Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-10

A-NN1N IL 80 NM WV MhaN 81 III
the interest Of Omaha. (Applause.) I
have time and again. Of course. induced
him to introduce and support certain meas
ures, and even succeeded in getting him
to do some things l knew to be for the
promotion Of Omaha's growth and pros
perity and the interest Of the state. but
never have l asked him to do anything
that would be damaging or detrimental to
this city or to any Of its citizens.
That famous dinner amounted to nothing
except that an hour or two previous I re-
ceived a telegram from Omaha announcing
that Mr. Blackburn had called a very pc
culiar endless chain system Of Craw-
ford primary for the congressional nomina-
ton, in which all the counties and all the
precincts in the three counties were to be
tied together on one string. and the dele
gates to be all voted for in Sarpy, WASH
ington and Douglas counties on one ticket.
1t struck me that this would precipitate
a factional fight and l was very an,io-s
to avoid a factional fight in 1900. l was so
anxious to see Nebraska redeemed from
populism that l was willing to make any
sacrifice.
Community of Interests Plan.
The only thing that happened on that
memorable occasion was that / asked Mr..
Mercer to have Blackburn's call revoked, CT
revised, as there was really no serious OPP
position to Mercer. l had gone into no
compact with anybody to nominate any
other man and, In fact, did not encourage
anybody to be a candidate, although l then
thought that Mr.. Mercer with four terms
had about all that he was entitled to. In
fact, that any man with ordinary ambition
would have dared to asked for. (Applause).
After my return to Omaha we entered
into what might be called a Community
OF Interest Agreement in the interest
Of party harmony. To show that l was dis
posed In favor Of harmony, l made the
overtures and went to the office Of John l..
Webster, and there met Mr.. Gurley and
other friends of Mercer. After several con-
~ferences we agreed substantially upon a
delegation to the state convention and upon
the members that were to represent this
district in the national convention that
nominated William Mckinley and Theodore
Roosevelt. (Applause.)
A few days thereafter Mr.. Blackburn
called upon me with a paper, or rather an
agreement, to support Mercer at the con-
gressional convention, and requested me to
head It. l signed that paper and my sig
nature brought all of my friends into line.
John L. Webster Joined with me and
brought his friends, and then we made 1t
unanimous. II Mercer had not the man
hood to appreciate that sort Of treatment
he has not a particle of manhood in him.
l feel sure that any other man would have
appreciated 1t.
silver Platter Nomination.
His nomination did not cost him a penny.
He had put up a iittle scheme, or rather
his understudy, to make every candidate
pay $500 to Blackburn, the chairman of
the congressional committee, who carried
all the other members in his pocket.
Whether Mercer was to have paid $500 or
not I cannot tell, / cannot guess, but pre-
sumo he would have paid 1t. Whether
the money would have been paid out or
refunded is another question. At any rate,
he got his nomination without costing him
q cent.
At that time he had drawn $40, 900 from
the United States government. Just think
Of 1t. a man who never earned more than
SIS a month at any honest calling had
earned In eight years $4,000 and the per-
q%uisites. (Laughter). I
We went into the great campaign of 1900,
and l went into 1t in good faith. 1t is a
matter Of record that the call for the con-
vention that nominated the delegates to the
congressional convention made no mention
Of the fact that there was to be a con-
gresham nominated. That defect in the
call made the nomination of David II.
Mercer worthless.
Judge Baker, who was anxious to contest
MERGERS nomination, called upon me both
before and after Mercer had been nomi-
mated and said the nomination would
amount to nothing. He proposed to 90 into
the courts and have II set aside and make
Mercer run as a petition nominee, II he
wanted to. l demonstrated against such a
proceeding and succeeded In persuadins
Baker to drop 1t. / did not know until
within the last ten days that the papers
to make that contest were all made out by
Mr.. Baldrige. He tells me that he had
the papers in his hands all prepared to 20
into court, and Mercer would have been
thrown out II they had been filed. 1t was
only at my instance that Mr.. Mercer was
retained as regular nominee on the ticket,
and l fought his battle out and kept these
people from acting. (Applause).
In Good Faith with Mercer.
Now, then, Mr.. Mercer certainly could
not interpret my conduct as malicious, dis
honest, treacherous, or anything of the
kind. l was In good faith and remained
in good faith until the end. Wherever
there was a campaign meeting in this
county I advocated Mercer Just as much
as l advocated the national, state and leg
islative tickets. Just before the campaign
closed there was a meeting of German
Americans at Turner hall. We sat side
by side there in a great gathering that was
assembled in my interest, and not for Mr..
Mercer. / appealed to the German-Ameri-
cans to support Mr.. Mercer, and pledged
II elected to the senate TO work hand In
hand and shoulder to shoulder with our
energetic representative for every measure
that would promote the prosperity of
Omaha. The great body Of the people that
was assembled in the hall gave Mr.. Mercer
an ovation, and doubtless many OF them
supported him because Of the pledges that
/ made for him and the endorsements that
gave him. But strange as II may seem,
during all that campaign Mercer never
went near the republican county commit
tee; he never was in touch with It. He
refused to pay his campaign Assessment,
and while the committee and others who
had collected money to carry on the cam-
paiRu were having for halls. hrRworka