The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1904-03-12


Preceding Mr.. Folks speech, Mr..
Folk having been delayed across the
river, came one Of the most intern
perate, outrageous, and disgusting
diatrlbes ever heard by the people Of
Lexington The speaker was one
Henry NJ. Withers, Of Kansas City
IL consisted 10 a rehash of all the
yillainous libels Of the Kansas CITY
Star, of which Withers seemed to
have kept a scrap book for years 1t
included some ancient insinua-
tions against a woman, a womanl
The whole speech was conceived in a
spirit Of bitterness and of reckless
disregard of the decencies Of political
argument. So far as Withers' speech
had to do with James A. Reed the
INTELLIGENCER has nothing to say
1t is not championing Mr.. Reed.
Resides, Mr.. Reed lives near by and is
abundsntly able to take care Of him
self But If official life ia Missouri
from the goyernorship down had
been as corrupt and unspeakable as
that of the municipal council of the
city of St. Louis under the Z~legenhein
administration his attack could not
have been more violent. He attacked
Governor DOckery by name, and
charged, for example, that the brew
ers OF Missouri were forced by the
Estate machine, through the opera
tion of the beer inspection law, to
support the "machine candidate, ,"
James A Reed, under pain of being
put out Of business. And few were
to be found 10 the hearing Of the
speaker who exhibited any appearance
Of approving this allegation, for they
knew that the only brewer 10 Mis-
souri, who is generally known and
widely boasted through the daily
papers as favorlng any one Of the
candidates is Tony Steuver, the head
Of the Folk organization of South St.
Louis
Withers' charges are neither here
nor there. Nobody who could be in
the least influenced by them will be
appealed to by anything that may be
said or written in a spirit of TEN.
perate and impartial criticism But
Withers' remarks taken in connection
with Mr.. Folks form a very happy
epitome of the whole revolutionary
programme. The metropolitan papers
and Folk orators are engaged in a
campaign Of violent, constituencies
aad groundless abuse. Mr.. Folk is
the exception. he makes no object
ionable specific charges. After the
ground has been thoroughly pre-
pared by such newspapers as the
Kansas City Star or such orators as
Withers and Vandiver, the mild Mr..
Folk comes around and with a face
like "one we'll studied 10 a sad ostent
to please his grandam" proceeds to
shudder Over the ''seetbing mass OF
putrescence" which he has discovered
some where. He says 1t is not in the
executive branch of the government,
though that is the part he wants to
revolutionize. He says nothing hard
about anybody; so that if anybody
should say anything about him it
would be the crime of "fghting
Folk" This obliguity has character
lied Mr.. Folks whole career-his
blufing evidence and confessions
through newspaper accusations, his
advancing of his candidacy under the
shelter Of republican newspaper
artillery, his appeals for an expression
of the ''honest yeomanry" through
primaries when the only strength he
has developed is in the TOWNS
BY the way the county committee OF
st, Louis county did not call a pri
mary though the committee stood
Folk So; Halves II. A precinct con-
vention was preferred in that county,
so that the honest yeOmanry could
have opportunity to express its pref
erence; which honest yeomanry, In
Clayton township at least, consisted
Of one school teacher and four non.
descripts Of the town who met clan
destinely 10 a covered wagon, or as
some say in a blacksmith shop 10 the
outskirts Of the place, without any
public notice-all in the interest Of
political morality, civic righteousness
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