The Forrest City times., 1905-10-27
D G
Address of Senator Berry.
Will Not Indulge In Personal Abuse


 To the People of Arkansas:
 am in receipt of a number of letters from friends in different parts of tho state asking me to speak at public meetings of various kinds. It would be a groat pleas ure to attend any or all of these meetings. For the past twenty years 1 have made speeches in the state wherever and whenever it was possible to do so without neg lecting my public duties, but un- fortunately for me at this time am having trouble with my throat, winch fear will make 1t impos
 sible to speak often, and especially
 in the open air My throat has
 been effected for number of years,
 and 1 eanot speak for two days in
 succession without becoming so hoarse that 1 cannot beheard. The doctors have told me that if l con-
 tinued 10 attempt it in the open air
 l would robabIy lose my voice al
 together. l know that this will be
 a great disappointment to many of my friend in every part of Arkan- sas, but no one can regret 1t so much IS dc; but it is the truth, and 1 am not In the habit of con
 cealing the truth, and think 1t best
 to let the people know the true
 conditions, let the consequences be
 what they may.
 l would be especially glad at this
 time 10 discuss some of the public questions that most deeply concern
 the people of the nation, and es- pecially the people of the South.
 It seems to me that the people
 ought to be far moro interested
 and concerned in public measures
 which effect thelr future prosperity
 and happiness than in the question
 as to whether opposing candidates
 have or have not made mistak es
 on matters that have ceased to be
 an issue. Il seems to mo that it is
 descending to very small politics
 when candidate seeking high po-
 sition goes back five, ten or twenty | years to find some vote or act of
 his opponent which he can miscon- strue, distort and misrepresent and thereby hope to injure the man he seeks to defeat.
 Senator Berry then discusses pending political issues of some length. He earnestly favors re-
 form of the present tariff laws,
 more effective suppression of
 trusts, control of freight rates by
 the Interstate Commerce Commis-
 sion, and making it crime 10 deal
 Tn futures on farm products Stand
 Ing on his past record, he refers to
 the fact that he has always stood
 for the people in their struggles
 with the corporations; compelled
 the railroads to pay the taxes they
 had avoided; secured relief for the
 state from the old debt of s2, S00,- oQo; had many appropriations made for improving the rivers; as sisted in getting number of cred itable public buildings for inc state. He concludes as follows: There are some other public questions that would be glad to discuss, but even if my throat and physical strength would permit it, 1 have no desire, no ambition to go from place to place in personal canvass lndnlging in abusive, VI. imperative and insulting language toward an opponent. No man can engage in contest of that kind without great loss of self respect, and any man who participates in It ought to lose the respect of the people. Any man who seeks to put himself in office by abusing and slandering his opponent, who seeks 10 pull down the man who ,, opposes him rather than raising : himself, who IS continually trying , 10 misconstrue and misrepresent any act of the man he is trying to
 defeat, shows by such course that
 he realizes that he has no merit of
 his own, and only hopes to win by l . rpb baFtr ha ppnHpt oh n n.