Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-06-24
Il II It Il II 4 Il
Especial Washington Letter.l

Especial Washington Letter.
wv YHOM the gods would de-
wv stroy they first make mad"
w is the English rendering Of
an old Latin saying. How
much older than the Latin language It
Is nobody knows. Whatever Its age
or nativity, 1t appears to be peculiarly
applicable to the present Republican
leaders. They have repeatedly made
loud and fervent protestations Of their
love for the laborers of the land. Sen
sible persons have considered their out
put Of words in this regard all along
as mere lip service, an opinion, which
will be demonstrated to be true IL the
aforesaid leaders carry out a scheme
which they are now said to be incubat-
ing, and that is II Judge Alton B. Par
ker is the Democratic presidential NOM
inee they will appeal to the employers
Of labor to fight him because by his
judicial decisions he has proved that
he is too much of friend to labor! III
that way they expect to be able to fry
the fat out of the great manufacturers
and trust magnates in great gobs. 1t
might be well for these leaders to re-
fleet that they will be using sword
liable to cut both ways. There IRE
somewhere between two and three mil
lion members Of labor unions in this
republic, to say nothing Of the vast ar
my of laborers in shop and field, ON
the road and elsewhere, who are not
affiliated with organized labor. What
will 1t profit Republican leaders to fry
the fat out of their baronial retainers
and at the same time lose the labor
vote, which is decisive Of the contest?
Nobody with even the minimum Of in
telligence would give fig for Colonel
Roosevelts chances Of succeeding him
self should the self constituted leaders
of his party by their misdirected zeal
array the labor vote against him. He
may have ample cause before the cam
paign ends to pray to be delivered from
his friends. That Judge Parker is a
friend to labor was thoroughly dem
onstrated on the floor Of the house by
Representative Fitzgerald Of New
York, and that friendliness will help
and not hurt him should he bag the
nomination.
Republican Bessism In psnnsytvania.
whats in namew asks Shake
speare and answers his question him
self by declaring that "a rose by any
other name would smell az sweet" For,
10, these many years the late Senator
Matthew Stanley Quay was the un-
questioned boss Of Pennsylvania Re-
publicans, and he was called boss.
He did not finch from the title-rather
gloried In 1t, perhaps. He ran things
with an iron hand, and he did not take
the trouble to conceal 1t in velvet
| glove. General Harry Bingham Of
Philadelphia-the father Of the house
evidently does not like the term boss.
So he uses an euphemistic wordandsays
that all trouble in the Republican ranks
caused by the death Of Senator Quay
has been settled because Senator Boies
Penrose is now the leader and will
conduct the politics Of the Keystone
State in the most approved manner.
He vouchsafes no information to an
eager world as to how Senator Pen
rose became leader. Surely not by con-
spicuous public service. Did Quay,
who was his political mentor, will him
the leadership or did he seize it vi ct
arms? II he is what General Bingham
says he Is, then machine politics in
| Pennsylvania has been reduced to q
science. Quay inherited the boss-ship
from old Simon Cameron, 1.-The Winnie
bago chief" who created it. Pennsyl-
vania Is great state-the second in
the Union-and yet under Republican
rule it has come to pass that the mil
lions Of her citizens obey implicitly the
beck and nod of one boss. This state
Of affairs has existed for more than
half century. At rare intervals the
people kick. Once they defeated the
great Simon himself by one vote for
United States senator and elected a
Democrat. Twice they have elected
Robert 3. Pattison governor over Re-
publican nominees simply because he
was an honest man! Once they kept
Quay out Of the senate of the United
States for the space Of two years, but
they could not keep him out for a
whole term. He returned to the senate
and appeared to be more firmly In
trenched in power than ever before.
Dying, he devised his scepter to Pen
rose, and the Pennsylvanians seem not
to have spirit enough to contest the
last political will and testament of
Matthew Stanley. To this complexion
has 1t come at last-the full fruitage Of
Republican bossism.
Senator Phiiander O. Knox.
And so Attorney General Knox is to
succeed Matthew Stanley Quay in the
senate Of the United States by the
grace of Senator Boies Penrose, the
new boss aforementioned. How did 1t
happen? The papers inform us that
Henry 9. Prick, one of the steel trust
magnates; Mr.. Cassatt, president Of the
Pennsylvania Railroad company, and
J. Donald Cameron, representing the
Standard OIL company, cornered Pen
rose up in Philadelphia and after much
DECENTRALIZATION induced him to agree
that Mr.. Knox might be translated