The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1906-01-25

that there was an obligation of loyalty
to the politicians whom the people
have now cast from power.
1t is, then, fact that most of the
members of the house from Pennsyl-
vania are machine men before they
are the peoples men; and in the SEN
ate sits, to our grave discredit, one of
the defeated and repudiated bosses.
Every man of the crowd knows that
the president has been, from first to
last, opposed to the kind of machine
politics that Penrose and his creatures
stand for. And this opposition hes
not been of passive kind. The
deadliest single shot fired during our
own campaign against the banditti
came from the president s secretary of
state, who declared that Penrose and
his companions were ga corrupt and
criminal combination masquerading
under the name of republicans.
Throughout the battle here in Penn
sylvania the presidents sympathies
were with the men who were eager
for reform, and that fact, no doubt,
helped us to win the victory. 1t
would be useless to expect Penrose
and the machine congressman to love
the president who did such valiant
service against them. 1t was certain
that all of them would be eager not
onlyfor revenge, but for the employment
of every instrumentality at their COM
mand which would promise to help
them to regain their lost power.
The president has made other and
more formidable enemies. His secre-
tary of war struck heavy blow at the
boss of Ohio and helped to dethrone
him. The Ohio delegation, holding
its place in the capitol by grace of the
boss, cannot forget or forgive that
act. Openly and properly, and in the
interests of decency and righteous
ness, the president has cast his in !.
fluence against the boss of New York !;
and so he cannot hope that the con-
gressmen from that state who owe al
legiance to the boss machine will re-
gard him and his refom projects with
enthusiasm. Both the senators from
New York are creatures of the rail-
road companies; and it would be as
absurd to expect an archbishop to have
gladness of heart over movement to
promote infdelity as to hope that
Senators Platt and Depew would
cordially approve president who is
waging relentless war upon railroad
abuses.
The railroads WELD vast power in
both houses of congress, and there can
be no reason for surprise if they shall
employ it to obstruct and foil the
president who insists upon the truth
of the proposition that transportation
companies should be the servants and
not the masters of the people.
With the railroads stand the beef
trust and the Standard Oil company
and all the other banded plunderers.
With them may be found the great
financiers who have exploited the life
insurance companies, and all the other
interests which make it their business
to prey upon the honest people of the
country. There is not knave, or a
corrupt boss, or a spoils-stuffed insur-
ance man, or rebate-giving railroad
officer, or filcher of other peoples
dollars, who is not dead against the
president and, with representatives in
congress, ready to make his pathway
thorny.
The lines are sharply drawn: Or
the one side, the great army of graft
on the other, the president and leader
of 80, 900, 600 free Americans.
Which army is likely to win;
Where is the promise of victory? NJ
sane man can have a glimmer of doubt
as to the right answer to that ques
ton. The fact being assured that the
whole body of the people are resolute.
ly behind the president land the late
elections proved that this is the case,
the conclusion of the conflict must b.
the overwhelming defeat of the
enemies of the people. There is ne
human power that can withstand the
force of the ballot exerted by millions
of intelligent freemen in contest
between right and wrong. That is the
issue. There is no other; and wher
the people clearly perceive it, as the.
do now, they are more than ready tt
sink all partisan considerations, t,
forget their differences upon othe1
subjects and to rally for the mainten
ance of righteousness and square deal
ings.
1t was not an accident that Theo
i dore Roosevelt had the LARGEST NOM