Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-04-26
It # Il Il II It II Il II II # + II +
= = Champ Clark S )
Payne's Unconscious Humor
r. IL - E. H. Hartman Republican I
A1 ~ - Delegate Hearst and the
ri AO ~ ~ 4 Coal Trust ppppppppp 4

Coal Trust p.pp.p.p.p.p.pp. II
S-t # # # # II #
duced.' Where does the gentle reaoer
suppose that got that Juggling SEN
tence? After reading the foregoing |
squib from the Des Moines Capital the
reader will be surprised to learn that |
l quoted it from the Republican plat
form adopted and promulgated by the |
Iowa Republicans last year-that is, he
will be surprised if he never read that
platform, which the Capital evident
ly has never done, and has never
read my speech of March %, which
the Capital evidently has never done,
and has not read my last letter.
quoted it to show to what a woeful
plight the makers of that Iowa plat
form We're reduced when they put that
preposterous sentence in their declara
ton of principles, and l commented OH
it in as vigorous style as l could, not
by way of commencing it, but by way
Of ridiculing it. The Des Moines Capt.
tai, never having read the Iowa plat
form and enormously assuming that
was the author Of that amazing SEN
to be sarcastic at my expense.
humbly submit that the Capital should
now transfer its sarcasm to the Iowa
Republicans, who placed that idiotic
sentence in their platform in the year
of our Lord and Master 1903 Will 1t
do SO? Not by any manner of means!
A Great Howl.
There is always great satisfaction
to n marksman in knowing that he
hits the target at which he aims. The
American Economist, organ of the
tariff league and chief among the
stand patters, has first and last devot-
i ed about ten columns of its valuable
space to comments on my speech on
tariff Reduction and Genuine Reel
procity," which is valuable certificate
of character as Democrat. The man
who incurs its censure has in that fact
alone proof positive that he Is per-
soma non grata to the stand patters, a
piece of information on which he may
congratulate himself l am not vain
enough to suppose that my opinions
are of great value, except SO far ms
they are fair index of the position Of
the Democratic party. The Economist,
which knows its own case thorough
ly, in it's last issue undertakes to play
the part of the inkfish by darkening
the waters and resurrecting the free
trade bogy. 1t will deceive nobody by
that condemned caper, except some
dullard who wants to be deceived. The
American Economist knows full we'll
that I stated the exact truth when
declared that there is no free trade
party in the United States and that
what the Democratic party stands for
free trade? Because it has a had
cause and must use deception to boil
ster 1t up. The Economist takes Mr..
Williams of Mississippi and myself to
task for forcing our "popgun' tariff
reduction bills to vote in the ways
and means committee without asking
Tor "a hearing" before that commit
tee! No doubt we violated the etiquette
OF the stand patters. But what would
nave been the sense in asking for "a
hearing!" We would have been
waiting for "a hearing" when Gabriel
blows his horn, even if we had asked
Iof 1t, OF II we had obtained "a hear
Ing only the tariff barons would have
been heard. But does the Economist
believe that such illustrious and palpi-
latlng stand patters as Hon. Serene Z.
Payne, chairman of that committee.
and his ten Republican confreres there
on DO not know precisely what the
stand patters want? Surely the Econ
omist will not assume for one mo-
ment that Messrs. Payne & Co. do
not read the Economist! Perish the
thought! If they do read it, they
know full well that the party fealty
OF any Republican that dares to vote
for any reduction of the tariff rate on
any article, however monstrous, will
be questioned and his life made miser-
able. So what did they want with "a
nearing" True that Messrs. Williams
and Clark We're not such fools as to
ask for "a hearing" knowing full well
that they would not get it. They &C.
complished precisely what they started
IN to do-namely, to put the Repub-
l1can members Of the ways and means
committee on record as being opposed
to any tariff reduction whatsoever.
Tor they proposed reductions in the
tariff rates on articles Of prime neces-
sity-tariff rates on which are out
rageous. That record is made UP, and |
IL Will harass many Republican states.
men through the coming campaign.
The Economist gives a great and
hysterical shout of joy that we did
not succeed in overthrowing the ma
jority of the committee on ways and
means, which is composed of eleven
and six Democrats, and
failed to make a breach in the stand
pat wall. 1t seems to think that our
''popgun bills" placed the whole pro.
tective system in dire peril, and 1t
breathes sigh of relief-not a sigh,
but regular yell-that certain Repub-
lean members of that committee from
The west, notably Messrs. Babcock of
Wisconsin and Tawney Of Minnesota,
stood firm and did not desert the stand
patters and join the Democrats, all of
which proves beyond peradyenture
mat even the Economist knows that
was correct when I asserted that there
q split among Republicans on the
tariff question. The Economist with
al its ingenuity cannot conceal that