The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1902-10-17
ADDRESS OF CONGRESSMAN
GARDNER
CONTINUED from page one.)


the present administration of Michigan.
The challenge stands out free to all to
lay finger on one single case of corrup-
ton. Next to personal character, the
faithful discharge of the duties of Office
are what is demanded. But never have
the duties of the executive Offices of
Michigan been better discharged than
during this same administration But
the whole attack of the democrats seems
to center on the personality of Governor
Bliss Who is Governor Bliss2 The
question is one which the democrats
have forced on the republicans, com
pletely ignoring national issues.
Governor Bliss was born ON a farm in
New York sixty-fve years ago and,
! added the Congressman have walked
over the fields which his father cleared
and worked and where young Aaron
worked Then when the war broke out
he enlisted as an ordinary private but so
well did he serve, and so marked was
his bravery that he won steady promo
ton, and, without single backward
step, advanced until the end of the war
found him captain of cavalry.
After the war he came to Michigan
with but five dollars to his name. He
found work in the winter of 1866 in a
lumber camp where he drove teams and
did such other work as he could find.
The next winter he cut and skidded
logs for himself. The third winter he
went into the business on larger scale.
What are some OF the positions which
he holds now? He is at the head Of
large enterprises and interested as stock
holder and director in still more. He
owns and is numbering 81, 900 acres of
timber in Arkansas and owns and runs
fifteen hundred acre farm with two
hundred acres of sugar beets on it.
When he was a boy he had dreamed of
being rich. That meant to him at that
time being worth ten thousand dollars.
The democrats call him weakling!
Why he has given away in single year
| to charitable causes more money than
| constituted his entire ideal of wealth in
his young manhood days. Is man
| who is director in and manager of the
great enterprises in which his counsel is
accepted as of the highest value, man
who can and does give away such sums
for charitable purposes weakling?
For thirty-seven years he has lived in
| Saginaw and served the people of Sagi-
nav and been respected by them. He
has served eleven years as member of
the school board and five of them as it's
| president. He has served as alderman,
| supervisor, state senator, member of
congress and governor. The Mt. Pleas
| ant Indian school is a monument to his
strength of purpose and ability. The
annex to the Soldiers Home which per-
mitted the unfortunate old soldier to
have the wife of his youth near him
while being taken care of by the state,
which he served in his younger days, is
monument to his strong personal
| character. He got public building
| for Saginaw after it had been tried for
years, and if any one thinks that it is
an easy matter to get public building
bill through congress, added Congress
man Gardner, just let him ask Con-
gresham Fordney who got an appro-
priation through for public building
| in Owosso. 1t takes hard work and
lots of push and no weakling gets them
through.
The challenge to lay finger on one
stain in the private life of Governor
Bliss cannot be taken up. No one dares
accept it.
The total expenses of the govern
or's office have been less than the post
age bill alone during preceding admin
istrations, and the tax this year will be
a million dollars less than a year ago.
The assaults on Governor Bliss are to
be welcomed. 1t gives chance to show
what kind Of man occupies the gov
ernor's chair, and what kind of an ex-
ecutive Governor Bliss has made. The
democrats have even had the poor taste
to loudly criticise his grammar, quite
| forgetting that Aaron t. Bliss could
give points on grammar and spelling to
the idol at whose shrine they fall down
and worship more than at any other,
Andrew Jackson, who even spelled all,
OIL and correct, k-o-r-e-c, and abbrevi-
ated it 80. K" Let well enough alone.
The administration of Governor Bliss