Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-11-15
THE LESSON OF MISSOURI.

The vote In Missouri this year is a
lesson which may be taken by other
states with profit. For the first time in
thirty-siX years that state has gone re-
publican on the presidential ticket.
The reason was double one. In the
first place, the tide of pro-Roosevelt
sentiment that swept the state carried
thousands on thousands of voters into
the republican camp. But in Missouri
the vote is strange one. With a
plurality of between $4,000 and 10000
for Roosevelt the state has elected a
nearly twice that number and then
switches back into the republican col
umn for the majority if not all of the
other state officers. This is because
of the lesson learned from graft Moth
ing else can explain it but that. Joseph
Folk, when district attorney in st.
Louis, unearthed the biggest game Of
municipal and state grating the ma
ton has ever known. He Immediately
sprang into national prominence be-
cause of his achievement. No one
asked for months as to his politics.
That he was Folk was enough. But
when inquiry was made he was found
to be democrat, a member of the
same party which had conducted ring
in the state government which was re-
garded as almost invincible.
Folks charges and their proof turned
the tide in Missouri. He was the only
democrat who could have been elected
governor this year. Any other name
than his at the head of the democratic
state ticket would have meant the
election of Walbridge, the republican
gubernatorial candidate, beyond any
question. The people. in voting for
governor, did not vote for Folk because
he was democrat but because he was
Folk. Just the same way people all
over America voted for Roosevelt be.
cause he was Roosevelt. Whatever
ticket these men were on, they were
popular, almost idols in the public
eye, and their election was the inev'
liable outcome.
But the Missouri machine has learned
a lesson. 1t has been defeated fa1
worse than if Folk had been defeated
for governor. He has shown that he
| is an enemy of dishonesty in the pub
lie service, whether 1t be practiced by
his own party or another. He is on
record as warrior against graft. That
the people of Missouri are on his side
| is shown by the vote cast for him and
against the members and representa-
tives of the democratic ring whose
names were on the same ticket with
his own
Missouri has stepped out of the col
lmn of graft states and will no doubt
REMAIN so. Her example is one which
can be pondered by other states witt
advantage to them. The lesson is one
which should bear fruit.
| In this connection it is interesting
| to remark the record of Missouri's vot
ing. The last time Missouri was car
ried by republican presidential candi
date was in 1868, when Ulysses S
Grant was elected for his first term. Ii
1850 it had been carried by Stephen
| A. Douglas, whose vote had been ovel
41,O00 ahead of Abraham Lincoln's
Four years later Missouri had stood by
President Lincoln, giving him Its
eleven electoral college votes and ,
popular majority, over General Nc
Clellan, of 41,000. In 1853 it was still
in the republican column, giving Gen
ieral Grant majority over Horatic
Seymour of 10000 votes. From thel
until Tuesday, when it was carried b,
President Roosevelt, Missouri wa
aligned with the democracy of the
solid south, it's democratic victories
ranging from $4,000 to $4,000. Fou
years after it had gone for Genera
Grant it repudiated it's hero and was
carried by Horace Greeley by a ma
jority of $4,000, it's electoral colleg'
vote that year being divided among
Messrs. Hendricks, Brown and Davis
In 1876 it gave Samuel j. Tilden 6
plurality of $4,000; four years late
General Hancock carried it by $500
votes; in 1884 it began its three-tern
loyalty to Grover Cleveland by giving
him $4,000 plurality; four years latel
this was cut down to $4,000, but il
1892 Cleveland carried the state BY
$4,000 plurality; in 1896 Missouri wal
loyal to Bryan. with a plurality O
SO 900, which was cut down to $1,000
in 1900 Tuesday. despite the victory
of Joseph W. Folk, the state was car
ried by President Roosevelt and vii
add its eighteen electoral college