Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-12-28
NATION NOT GOING TO DOGS.
Speaker Cannon Declares Public Men
Were Never So Honest


Washington. Dec. 27.-Speaker Can
non was one of the callers at the white
house Tuesday. He desired simply to
pay his Christmas greetings to the
president, but was obliged to defer
them, as the president had gone to the
country for a long horseback ride. The
speaker was in excellent spirits and
/ talked with his newspaper friends in
characteristic way
''They say things are not now Hks
they were in the old days; that we are
becoming aristocrats; that there is no
longer honesty in legislative bodies;
that there is no ability at the bar; that
we are liable to become monarchy;
that some strong man is liable to rise
up and dominate everybody.
But l say that there is no fair
minded man who studies the history
of this country from the days of its
foundation down to the present time
and who deduces the difference be-
tween 100000 of people and S0,000,-
900, who considers the telegraph, the
telephone and the railroads, who will
not say that we are markedly better
physically, mentally, and morally than
our grandfathers or even our fathers"
House Just as Representative.
"Then you believe the house of rep
resentatives is just as representative
as it was in years gone by?"
Yes, yr. indeed the speaker re-
piled. The house is just as represen-
tative a body now as it was when this
country had only 100000 pebble. If
you listen to all that is said you might
believe the country is fast going to
the devil, is fast becoming q mon
archy and will cease soon to be n re-
public. Why l heard that same kind
of talk when I was a boy, when we used
to gather at camp meetings. They used
to tell us that things were not what
they were in the good old days
You hear the same things now, that
the country is retrograding. that ev-
erybody is corrupt and dishonest and
that there is wholesale immortality.
do not hesitate to assert that this coun-
try is better today than it ever was in
its history; that the people are bet
ter, more honest, more moral and less
disposed to yield to temptations that
are nut in front of honest men at every
turn.
Statesmen Are Quickly Forgotten.
"The people are just as mighty now
in the matter of elections as ever be-
fore and just as discriminating as to
whether a man has done his duty. No
man ever gets SO big that he can not
easily be wiped off the political map.
And how quickly the people do 1t too!
They settle a man so quickly that he is
soon forgotten.
81 venture the prediction that few of
the best read men in the country could
sit down today and give offhand the
names Of 100 men who have helped to
make history in the house Of repre-
sentatives. The others were defeated
and forgotten and that was the end,
There was William j. Brown, who put
through the house the appropriation
Of $4,000 to build the first telegraph
line between washington and Balti-
more. He did the world an immense
service, yet at the next election after
ward he received hardly enough votes
to count. The opposition put up a man
who ridiculed the idea of sending mes
sages by lightning and he beat Brown
thousands of votes. So it is today,
although a mans services now are not
so easily condemned.
Undoubtedly we are better off than
were our forefathers. The millenni-
UNI is not here, it is true, and things
will not be bit interesting when ev-
erything becomes perfect. We are do
ing better, though"