, and
after half an hours futile attempt to
get him to talk to me in the hotel lob
by, | managed to drag him upstairs to
the parlor, he all the time protesting
that he didn't know a thing about
state politics.
Il want you to dictate political sit
uation story for the Courier" said l,
land | won't take no for an answer"
We'll, all right he replied, and set
tied himself comfortably on the sofa
and began as follows:
81 believe we will carry every state
that we carried in 1896. We will make
a sure gain in Kentucky, Maryland,
West Virginia, Indiana, and Michigan,
with the balance in our favor in Min
nesota, New York, California, Illinois,
and Ohio. The election of VIM. ].
Bryan is absolutely insured at this
date if we didn't put out another cam
paign document or send out single
speaker The sole problem of the
campaign will be to prevent the raping
of the ballot box, a thing to which the
democratic national committee will
lend it's strongest efforts. In my judg-
ment enough states were fraudulently
counted for Mckinley in 1896 to
change the result, and we hope to
have vigilance committee in every
precinct in the United States who are
determined, strong men, and who will
make it an exceedingly perilous I'M
dertaking for any man to buy a vote
| or return false count.
"Mr. Bryan's notification speech at
Indianapolis l believe to be the great
est effort of his life and in it l think
| he absolutely meets and answers ey-
cry argument advanced bys the imper-
| 1alists. 1t has created an immense
sensation in the east and has caused
many people who have been hitherto
| in doubt as to what to do, to align
themselves with the democracy. No
speech could have been made that
would appeal more strongly to the pa
| trlOtlc citizens who have more regard
for the principles upon which the re-
| public is founded, than they have for
| the dollar. In 1896, while the demo-
| cratic masses were imbued with ire
| mendous earnestness and enthusiasm,
! the whole party organization was hon
| eycombed with treason. We had to
| remove several members of the nation
al committee itself, as well as demo-
cratic chairmen in doubtful states, by
reason of their lack of fidelity to the
! party. At the time that the notifica
| ton meeting was held in New York
there was not enough money in the
| hands of the committee to express the
| secretary's books from New York to
Chicago. In addition to this money
| less and disorganiZed condition we
were in, the columns of republican pa
pers were filled with names of promi-
nent democrats who were leaving us,
and the names of newspapers, always
| heretofore democratic, that were ad-
vocating the election of Mckinley.
These conditions of four years ago
are reversed in this campaign. The
party stands a reunited party. AL
most all the democrats who left in
1896 are earnestly with us this year,
and thousands of the best republicans,
men who were present at the birth
| of the republican party, and who as
sisted in building it up to the great
! party 1t has become, are declaring
their intention to support Bryan and
to save the republic, and it would re-
quire corps of the most able mathe-
maticians to even keep partial track
of the men who are coming into the
democratic party, and to the support
of our ticket. Scores of papers that
supported Mckinley in 1896 are sup
| porting Bryan today, and it is evident
to any man who is an observer, that
the entire drift is to Mr.. Bryan. The
honest vote of the country will elect
him by tremendous majority and as
said before, the sole problem of
democratic committees, everywhere,
is to prevent the corruption of the
ballot box by the INSCRIPTIONS use
of unlimited funds.
81 believe that we will get 80 per
cent of the gold democrats who left
us in 1896. With reference to the
German vote, l believe we will get
practically all of the German demo-
cratic vote, large part of which Nc
Kinley got in 1896, and in addition
we will make very important gains
from republican Germans who do not
desire to see the head of militarism
raised in this country and themselves
and their children doomed to per-
petual war taxation.
I'm Iowa believe we will gain three
congressman, with a possible fourth, .
was all that Mr.. Walsh would predict
for his home state, and one of the
three mentioned he believes will be A..
c. Steck, of the sixth district.
Cato Sells Makes Statement.
The above interview from Mr..
Walsh is his language word for word,
and those who have heretofore had
experience with his predictions and
representations can take the above
for what it is worth.
After seeing Mr. Walsh 1 thought a
statement from Cato Sells, the most
prominent Iowa democrat today, would
also be of interest, and l found the
vinton politician in his parlor. After
stating what l wanted Mr.. Sells die
tated the following:
There seems to be a universal
growth of democratic interest and en-
thusiasm, far beyond expectations In
| fact there seems To ba daya1opin o.