The Washington times., 1902-10-19
PECULIAR sDOINGS IN
MISSOURI POLITICS
Farmers Calm and Ward
Heelers Much Confused.
STONE WORKS LIKE BEAVER
After Vests Seat in Senate, But Fails
to Attract the People as He
Once Did.

Once Did.
Especial to the Washington Times.)
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Oct. 1S.-Missouri
politicians are in the air. In the rural
districts the farmers positively decline
to become excited. They have quit try
ing to save the country and have gone
to making money. Nothing the SPELL
binders can say interests them at all.
In the city of st. Louis nobobdy knows
what to expect. With prominent citi-
gems going to the penitentiary, ward
workers hiding out in Mexico. and dis
tinguished capitalists doing Europe in
cog" the political situation has be-
come SO badly mixed that It defies all
ordinary calculation.
William Joel Stone, who will succeed
Mr.. Vest in the Senate-if the Demo-
Gratis carry the Legislature-is working
like beaver. But there is none OF the
old-time enthusiasm of 1s96-days when
he drove the money changers from the
temple and put the hosts of plutocrscy
TO daily flight. Stone is good for as big
q crowd as any other Missourian, un-
less 1t is Uncle Frank Cockrell, way
out among the Bourbons. In former
years the simple announcement that
Stone would speak brought more people
into any Missouri town on any kind of
a day than could be squeezed into the
"opery'' house. II it is good day now,
the farmers pillow, and il it's bad day
they stay at home and count their
money.
Boom in Farm Lands.
Within the past eight months farmers
from Illinois and Iowa have been swoop
ing dowa on Missouri counties in the
central part of the State. They had sold
their home places for from $50 to sl!o
an s.cre. and came to Missouri to buy
land for $50 ard $50 an acre. They have
come by the hundreds to Boone. Saline,
Macon. Monroe, Randolph and Cass.
They were the first Republicans that the
natives of these counties had ever seen
who had money and were genteel. Such
a boom in farm land was never heard of
before Nobody asked credit for the land
he bought. 1t wss ali cash business.
The usual speakers have been sent by
the Democrats to these counties.
Without exception they have encoun
tered frost. Not one of these counties
into which the farmers of the North are
now pouring Tut has been good for, ar.y-
where from ? 300 to 1900 majority in
the pa st. 1t is fortunate thing for
the Democrats that these new farmers
can't vote this year.
In season and out of season, the apri-
cultural population into which this new
blood from the North has come has
marched to the front and voted
straight Democratic ticket. They would
vote that way this year if they voted at
all. But they seem to have forgotten
all about Andrew Jackson. The issues
growing cut of the war no longer con-
Germ them. Each farmer is an UNDER
study for ]. Pierpont Morgan. Their
minds have become commerclalized and
their hearts stony.
Politics Is Dead.
The Republicans are meeting with no
better success than the Democrats
There is even a greater Indifference
among the Republican workers. They
are more interested in harpooning
Aikens if they are Kerens rooters, and
Kerens II they are Aikens' henchmen.
than they are in eIecting anybody to Of
fee
In the Twelfth Congress district tSr.
Louisl, where there was a chance to de-
feat James J. Butler, each Republican
faction nominated a candidate to Oppose
him. Ed Butler. the father of James. is
under Indictment for bribery. Ed But
Ter is the old Democratic boss of St.
Louis, in purely a commercial pursuit.
however. Until his dealings with st.
Louis council, he never knew any poll
tics.
james j. Butler, his son, is chip of
the old block. He had a marvellous
record as a Congressman. In one brief
winter in Washington, IL is said, he sue
oeeded in slugging a waiter at the
Raleigh Hotel and getting into quar-
rel al a private club. His career as
Congressman ended when the Repub-
lican majority found that the registra
tion in tho Twelfth district had beei:
padded 1900 votes. The Republicans
in St. Louis were incapable of dealing
with the new situation which the num-
cipal upheaval brought about Instead
of nominating a high-class ticket and
appealing 10 the better element in tn.
community. The Zeigenhein gang
swooped down on tie Republican pri
maries like a horde of vanials and car
tured everything in sighs. Then de-
cency fed the Republican machine.
Not Unusual District.
The Twelfth Congress district in st. |
Louis includes the very heart of the |
city. Market Street divides the city |
north and south. If line be drawn for |
fourteen blocks south of Market Street, |
and fourteen blocks north. and the dis
lance from the river front to Grand Ave-
nue. thirty-five blocks west be taken, you
have all there is of the Twelfth Congress
district.
This district is just about like any other