Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-11-01
CONFRONTS A CRISIS
WILL REPUBLICANS DIVIDE ON
TARIFF REVISION?
Significance of Speaker Henderson's
Refusal to Stand for Reelection on
a Platform Embodying the Iowa Idea
Of Tampering with the DingIey Law.

What is known as the Iowa idea has
blossomed and borne fruit 1t bios
somed at the Republican state conven-
lions of last month in the shape of a
resolution which pleads guilty to the
Democratic Indictment charging that
the tariff is the mother of trusts by
advocating such notifications of the
tariff as are required to prevent mo-
nopoly from sheltering itself under the
wings of protection Additional buds
have since appeared in the form Of
public statements by the authors of
the platform, Gov. Cummins and Di-
rector of the Mint Roberts, to the eff
feet that the people are being plum
dered by trust extortions md that the
only remedy lies in the introduction
of foreign competition as a means
of breaking down domestic prices.
So much for the poisoning of the
Iowa idea Now for the fruit. 1t ap-
pears in the letter from David B. Hen
derson, representative in Congress
of the Third Iowa district and Speaker
of the National House of Representa-
tives, declining the denomination al
ready rendered him by the unanimous
voice of his district on the ground that
he cannot consent to make the can
vass on a platform which inf1icts a
vicious stab upon the doctrine of pro-
lection to American labor and in
dustry. Speaker Henderson's letter is
as follows:
&C. A. Albrook, Chairman Notification
Committee, E1dora, Iowa:
MY Dear Sir-I have never an
swered the kind notice communicated
by you and your associates advising
me of my nomination for the eleventh
time by reclamation as the Repub-
ncan candidate for Congress for the
Third Congressional district of Iowa.
Reported conditions in the public mind
in my district upon public policies in
duced me to make this delay. Since
my return to the district 1 have made
a careful study of the sentiment in
the district and state, and I believe
there is no little sentiment, and
growing sentiment, among Republic
ans, that 1 do not truly represent their
views on the tariff question. Believ-
ing this condition to exist and know
ing that 1 do not agree with many of
my people that trusts, to which 1 am
and have been opposed, can be cured,
or the people benefited by free trade,
in whole or in part, 1 must decline to
accept the nomination so generously
and enthusiastically made. 1 have de-
voted twenty of the best years of my
life to the service of my people and
my country, and 1 have fought for
what I believe to be the best for the
farmer, the laborer and the business
interests of this district and state.
am grateful for the devotion that has
ever been accorded me, and to the
hour of my death / will hold in
grateful heart the memory of that de-
votion. l will give later on in some
detail my views and convictions on
our conditions and on public ques-
tions, and will state my reasons why
the Republican party and its policies
should continue in the confidence of
the voters of the United States, and
why the doctrines of the Democracy
should find no lodgment in the faith
and teachings of the Republican
party. Very truly yours,
I'd. B. Henderson"
Like a bolt from the blue came this
| remarkable letter. 1t was the political
sensation of the decade. 1t astonished
| people of all parties. 1t shocked and
| stunned the leaders and the rank and
| file of the Republican party. Joy and
| qualification it brought to all Demo
| Gratis and free traders; pride and Ella
ton it possibly brought to those gen.
| tlemen of whose progressive" ma
| chinations it was the direct conse-
| quence; CONSERVATION it undoubtedly
| brought to all who are genuinely de-
voted to Republican principles and
conscientiously concerned for the
| country's best and highest good. To
| the President and his group of sena-
| torial advisers in confidential conclave
| at Oyster Bay the announcement was
| a bombshell- Promptly the wires
flashed the following urgent message
| to Speaker Henderson:
| "Oyster Bay, Sept. II.
| Most earnestly ask that you recon
| slider your determination not to run.
1 Theodore Roosevelt"
| ]. w. Babcock, chairman of the Re
| publican congressional committee,
| wired from New York:
Hepburn and Hull are here and all
enter into our earnest protest against
action OF this kind by you. The Re
publican party that you have served SO
long and faithfully cannot part with
your services now"
From an organization which for
more than twenty years has been un-
swerving in Its devotion to the cause
Of protection and prosperity went for