The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1905-10-20
CLEAN CUT, STRONG APPEAL
FOR PURITY IN POLITICS
Man Who Puts Success Of Party
Above Welfare of City is
Traitor.
HELD AUDIENCE FOR TWO HOURS
More Honorable to Correct Evils Than
to Bear Them In lsnobie
Silence.

Philadelphia, Pa, Oct, 16.-Facing an
audience that filled every available
space in the Academy of Music, Joseph
w. Folk of Missouri appeared tonight
to champion the cause Of reform In
Philadelphia and to tell the people In
the light of his own experience he be-
lieves they may rid the municipality of
grafters.
From every standpoint he made a
success. His address was a clean cut,
strong argument for purity unmarked
by any passionate arraignment of par
ticular individuals, made strong i'm
preston upon those who heard 1t. At
times he was interrupted by such deaf
ening applause, as he gave some par
ticularly salient bit of advice, that he
could not continue for several minutes.
Gov. Folk arrived at 4:40 in the
morning from the west, and conse-
quently his entry into the city was un-
marked by any demonstration, al
though the likelihood of his visit had
aroused great interest. But during the
afternoon he got ample evidence of the
esteem in which he is held in this city.
In company with Mayor Weaver, he
took an automobile ride, and wherever
they went crowds, assembling in the
street, greeted them with rounds OF
cheers.
During the afternoon Gov. Folk was
the guest at luncheon of the City Club,
under whose aupices the night meeting
was held, and there he made an adj
dress The burden of his speech is well
summed up in this one sentence: II
say that any man who puts the sue
cess of his party above the welfare of
his city or etate is traitor"
At this luncheon the guests included
men who rank among the most promi-
nent in the city. All were deeply i'm
pressed with his words.
His triumph of the day was made at
the Academy meeting. When he ar
rived at the Academy's door he re-
ceived great ovation. A throng of
those who had been unable to get in
side practically dragged him from his
carriage and compelled him to make a
speech to them before he went into the
audience that awaited him within
doors Good naturedly,. he complied.
His speech to the Academy audience
took nearly two hours to deliver, and
VISA more in the nature of cold reason
ing than an outburst of eloquence. The
sound sense of his argument, the nov
city of a speaker who gave facts in
stead of flights of oratory, simply won
every person in the house and they
cheered Justify as though he meta
phorically waved the starry banner,
One striking paragraph that was re-
ceived with great applause was this:
"The most conspicuous fault of mu-
nicipal government in the United
States is that they are governed by the
few and not by the people. There is
more aggressive rottenness and less ag-
gressive patriotism in our large cities
than anywhere else. If the patriotism
can be made as aggressive as the rot
tenness, the problem of good govern
ment will be solved"
He described his own fight for re-
form in Missouri, picturing various
men who were brought to justice by
him, and telling how they had posed as
patriots until exposed as crooks. He
said it was always well to keep an eye
on all public servants, and that he was
glad to see that all the states of the
Union, except Tennessee, were examin-
ing into the conditions of graft exist
ing within them.
zone impediment to a reign of law
he said, "is the idea some have that 1t
hurts city or state to have exposures,
There can be no greater mistake 1t is
more honorable to correct evils than II