Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-08-17

Oil monopoly. Some day, may
be, there will arise a wiser gener-
alton, when a so-called free peo-
pie will no longer submit to being
bound hand and foot to the mercy
of their %shearers; or, rather, when
they will refuse to bind themselves
and glory in their servitude, and
when the promise of 'a full din
n~er-pail" will not make atonement
for the sacrifice of their manhood.
My friend Mcclure, of the jack
son Cash-Book, is a gentleman
whose good opinion l Justly highly
prize. Ihave known him and en-
joyed his friendship for many
years. Though occasionally called
upon by my perhaps poorer judg-
ment to differ from him, it has never
abated a jot the esteem in which |
hold his acknowledged and I'M
questioned integrity of thought and
purpose. He has the courage of
his convictions, and one always
knows 'where he is at" l like
that sort of man, and therefore it
is with profound sorrow that | find
him charging me with ''incon-
sistency" in my opposition to and
denunciation of Gov. Folk and his
methods, both as candidate and
Chief Executive. In defense, |
will restate as briefly, as may be,
the causes which have led me to
unfaith and that which some peo-
pie may term political heresy.
When Folk, as circuit attorney,
began his war upon boodling and
boodlers, | looked with favor upon
him, though | did not like the
fulsome exploitation of his en-
beavers in the city papers. He
was, in the prosecution of wrong
doors, doing simply his duty under
his oath of office, as many another
official did before him and will do
after him. In my innocence / sup
posed those explorations were
merely the self-suggestive efforts
of a press a-%hungering for news
and sensation; that the circuit at
torney was made the means for
filling vacant space and selling
superintendent papers, and no
doubt he was experiencing and
d~eprecating the sycophantic no.
tority that ever attends rising
greatness. When, later, | learned
that his own Literary Bureau was
dazzling the understanding of the
groundlings with these lucubra-
tons, it gave me an impression
of his self-seeking that later OBJ
servation widened and deepened.
That he prosecuted, not from a
sense of duty, but for personal ad-
vancement, l firmly believe, as
we'll as that his every subsequent.
official action has sprung from the
same motive. He is too spectacu-
lar to be the real thing. His fool
and vainglorious order that all
lobbyists must report to him On
their arrival at the State Capital
and that he limited their stay to
thirty hours-if that was not a
mountebank's play to the galleries,
how a it be designated? What
would you say, Bro. Mac, if Pres
ident Teddy assumed such auto
cratical power? His vetoing Home
Rule for the cities, after having in
scribed it on his ante election
banner as a second /. H. S.,
showed that our Governor could
facilely call the turn to fit ex-
pediency. Why everything he
has done in this connection proves
that Of all anti Home Rulers he is
the chiefest-so long as it rebounds
to his own glory. He, in pursu-
ance thereof, whenever he hears Of
a local disturbance in any county,
forthwith dispatches an officer Of
the Commonwealth to the scene to