The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-05-31
TOM mARcurs PLATFORM.


conditions that now exists in this
Territory. When it came to electing
delegates to the South McAlester
convention last February, he was
neither for or against any incorpor-
alton and he hesitated before he
joined with Leo Bennett in issuing
call. He has not nor never will be
identified with any movement that
is outside the domain of politics.
That is his only forte and he has pass
ed all the chairs in political dema-
gogy.
Tom Marcum analysed is politi-
clan with no fixed principles but
spoiIs. There are men here in Mus
kogee who have said that If he was
elected national committeeman and
VIM. j. Bryan was elected president
that territorial pie-counter would
be established here; that there would
be regular office-brokerage estab-
| lishment in this city. Those who
have contributed to his campaign
fund have been promised, not alone
office, but indemnity, and men are
working for him solely because he is
from Muskogee, acknowledging that
| he has no other claim to their sup
port. And these men know him.
They know his record. They know
that until he left the republican party
in 1881 and became democrat that
he was peripatetic politician. First
whig, then a black abolitionist,
then a greenbacker, then again a
republican, but under any and all
flags a demagogue; without q fixed
political principle, he seeks to be
bonored, without a blush of shame
he misrepresents facts, distorts truth
and multiplies his falsehoods to cover
up his duplicity, that he may dictate
to the people of the Territory who
shall be their servants. Coming
from Arkansas he failed eight years
ago to receive the endorsement of
the senators of that state for the Of
fee of district attorney, and had no
part or parcel in the councils of the
then reigning party-a nonentity
in theory and an unknown quantity
in the makeup of political blue
books. His nomination four years
years ago was an accident Joined
with the knowledge that democracy
would bow out in that year. AS a cam
paigner, he was seat to Kentucky
and the state went for the first
time in years republican. AS samem-
Der of the national committee he
would never have met with that body
had he not been furnished with free
transportation, and the last meet
ing of the national committee would
certainly have gone on record with
out his presence had he not been
furnished mileage to and from the
place of it's meeting.
Four years ago when the campaign
fund was made up in this city, three
men connected with the First Ma
tional bank here furnished more
money than he and the democratic
club combined, and the man he sup
erseded gave more individually than
any other man in the Territory and
ne was a national banker at the
time, and yet Marcum claims that he
has given of his time and labor to a
greater extent than any man who
eyer held the office.
The people of the Chickasaw nation
have not and cannot hear of this
mans duplicity and double dealing
The false reports sent out from PaulS
Valley, from Wynnewood and other
towns is only wild exaggeration,
compared to the numerous false
hoods that he has gathered from the
platforms in this nation. To hear
him in his blatant demagogry mis-
represent his opponent is to remem-
Der that his mind is not capable of a
generous thought; to hear him or
the streets of Muskogee proclaim
the ovations he received in the
Choctaw and Chickasaw nations il
to be literally educated in goth CEN
tury Munchausenism; to hear him
promise this man and that man ar
office or place in the national con
vention, is to know that he has
promised goods that he cannot an {
never intends to deliYer.
We state what is absolutely anC
unqualifiedly true when we say that
men who have contributed to his
camp align fund have done it pro
testing that it was an outrage but
the conditions had to be faced sim
ply and solely because 1t was to
Muskogee's interests to do so. There
is not a dozen men of first class bus
mess or professional standing in thu
Greek nation who prefer Tom Mar
cum for national committeeman be
cause of his ability for the place
This is not the question here. 1t il
not his influence with Bryan, or il
the national committees per se., fol
any other man better or worse i
possible would have as much, but
is because Muskogee people thinl
they will suffer if they lose this office
Any Muskogee man could have go
the endorsement of the Muskoge,
club, had he been possessed of the