Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-03-15
AS Viewed by Southern Yankee.
wINeArE. MISS, March l 1906.

WINGATE, Miss, March !, 1906.
! DEAR HARRY
In answer to your request some time ago to
write a letter for publication, I have put down u
few facts they came to me to-day, as | am
/ convalescing from the effects of too strenuou
efforts put forth out in the woods last week, and
hope these retrospective lines will not jar your
nerves too severely, old boy.
The recent Investigations into "Frenzied FL
nance" and the conduct and methods of life in
| surance companies in handling tn funds of their
policy holders railroad mergers, Steel beef and
! oil trusts etc, together with the history of the
great body of wealthy men, who have been posing
before the public during the recent years as
| Captains of Industry" of whom have
turned literary and wrote for the magazines arti.
cles on advices to young men, etc These nves.
! legations have not in all cases stood the test of
the search.light much less the investigation into
/ their business methods and political intrigue.
To my mind consolng fact stands out
! prominently. In scanning this list of powerful
wealthy financiers and Great Captains of Indus
! try" do you find a single name of one who took
{ any conspicuous subordinate part IN the civil
war for the preservation of the union, although
| the average ages of these men show they were
men in full vigor and health during the war
period?
These men, as a rule, ifliving near the theatre
of excitement and danger, became army supply
contractors, and when living in remote points
and could see with clearer vision the evident
outcome of the war, who possessed the cool and
calculating judgment and hard sense that enabled
them to lay the foundation of their fortunes by
reason of the imitation of high prices and subse-
quent development of the country, in railroad
iron and lumber and other ways augmented by
fact remains in numerous instances, where these
same men by means of tn cir wealth thus acquired
during the period of strife, became in later years
the purchasing power in practical politics and
secured to themselves the fruits that really and
justly belonged to others.
These men could be relied upon for large con-
tributions to campaign funds, either for the pur-
pose of effecting favorable legislation or sencing
unfavorable legislation.
In some notable instances, in close political
sections, business firms made it convenient, (not
from principle, but for policy sake), TO be divided
in their political affiliations so as to catch the
favors "both the comm and the goin',r as the
darkey says.
The men who were embued with true patriotic
fervor and interest in the stability of our insttu-
tons, enrolled themselves in defense of their
country and made sacrifices in many other ways
and when the war ended they came home with
with the plaucts OF grateful people. By reason
of this sense of self satisfaction, became by de-
grees, not Intentionally but nevertheless true
the dupes of these very men who remained at
home; VINO, as occa sion seemed to require spend
lavshly for political meetings, brass bands, ex-
cursIons, dinners, and encourage, If not pay tor
Bloody Shirt orators to harangue the people
to keep up excitement and blind them to the true
fects.
The ground work and bulwark of our country
lies in the hands of the great body of common |
people. The Blue Boods', and so-caed 4Oc,
are not to be depended upon in any crics.
1t is dangerous to attempt to 'tool all the peo-
pie all the tine" Lincoln said it could not be |
done. The few real statesmen whom the people |
love to honor are now, and have BEEN men of
small means. The high officials who pose as |
statesmen and have MADE their millions, although
had nothing to build it ON except the govern |
ment salary paid them in instalments, made it |
by graft and Doodle or tampering with either |
State or National campaign funds. The political |
statesman who Is kept IN Office by the influence
of some powerful trust company or corporation, |
or by the power secured in successfully shaking |
the grated plumb tree Of debauchery, will be |
buried in oblivion, and whose memory will ever !
be associated with everything tending todegrade !
humanity.
IL does not seem possible yet | firmly believe |
it true, that the great wave of political reform, !
sweeping in its path States Governments, cities |
and towns, is the elimination of resistance of the
common people to the encroacbment of aggran |
died wealth, wrongly and unlawiully used; in |
debasing, debauching and the gradual breaking !
down of the uld-tashIOncd standard of morals |
among the people and the wealth thus acquired, |
what could be called the aftermath of the civil |
war, as efectIng the great north and west, |
brought about gradually by the methods men /
toned.
The South also had its share of the aftermath, |
but it came Immediately after the war, during !
the days of reconstruction and its effect has |
passed away. 1t is singuarly free from the |
abuses as exposed III St Louis, Chicago, Cincin-
natl. Philadelphia and Plttsburg. II is difficult |
TO decide whether Pennsylvania should be free or |
not, from the political Boss | suppose 1t is like
a man living on poor fare SO long that he became
used to it and prefers it to something good is one
reason the people submit to impOSitiOns and high
taxes The people of Pennsylvania taxed
more and the corporations less than anywhere
else and yet they vote to continue the Bosses in
power. drank in Republican principles from
the spigot in Freemonps campaign in 1856 and
rode with the older boys and men during the
''wide-awake and rail-spitting" campaign OF 1850
In those days Republicans won National recog-
milton by advocating and administering Repub-
lican principles. This was contirued all along
the line, down to recent times These principles |
believe local selfgovernment, local government |
for towns and cities, q free press, encouragement
to industries improvements Just and equal ad-
ministration of laws The result was the party
entered all subsequent campaigns with pride and
force that carried conviction and always had
clean record that they could, on all occasions,
point to with pride. How does that record stand
now in Pennsylvania? 1t would be fatal to any
assembled convention to attempt to point with
pride to the record as made by the Republican
machine. The Republican party does not APP
prove nor take responsibility for what has been
going on for past years. What can fellow
away from home, say, in defending Republican,
ism, when asked to explain the principles as ap-
parently is endorsed by majority of about half
q million votes? Verify the deeds of the wicked
live after they gone, as is evidenced by the
cortee of ofice-hOlders still in power under the
system inaugurated by him of the Grated Plumb
Tree fame.
Andrew G. Curtin was the brainiest man and
create st statesman Pennsylvania has had in SO
wears That is why he was brutally treated po-
ltically By the Camerons who saw in him
Formidable rival Cameron had the advantage |
of great wealth acquired by conniving with army
contractors and other forms of graft well known
at the time Curtin was man OF limited means,
but true patriot and statesman, and was loved
by the soldiers and their widows and orphans as
no man has ever been before since.
When Cameron had fastened his dynasty ON
the people he continued it by resigning the SEN
atorship after perfecting an agreement to have
his son Don appointed to his place, whose only
recomme endation for the high place was that he
had been cashier in q bank in some obscure town |
on the banks of the Susquehanna river. And
poor Andrew G.. Curtin was finally beaten for the
/ q nomination 10 Congress by neighborIng in