The news & observer., 1905-12-03

+, resentatives; he is not even the Bailey
| OF year or two ago. He is young.
! 1t has been a misfortune for him. in
some respects, that he began his pub
| ilc career as boy, and that his char
acter has developed and shaped itself
| in the glare of public life.
! His early life in Mississippi was
| spent amid a rough and lawless en-
vironment The atmosphere of his
| boyhood was that of a country grog-
| gerry, for it was in tavern that Bailey
grew to manhood. His boy compan-
| ions were rough and reckless spirits.
1t was in those days that Bailey took
| those measures to enlarge the Demo-
cratic majority which rose to plague
him in the campaign last year.
All the time Bailey had it in him to
do better things. He could not do
| them in Copiah county. An uncle in
| Philadelphia. merchant, Joseph We'll
don game his young namesake his
| chance to get into different surround
| ings, where his ability could have
chance. He sent the boy to Texas.
One day there dawned upon Gaines
vile an apparition which made tle
town sit up and rub it's eyes. 1t was
a tall, lank young man with an enor-
! nous Slouch hat and tremendous
coat. His hair hung down on his
shoulders in a fashion to give pangs
of envy to Buffalo Bill and Col. John
| A. Joyce. He was not at all typical
| Southerner; he was the South intensi-
| fed and exaggerated a hundred times
He was the stage Southerncr done in
| to real life.
In Gainesville they were not used to
such sights. Bailey did not know there
was anything wrong with his appear
m a n rio faY.
Copiah county. 1t had never attracted
| any attention in those wilds.
| But Gainesville DID not get much
chance to laugh at Bailey. Raw boy
| as he was. queer and countryfied as
his aspect was, and full of strange
affectations as he was. there was that
in him which compelled not only at
tention, but respect, and could not be
| hidden or perverted by all the eccen-
tricities and crudenesses of youthful
| egotiSm.
| At once he sprang to prominence
and leadership. He was a delegate to
| a deadlocked Congressional conven-
! ton. Some one proposed to break the
deadlock by nominating Bailey The
suggestion swept the convention. Bal
ley was pledged to another candidate.
| and did everything he could to defeat
an inspiration. Springing on a chair,
he shouted out that he was not old
| enough to be elected; he was not yet
25.
That settled it, and his own cand-
| date was nominated. Strictly speak
| ing. he had told the truth, but he had
! suppressed the fact that he would
have been 25 by the following year,
| when he would have taken his seat
1 - II
| terfuge, the whitest Of white lies, and
! saved the candidate whom Bailey was
| supporting at a cost which many an
| ambitious young man in his place
! would not have paid.
| Two years later he entered the field
against his former candidate, and won
| hands down. He was a marked man
! from the day he took his seat i'm Con
| gress ID years ago. His many Con-
| tricities were ridiculed and lampooned
mercilessly but no ridcule could so
much as dent the solid fact of his
| ability.
There is an accent of finality about
a Bailey speech. When he slowly
emerges from behind his desk and be-
gins to drop his argument into some
! hoty debated question: the argument
goes to the bottom of that question
any Democratic Senators make
speech after Bailey. When he finishes
there is nothing left of the subject
| that people who agree with him can
| talk about He has gone around 1t
and through it and behind it.
He does not often speak. When ne
| does he has stepped himself So
| thoroughly in his subject that he does
| not need to talk all day. Every sent
4 &c cf ft,l Of
Somebody in Texas having suggest
ed that Senator Bailey's position on
! the rate bill was doubtful, he replied
in characteristic fashion, saying that
| for twenty years he favored rate leg
| islation, and that in the last Congress,
| when the bill providing for the con-
struction of railroads in the Philip
| pines was under consideration in the
Senate. he offered an amendment di-
recting the commission to prevent ov-
disqualification and to regulate their
| charges much the same way as is done
| in Texas at this time. He added
| The demand to know whether | will
| support the Presidents recommends
ton seems to reduce the issue to the
| man rather than the measure. The
| test with me on any question is not
| who recommends it, but whether it is
| railroad charges through the instru-
| mentality of commission in -T.c good
old State of Mississippi before | was
old enough to cast a vote, and | have
| never wavered for a single moment In
my conviction on that subject. While
the President of the United States was
as silent on the question as those
gentlemen described my Dallas speech
to be, l was contending on every suit
able occasion for an efficient railroad
regulation law, and it sounds little
strange to be asked now if / will sup
port the Presidents recommendation
in that behalf.
although he accepted a nomination
on a platform which made no mention
of regulating railroad rates, and al
though both in his speech and in his
letter of acceptance he was as silent
on that question as the Republican
platform upon which he was a candi-
date, still, if the President has the in
dependence to turn from his own par
tvs negative position on that question
and embrace the position of our party,
he is entitled to receive and he will
receive, the cordial support of every
Democrat. If supporting the Presi-