Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-03-18

Legislature of the state shall be turn
ed over To- Lorimer and Yates. IN
other words. whether the republicans
of this state shall geld that which
has always been dear To them, name
~. the right To control the fortunes
of the party themselves or mcekIy
surrender that control to or permit
Yates and Lorimer to seize il and
dictate the affairs of the party i'm the
future. The veal or woe of the party
is involved in this issue. TIE repub-
Leans. therefore. cannot afford to
allow themselves to he misled as TO the
real issue by claims from any quar-
ter that the issue * whether Hop
kins. Mason. Dawes or any other re-
publican shall be sent to the United
States senate. There is no doubt
the party i'm this state would not fare
badly with any of these men in the
senate. but ii becomes every republic
can to reflect how the party would
fare bound hand and foot by a ma
chine such as Yates and Lorimer are
attempting tn inaugurate by secur-
ing control of the coming state CON
Vention.
The issue * a serious one with the
party i'm this state. Lorimer has
been the party dictator i'm Cook coun-
" since 1896 and has lost every local
election in that county since that
time. The men he forced on the tic
ket by his methods were defeated
because the party no where will
stand such dictation and the result
invariably is the defeat of such tic
kets. by the failure of disgusted re-
publicans to go to the polls or voting
directly against tickets put up in that
way. If this is the history of machine
politics in Chicago what must be the
result in the state if the Lorimer ma
chine and the governor and his>ap-
pointees who have been organized
into a machine to promote the po-
liticaI interests of Governor Yates.
combine to control everything even
the legislature of the state? These
are the serious things for the re-
publicanS everywhere to- consider and
wage relentless war against.
This combination made terms with
Hopkins. not because ii was interest
ed i'm his political welfare but because
they decided that by his candidacy
they could cover up their real pur-
pose. If they had felt strong enough
without Hopkins he would never have
been permitted to trespasS upon their
premises. If this combination had
believed its power was sufficient Lori
mer would have been the senatorial
candidate himself. II il well known
that he * an aspirant for senatorial
hOnors. He was Il candidate in 1897
after the machine. as IL existed then.
threw Madden over the breaS twCrk.
Lorimer was defeated by Madden.
The purpose of Lorimer and Yates
il 10 organize the most powerful die
tatorship in the republican, party that
was ever known. To accomplish this
il * necessary for them To secure
control of the coming state conven-
ton and Mr.. Hopkins was taken up
by them to conceal the barbed hook.
Every republican opposed To this
conspiracy should wake mp To the
Importance of protecting the party
against such results and see to il that
no delegate il sent to tine county con
vention i'm Macon county who will
vote to send single delegate To the
senatorial or state convention who
favors giving Yates and Lorimer con
troll of the senatorial or state con-
vcntiOn.