Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-03
LACEY RECALLS BoIEs.
Shows Up His Past Utterances Regards
inq Calamity in iowa.

ing Calamity in Iowa.
Special to Times Republican.
Iowa Falls, Oct 3.-Congressman
John r. Lacey, of the Sixth district. de-
voted most of his address to reminis-
cences of some of Ex-Governor Boies'
utterances and acts while governor. He
was frequently applauded, and his quo
tations from the speeches of Mr.. Roies
aroused considerable amusement. Con-
gresham Lacey said in part:
1T is interesting tho surprising to
have our good friend Governor Boies
revived as an issue this year. That a
gentleman with his views of the tariff
should be nominated by our opponents
is another evidence that tho the world
moves, democracy stands still. Gov
ernor Boies is worthy and estimable
gentleman, who was shaken loose from
his political moorings in the republican
party by the liquor question, but hav-
ing changed his politics because of that
question, he has settled down as firmly
as possible upon the general democratic
faith, and has endeavored to adapt him.
self to the lightning changes which of
recent years have been taking place in
the political views of that party. Gov
error Boies served two terms as our
chief executive, and during that time
startled the world and the people of
Iowa by his discoveries as to the sad
condition of Iowa farmers. He selected
4 socialist named Sovereign as his COM
missioner of labor, who prepared at the
expense of the state and published an
Indictment against Iowa such Ias has
never yet been printed by any other
state in the union. Perhaps l should
call 1T a libel rather than an indictment.
Governor Boies and his man Sovereign
would hardly be selected as immigra
ton agents to induce people to come to
cur state In order to find the condition
of Iowa, inquiries We're sent out by let
ter to ], 200 farmers. Out of the answers
to these 1900, Governor Boies and Mr..
Sovereign selected only 424. and out of
these 424 only four were favorable to
the state of Iowa! Their names were
kept profound secret, but from the
character of the answers one would
think the list had been made from the
delinquent tax books. This scandalous
document was called The Report of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics There were
forty pages of these precious extracts
from letters. On page 90 you will find
the following, which was sent broad
cast as descriptive of the condition of
Iowa farmers:
The farming industry IS in deplor-
able condition" and this is the general
tenor of 400 of the 424 letters. han
pened to know one of the gentlemen
who reported for Mahaska county, His
fences We're down. the fence rows
grown up in weeds, and if his farm was
a sample of the other 419, no wonder
we got the dark side of Iowa life. Mr..
Sovereign is now in Arkansas, where,
under the wise rule of Governor Jeffer-
son Davis. no doubt he finds conditions
more to his liking: but Governor Boies
still sticks to his Iowa farms. He
knows a good thing when he happens
to own 1t. The labor report was for po-
litical purposes, but the governor held
his land for personal reasons.
Let me give you a specimen of the
style of composition of Mr.. Sovereign.
on page 16:
zone thing is certain under present
conditions the producers
and consumers are separated by an i'm
passable gorge. in whose bottomless
caldron boils the sordid interest of
speculation, with accompanying com-
bines. inimical to the prosperity and
happiness of the common people,
The "bottomless caldron of an impos-
sible gorge" was the condition of things
in Iowa when the governor ruled over
our people. One of the amusing fea-
lures of this remarkable report of Gov
ernor Boies and Mr.. Sovereign was the
summing llp of the reports of these 400
gentlemen on the question
Of poultry. In their report, they were
unanimous that the poul-
try of Iowa was all raised at loss The
very chicken that did the scavenger