The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-10-31
THE VERDICT OF HIS COUNTRY
The New York Tribune Recently
Said in Speaking of Mr.. Fowler:

Inc new Nth Congress District
should honor itself, as the old With
has done for four successive terms,
by electing Mr.. Fowler by decisive
majority. In this way il will be rep
resented by man of national stand
ing in Congress and before the coun-
try at large. 1t is not too much to
say that Mr.. Fowler's growth as q
public man has exceeded that of any
Of his associates whose service in
the Congress is no longer than his
own. The one great reason for this
is that he has become worthily identi-
fed with subject of vital import
ance to the country. Great issues
make great men; but the men must
possess themselves the elements of
greatness in order to respond to the
opportunity when it calls.
This Mr.. Fowler has done. He
was pioneer of financial and cur
rency reform in Congress-one of the
| first two or three resolute and cour-
ageous members who dared advocate
the gold standard at a time when,
, with the exception of themselves, all
Congress was divided between free
silver and bimetallism In common
with all reformers, he was ridlculed
then; but those who laughed the
loudest are now numbered among
the most devoted of his faith. His
view of our financial situation from
the first has been as comprehensive as
it is sound. Seven years ago he ad-
vocated the same propositions of
financial and currency reform con-
tanned in the Fowler Bill'' now
pending. Then these propositions
were derided as impractioable or
criticised as extreme today the entire
press of the country, with few ex-
ceptions. is demanding that they
shall be enacted into law.
The subject of finance is the most
difficult of all public questions to
comprehend. 1t smells of the lamp
it exacts hard, monotonous, constant
labor. There is nothing dramatic
about its service, no opportunity
for the spectacular, no occasion for
popular appeal or burst Of eloquence.
Public men shun it, even as they
shun that dry committee work of nm
ending figures, through which McKin-
lley and Dingley accomplished their
lgreat service to the country. The
harder the task the greater should be
the reward. When a public man
does his duty faithfully and we'll,
the reciprocal duty of continued
and increased confidence de-
wolves upon his constituency. In this
way he and they join in serving the
common veal.
Mr.. Fowler, in the advocacy of
his measure, has spared no expense.
He believes that high educational
demand has been made upon him by
reasons of his identifications in the
public mind with financial and cur
rency reform, and most generously
does he respond to it. 1t is an un-
usual thing, if the ordinary concep-
tion of our representatives is true, for
Congressman to spend his own
money, instead of the peoples, in adj
vocating and explaining the legisla-
tion in which he is interested. With
out counting the very wide distribu-
tion which Mr.. Fowler gave to his
speech of 1897 "a speech, by the way,
on finance which has served as
treatise and thesaurus ever since),
he, at his own expense, recently has
distributed over one million copies of
his report on the Fowler bill, ''and
/ is about to distribute to almost the
same extent his great speech of the
| last session.
1t is a conservative estimate to say
that. simply ana as matter of
course. because so his duty seemed to
point, he has expended $780, 600 in his
effort to enlighten the public mind
on the subject of finance.
There has been no hope of reward
in Mr.. Fowler's propaganda; but it
has come to him Notwithstanding, in
the national reputation he enjoys as
one of the leading thinkers on one of
the most needed reforms of the day.
How vital and insistent these
financial and currency reforms are
may be judged from single instance.
By course of irrefutable reasoning,
Mr.. Fowler shows in his report that
the provisions Of the Fowler bill"
would bring about a saving in the
interest account Of the people, the
laborers, farmers, manufacturers,
and producers. of 5000, 900, 900 a year.
In the light of such results as this.
the people of the country clearly see
that he is working for them, and
their demand, clearly voiced as has
been said, by the press of the country,
will direct Congressional action. In
the adoption of the gold standard and
the funding of the debt into per cent
gold bonds, Mr.. Fowler has already
seen two of his propositions crystal
lized into law. The others will come
slowly but surely with opportunity,
and the people OF the country look to
the voters of the With District to do
their part proudly by returning Mr..
Fowler.
Thousands of Mr.. Fowler's con-
stituents who have called Upon him
to perform the multitudinous minor
duties which make the Congress
life such a busy one can attest to
his faithful and assiduous care for
their interests. Two concrete results,
due solely to his indefatigible zeal.
stand out prominently in the work of
the past Congress. To him, and to
him alone, is due the appropriation
of $l35, 600 for new public building,
at Elizabeth, and of 1906, 600 for the
deepening of the Kill Won Kull and
the Arthur Kills, that great water
way upon which the prosperity Of his
district is so dependent. 1t may be
added that this latter appropriation
was only secured by first procuring
q resurvey of the waterway and the
recommendation of the engineer that
such improvement was necessary.
Such an achievement is the more
significant in view of the fact that
never before has the city of Eliza
beth received the benefit of nation
al appropriation.
These amounts, so secured,
together with his own personal bene-
factions, make the sum Of