The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1905-08-31
OUR RECORD,

OUR RECORD.
While he was proving around in
Washington Frank Eddy evidently
learned something of the wiclrnes
OF congress. We do not rec,.,. that
he said much about it during The
eight years that he enjoyed the dis
tlnction of being the homIiest man in
that body, but the columns of his
paper indicate desire to grasp few
neglected opportunities.-St. Peter
Herald.
If the editor OF the Herald had
followed our career in congress as
closely as he has followed it since we
have been in the newspaper business
he would have never penned the above
editorial. He would have known that
since we left congress we have never
stood for a national question or
advocated national measure that we
did not advocate and stand for while
member. 1t is true we did not have
much to say on the floor of the House.
1t is not easy to get the floor there and
when we did we always had some i'm
portant local measure to explain and
discuss so we were practically pre-
cluded from discussing national
questions and the few speeches we did
make were not franked by the ton all
over the country as were those of some
members. AS long as we were a
candidate for Office, and we have put
in the last twenty years as a candidate
for something, we made it an infex-
IDLE rule never to reply to criticism or
boast Of our achievements. We were
willing to let our record speak for
itself and stand or fall thereon and we
generally stood.
AS matter of fact, however, we are
Unfortunately proud of our congress
sional record, and now that we have
passed out of the realm of active
politics and have gone on the
"advisory board' we are justified in
talking back. We were one OF the
most inexperienced mem ers that ever
took a seat in congress. We stepped
from the Office of Clerk of Court to
the halls of congress. The first time
we were in Legislative body was when
we were sworn in as member. We
had never been east of St. Paul prior
to our election since we were ten years
old. In our first term we secured
reorganization of the land office
districts in the northern part of the
state that was of great benefit to the
settlers and saved them thousands of
dollars. When we went to congress
there were four Indian schools in the
seventh district that were a disgrace
to civilization; when we left there were
two that are equal in equipment and
teaching force to any high school in
the land. There was no public
buildings in the seventh; we secured
for Fergus Falls the largest appropria-
ton for building for city of its
size that was ever secured with but
two exceptions and we secured site
for building in the city of Crookston
thus paving the way for our successor
to secure an appropriation.
In connection with Senator Nelson I
we succeeded in adjusting the diff
ferences between the Northern Pacific
Railroa company and the settlers on
what is known as the indemnity
lands"
We introduced and passed with the
aid of the Minnesota delegation what
was known as the eddy Free Home
Bill'' saving, not to corporations and
men of wealth, but to horny handed
frontiersmen, the class that have made
the nation great, and who have re-
ceived less legislative favors than any
other class, $35, OOO, 900, and We passed
this measure in the face of an adverse
report from the Interior Department
to whom it was referred, and in the
teeth of the opposition of the leaders
of the House on both sides with the
single exception Of Bailey of Texas,
who was then the leader of the |
minority; legislative procedure that
has not been paralelled in the last
fifty years.
We will say nothing about the pen
sions and rural routes we helped to