Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-18
CAMPAIGN IN FIFTH WARD
Republican Club Listens to Speakers on
Pertinent Questions,
PROPER CONGRESSMAN MAIN SUBJECT
Nelson c. Pratt Defends His Candidacy
and e. Rosewater Gives Reasons
for Not RenominhtinE
David II. Mercer.

A meeting Of the Fifth Ward Republican
club in Young's hall, Sixteenth and Corby
streets. Friday night, was addressed by
Nelson c. Pratt, candidate for congress-.
e. Rosewater. Judge Joseph H. Blair, G.
w. Delamatre and william A. DeBord, E.
]. Cornish had been booked to speak. but
It was announced that he had been called
out OF the city. Mr.. Pratt said In part:
ct am making a fight for the congress
sional nomination Of the Second district
and ! expect to get II. II l do get 1t, 1t
will naturally follow that Dave Mercer
will be defeated. The time has come when
this district should be represented by some
one else.
81 fully realize that, should 1 be elected,
| enormous responsibilities will rest upon
me, but l shall endeavor to discharge them
honorably and with credit to myself and
my constituency. There is much that can
be done for this district and state In con-
gress that is not being done! for example,
there is the vast arid districts Of the
western part OF the state that irrigation
can redeem and that can be made to bios
som as the rose with proper I
propose for one thing to see that this work
Is undertaken and that the state receives
help In prosecuting It.
Democrats Badly Disrupted.
THE democratic party is badly disrupted
and knows not which way to turn to find
a leader. 1t is left without thunder save
such as It made by reviling the United
States army-that army that has been VIC
torious wherever II has gone, and to which
this republic owes Its integrity, its security
and its glory" Applause)
After pledging himself to stand by the
nominee of the convention, and urging his
hearers to stand as a unit for the party's
candidates and principles. Mr.. Pratt ex-
cused himkelf, saying he had several other
appointments to fill.
| William A. DeBord candidate for county
attorney, was called upon for an address.
He said he attended the meeting as a
listener rather than as a speaker, but con-
sented to say a few words about the po-
litical conditions of the county and con-
gressional districts, with special reference
to the needs Of a new man in the office Of
county attorney. He was followed by Mr..
E. Rosewater. who spoke in part as fol-
lows:
Principles Rather Than Men.
1--WE must respect principles rather than
men in this coming campaign; men are
but temporal, but principles are per-
manent. There have been OBJECTIONS from
the party in the past, and they are due to
the fact that the minority dictates the
nominations rather than the majority.
The last convention disfranchised this
ward, just as 1t disfranchised every other
ward in the city. omaha has 1000 re-
publicans, while the county outside OF the
city has only 1900 republicans, yet the
country has seventy delegates to the city's
ninety delegates. South Omaha is Just as
badly disfranchised. 1t has 1900 repub-
licans. but gets only eighteen delegates.
This is wrong, and must be righted.
1.-THE platform must stand for living Is
sues of the hour, but the party must nom
mate candidates that will stand for those
issues as we'll"
Referring to Congressman Mercer, Mr..
R~osewater related an incident whereby he
discovered that Mercer had, In one George
Sabine, a middle man, to transact his busi-
ness. The incident was an aftermath OF
the Greater America exposition. Mr.. Rose
water had taken a draft for 5000 from
Frank Murphy to Washington to give to
Dave Mercer to buy a little support for the
fair. The draft afterwards turned up in
an Omaha bank, bearing on its back the
signatures of Mr.. Rosewater and of George
Sabine.
Sabine had the check and Mercer got
the money, l hope" said Mr.. Rosewater,
"but how much Of 1t he spent In the inter-
est OF the fair / am unable to say. How
ever, I consider IL unfortunate that we
have to subsidize our representative at
Washington to make him warm up to a
home institution.
Rotation In ONCE
at has been said that It is customary
for communities to return men to con-
gress term after term. and that this GUS
tom is general, but this is not true. 1
have been looking up the records and !
find that out of the $50 members OF the
lower house only fifteen have served
more than Ave consecutive terms, and of
these not one comes from the New England
states. nor does one come from the states
west of the Missouri river. There are
some men like Grosvenor or Hepburn
who have been returned to congress after
a lapse Of considerable time, but they are
few. We don't want any man to have a
mortgage on the votes OF this district. Ro-
tation in ONCE is one of the great prin-
ciples OF republics and one OF the elements
OF their safety. We should encourage young
blood and new blood to enter the race"
Judge Blair made a few happy remarks
along somewhat similar lines, which were
we'll received, and the meeting closed with
a short address by G. w. Delamatre. Mr..
Delamatre said some of his friends had
been urging him TO become a candidate for
county attorney. and, while he thanked his
friends for their interest, he did not con-