The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-09-02

Eddy's work in Oklahoma proved a sue
| cession of ovations Mr.. Eddy, in hi.
| addresses gave Dennis Flynn entire
| credit for the life of the free home:
measure This is the way he explained
the matter in his speeches, saying:
Who was the man chiefly responsible
for its passage; in season and out of sea
son, at the proper time, al the impropeI
time, at the right place, and the wrong
place. under all circumstances and al
occasions. Dennis t. Flynn was its most
enthusiastic advocate.
1T came up for passage in the house
of representatives. 1 was the ranking
member Of the committee on public
lands. The bill came before that commit
tee, and following the natural course of
legislation, 1 reported the bill. 1 did not
write all Of that report, however; most
of the data 1 got from the man who
studied the question as no other man in
the United States ever studied il, and
that is the delegate from Oklahoma.
THE bill came up for passage. l had
charge at that time. We succeeded in
getting unanimous consent for day in
which to discuss the measure At first
1 thought there was going to be no op-
position, and finally a gentleman came
to me and said he wanted at least an
hour to speak in opposition TO the meas
ure. This was the gentemlan who spoke
against it, Judge Mattox, a free silver
Democrat from the state of Georgia. 1
want to be absolutely fair; there were
many Democrats in the house of repre-
sentatives who came Loyalty to our sup
port. 1 could name them-Little of Ar
kansas; Bailey, Of Texas, and a great
many others-but it is the fact that I
have to emphasize at this time, that
practically all the opposition developed
and the only man who claimed time was
free silver Democrat from the state of
Georgia.
''It went over to the senate. The bill
was in charge of Compile Nelson. our
junior senator from Minnesota He i'm
mediately commenced a canvass Of the
senate, and found strong opposition A
Democratic senator from the state Of
Missouri, by the name of Cockrell an
nounced TO me that he would take the
whole session before he would allow the
bill to become a law. But Compile Mel
son, as we all call him in Minnesota,
wash I uOLH : yesterday anu SO ne watch
ed his chance and he sent a counIe Of
friends to invite this gentleman into a
restaurant to take some refreshments.
and while he was gone he asked unani-
nous consent and the senate passed the
bill
Then it went to the president of the
United States, and the last act was per-
formed. He signed it. It became law
and when your delegate returned he
brought with him as a souvenir the pen
with which the president had signed the
bill
Now, I believe my friends, that in the
years yet to come, when this country has
become a great and wonderful country
when the homestead portions of South
Dakota and North Dakota and Minneso-
ia have become thriving, populous states,
when the humble homes of the frontiers
men have been supplanted by magnif1-
cent farm houses, with parlors and pi-
amos and pictures, that on the walls of
the descendants of the early homestead
ers will be two pictures, that of Galusha
Grow, the originator of the first free
homes bill and beside that will be the
picture of Dennis Flynn. the originator
and the chief promoter of the last free
homes bill. And this will be pointed out
in generations yet to come as the two
men in the United States who conferred
the greatest legislative benefits on the
common people of this country in secur-
ing the enactment of measures that will
give land to the landless and homes to
the homeless.
referring again to the ct Louis con-
vention. I have always considered tn 1T
a triumph. I say here tonight. calmly,
deliberately, meaning every word I say,
that I would rather have been the au-
thor Of that free homes plank in the Re
publican platform in 1898, rather have
had the honor Of originating it and Sc
curing it's passage in the committee on
resolutions and its adoption by the con-
vention, than to have been the nominee
of that convention.
Now. I understand that there are Ger
tain forces in this territory that are in
sisting that your delegate had nothing 10
do with the passage Of that measure. 1
took up a paper published in the remote
part of the territory. I will not denounce
It by name. that insisted that Eddy was
the man who passed the FIRE homes bill
Out in my country they are insisting
that-the Populists and Democrats are
that It was Dennis Flynn who passed
the bill, and so I wrote 70 Dennis that
I did not see any way for us to get out
of the question but for him to come up
and run for congress in Minnesota and
let me come and run for congress in Ok
Iahoma But I want to So that was
there: I was acquainted with the meas
ure from the beginning to the end;
from the Fifty-fourth congress until It
became law in the Fifty-ffth. 7 do
not think that there was a detail that
ESCAPED nv attention. and 7 say here
that the man who was most responsible
for the passage Of that bill was Dennis
E,l,-rn If Oklahoma.