The Farmington times and herald. (Farmington, St. Francois Co., Mo.) 1902-1905, 1903-12-03

toned for Governor at all, and
from the beginning of the Doodle
prosecutions, | have been the sub
ject of the most venomous assaults.
The crowd which | have been
battling in the courts is powerful
politically and financially. II is
something new for u prosecuting
attorney to be subjected to what |
have had to go through in doing
my duty. Might it not be asked
now why all this bitterness direc
ted against myself in this cam
paigni Why is it that every ul-
terror influence seems to be arrayed
against me? Has not any man q
right to be candidate for any
Office if he so desiresi Is all this
because in the discharge of my
duty ! have offended some power
ful corruptionists whose influence
is so inSidious and widespread |
am in this contest because | want |
to see what the Democratic party |
is going TO do in this crisis,
want the corruptionists put out of
the party. have no machine i
have only the faith of the people
to go on. 1t would have been far
easier for me to have done us 9TH
ers did and allow the crimes com
mitted against the public by those
high up in the financial world to
go by unnoticed. BY doing this
| could have furthered any political
ambition that | might have had.
| preferred, however, to retire to
private life conscious of having
done my best than by failing to do
so hold any position, no matter
how exalted. If had served the
gang with half the loyalty |
have endeavored to serve the peo-
pie they today would be my ardent
supporters instead Of my bitter enc.
mics. ! nm proud of my friends,
and am also proud of the enc
mics | have made. Perhaps | am
wrong; perhaps the people do not
want to be served, but / am n
Democrat and service of the pcO.
pie is cardinal doctrine of DemOc-
racy. My platform is Democracy
plain Democracy, which means
the rule of the people, and as for
the rest can only say that in
whatever position may be | will
do my duty to the people of Mis-
souri,. ] made such promise once
before, and have done my very
best to keep it. Whether that be
sufficient is for you to judge, but
think | am safe in saying this, that
my worst enemies among the lend
ers of the party will at least admit
that have kept it. undertook a
task that was greater than ! real
iAed. 1t is not finished yet; |
shall go on with it to the end, but
you alone can finish it, for the
stamping ont of corruption in our
party can only be done by the
members of the party. The Grad
ication of corruption from the gov
ernment of this State can only be
accomplished by the people of the
State. Public opinion as expressed
in the drastic form of decisive
vote on the plain issue of Doodle
is, believe, the only argument
that will convince the bo0dlers who
have been convicted, that they
really did wrong and that boodling
is bad They do not know what
good is, and they do not know
what bad is. All they know is
politics, but they know that there
is good politics and that there is
bad politics. Teach them that
boodling is bad politics. That
voters are the only ones that can
teach them anything That will
finish the work which is the peo-
pies work, not mine. There are
two things | want to leave in your
HllHuSf bilC IN Lilul iIt CuTt vi CbI- |
ruption is an issue in the Demo.
cratic party now, and the other is
that to win on it you, the people,
must go to the primaries and con-
ventions The Democratic party
belongs to you. not to any self
constituted bosses or leaders. If
there ever was time when the
masses of the people to whom the
party belongs should take the gov
ernment of the party into their
own hands, that time is now.
Another important issue before
the people of Missouri is the pre-
servation of the right of suffrage.
| want to see the Democratic party
win if it can do so honestly, but !
had rather for it to be defeated
than to win by methods that re-
suited in the recent convictions of