Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-09-26
BIG SLUMpINs IN NEBRASKA.
Republican OF Long Standing Quits
His Party.

republican OF Long Standing Quit:
His Party.
Il ONeill. Neb.-(Special.)-T Bry
an club of O'Neill is the proud pos
SCISSOR of the finest flag owned by any
tiful flag is the princely gift of Colene
Neil Brennan, a prominent hardware
merchant in this city. Colonel Bren.
nan is one of the best known republic
ans in the Elkhorn valley and has been
one of the pillars of the party for
twenty-five years. He was for several
years chairman of the republican. GEN.
tral committee Of Holt county and has
! contributed thousands of dollars to
| build up and strengthen .hat organiza-
| ton. He is simply business man and
not an office seeker.
TO your correspondent he said that to
| break with the republican party was
the most trying act of his life. He
says that he thought it over for weeks
and months, and that many a night he
would remain awake and roll in his bed
and toss, worrying and thinking over
what he should do. He is a firm be-
lever in republican institutions and in
the doctrine of equal rights for all. In
his business he daily saw the way the
trusts that deal in wire, nails oil and
many other things were plundering his
customers and gradually making every
business man practically an errand
boy for the trusts. He saw the party
for which he had done so much in
the warm embrace of Great Britain
and was disgusted. He watched the de-
velopment of it's carpet bag imperial
policy in the Philippines and after
thinking 1t all over he determined not
to be a party slave and announced his
intention to vote for Mr.. Bryan.
He is now at work as hard for Bryan
as he ever worked for Hayes. Garfield,
Blaine, Harrison, or Mckinley four
years ago. He was probably the most
intense supporter than Blaine had in
the county, and possibly in the state.
He still quotes proudly from Blaine.
while denouncing the greedy trusts and
stroying the once great republican
party.
A little bevy of republicans were dis
cussing one evening the great loss the
party sustained when Colonel Brennan
left it. One said, "It is a pretty big
hole in the bottom of the old ship
and another replied, "It does not look
to me like a hole in the old ship, it
looks as though the bottom fell out"
He did not meet with the abuse so COM
monty heaped on the heads of those
who leave the party of Hanna.
The local republicans all knew that
there was no more reliable man in Ne
knew he had spent dollars unseltishIy
for the success of the party where they
had contributed pennies. They cam
not accuse him of being a sorehead,
for he wanted no office. They deter
mined to make a final effort to get him
back into the ranks of Hanna by hav-
ing Dietrich, the republican candidate
for governor, interview him and try
to coax him back, or bulldoZe him back.
Dietrich called on Colonel Brennan, and
the following converse ton occurred:
Dietrich-Colonel, / am told you have
left the republican party?
Brennan-Yes, sir.
Dietrich-Don't you think you have
made a mistake?
Brennan-No.
Dietrich-Why did you leave 1t?
Brennan-For three reasons; 1 am
opposed to a British alliance, l want
an administration that will break up
the trusts, and 1 am particularly OPP
posed to the administration in the
Philippine affair.
Dietrich-I think we ought to shoot
HI out of the Filipinos.
Brennan-Your conscience may ap
prove of the purchase of people at $3.50
per head and then shooting them down.
but 1 do not think it is right and can
not vote for the butchery of a people
who have never done me a wrong.
Dietrich-Why. Brennan. You talk
like these crazy populists and d-n
fool democrats.
Brennan-I never thought it good
argument to abuse people, and don't
now. The people of the Philippine ISL
ands have built cities, homes, improved
farms, built schools, churches, and uni
versities. Whatever that country is,
they have made it. 1 have never done
anything to build up that country and
don't know any right that I would
have to take it away from them. This
government is only an aggregation of
individuals. You and I and everybody
else is the government, or we were be-
fore Mckinley assumed the powers of
dictator BY the way, Mr.. Dietrich,
what have ever done as a part of the
government or individually to give you
the right to deprive those Filipinos of
their government or to take their coun-
try away from them?
Dietrich-Well, we can lick them out
of their boots. anyhow.
Brennan-No doubt of that, Mr.. Diet
rich. but is it right for a nation of
seventy millions of people to slaughter
an inoffensive people and rob them of
their government?
Dietrio,l-Well, they are lot of reb-
els.
Brennan-That's what George III and
his cabinet said of our revolutionary
fathers. and. Mr.. Dietrich, don't you
think the republican party has sunk
pre-. ty low when the supporters of VIM.
bax,e ,,=a %bo