Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-02-28

| is made permanent; if not, some other
individual is selected for the per-
manent craftsmanship. The gentle
men who are to compose a majority
of the committee on resolutions have
already been selected" by the party
managers, and at the proper time,
upon motion, the appointment IS
made. The report of such committee
| is always foregone conclusion.
Each plank Of the platform has been
carefully scrutinized and considered
by the party leaders. Amendments
proposed by any member of the con-
vention are referred to the committee
on resolutions without debate, and
without being read, and find a final
resting place in the waste basket.
| The first intimation which the dear
tpeople' ever have of what their
declaration of principles" is to be,
! is after the committee report has been
adopted by the convention, and the
platform is printed in the newspaper
as an item of news.
The most sDecious plea advanced
by the very able gentleman, in his
| speech against this measure, is his
sixth objection thereto, in which he
laments the asserted impossibility Of
nominating candidates because of
their nationality. | very much regret
to learn that American politics have
become SO degraded by partisan
strife, that men who lay claim to re-
spectability, and who hold high
office under republican administra-
ton, may stoop to advance such a
proposition as this before the legisla-
ture of a state, without blush Of
shame or without being Kissed into
| silence
1t is gross and objectionable in
suit to every citizen of the state, and
especially to those very nationalities
| Of which he makes mention in his
hypocriticaI expressions of sympathy
| have never known of a Scan
dtnavian, an Irishman, or German,
! who became a candidate for Office sim
| ply because his nationality. So far as
l have been able to observe, the
| citizens of foreign birth, who have
sought political preferment, have
done so upon their merits, and not
| upon their nationality American
| citizenship has enabled them to en-
| joy the rewards of ability and charac-
| ter, and not one of them has ever
| fallen SO low in his estimate of him
| self, or his fellow cOuntrymen, in
! their relation to politics, as this es-
innate placed upon them in the at
| tempt to defeat this measure by this
| covert appeal to race prejudice, made
to the foreign born members of this
Legislature, in the hope of influencing
their vote thereby. | am convinced
that Mr.. Monahan has sadly under
estimated the intelligence of his
auditors. From the lofty pedestal of
his own egotism, he has not been
able to measure the true stature of
those he has been looking down upon.
| | feel justified in the assertion
that such an element as race preiu-
dice and preferment, should be eradt,
Gated from politics. l do not recog-
nize any such element in politics as
| Observation-Disclosures, Irish-Ameri-
cans, or Communications. To me
| they are simply Americans, entitled
| to equal rights and privileges before
the law, and in politics. No man has
| any claim or title to consideration
in politics, no matter what his
nationality may be, except as an
American citizen, heart and soul in
sympathy and accord with American
ideas, and American institutions. I
know of no reason which has been. or
can be, advanced, why such should
not receive under the proposed law
the same full measure of recognition
for character and ability as they have
heretofore enjoyed.
The seventh and last specific obiec.
ton made to the bill by the gentle.
abolishes representative government
and is populistic in it's tendency"
have been laboring under the i'm
preston that this measure was pro-
posed by the people, and declared in
the platform of the state convention,
and ratified by majority of 10000
because it was expected that it would
abolish those glazing evils of the
present system which threaten most
insiduOusly the very foundations of
representative government. 1t is de-
signed to preserve representative gov
eminent and not to destroy it, 1t
| i'll becomes one in the full enjoyment
of the profits and emoluments of the
present system, to attempt to dis
credit law so widely demanded,
and so emphatically approved at the
polls, by raising his single voice to
| eXclaim that all these are ''populists, ="
and that he is the only republican
qualified to Judge of the merits of this
| proposed reform. Denunciation is
not argument. 1t is not enough 10
| say of a measure of reform, that it is
populistic," and that all men who
support it are 'pOpulists." Malice
! and inyestive is the property of a
small soul. My friend cannot es-
tablish his case by the use of offensive
epithets. The republican party can
| not be sWerved from it's great purpose
of liberty and equal rights, by the
! clamOrOus mouthings of some de-
mented egotist lost in the maze of his
own imaginings. l have heard in
dividuals who pretended to be sane,
assert that they had not left the
party, but the party had left them"
In the nature of things such a thing
could only happen when, in the on
ward march Of the host of freedom
and progress, he had chosen to remain
| behind.
This disposes of the specific obiec-
| lions in their order as stated by Mr..