River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-08-23


who enjoys the confidence and esteem
of his neighbors and fellow citizens.
Personally Mr.. Connor is one of the
most easily approached of men. He
is modest in his dress and unassum-
| ing in his manner He is one of the
most democratic of men and studi-
ously avoids ostentatious display. One
cannot converse with him an hour,
| without becoming convinced that he
is the possessor of a mind of marvel
GUS quality, stored with fund of in
exhaustible knowledge of men and
events, well trained and capable of
reasoning quickly and well. Like
most of those of Gaelic extraction he
is apparently reserved in his manners;
the most adroit reporter can draw
from him no information he is not
DESTROYS of having made public, and
because of this during the last cam
paign he was often referred to as .'Si-
lent William;" but behind this re-
serve beats a warm heart and in his
veins pulses warm, red blood. He
| has always kept in close touch with
| his employees, and there never was
time when one of the men who had
| a grievance, or a fancied one, but
what felt that he could go to "W. D."
as he is Familiarity called, and talk it
over as man to man, knowing that if
! he was right he would receive a ia
vorable decision, if in the wrong that
| it would be shown to him, shown as
one friend to another Many of the
men who grew up with him are today
| occupying positions of responsibility
and trust with the r. Conner Com
| pany. Some of the older ones who
worked for him on the farm, in the
mills and logging camps are still in
| his employ During all these years
Mr.. Conner has never had strike
among his men.
A high conception of the duties to-
wards the commonwealth induced him
/ to cast his political fortunes with
those of the Halfbreed eleIaent of the
republican party. This act showed
that he had a high appreciation of his
duties as a citizen and is also pos
sessed of sufficient moral courage to
| stand forth boldly in advocacy of
what he believes to be for the COM
mon good 1t was by no chance that
| he became chairman of the republican
state central committee of Wisconsin,
the nominal and active head Of the re-
publican party. He was in close touch
| with the party and the principles it
| has contended for and above all he
was an organizer and man of rare
| executive ability. Mr.. Conner was
called upon to lead the party at
| time when the cause of the people
never looked darker, and when the
| interest of the whole nation was TO-
cused upon what history will record
as one of the grandest struggles for
| individual liberty which has ever Oc-
Cured in any state.
In the conduct of a political cam
paign no one individual has ever
shown greater generalship than was
exhibited by Mr. Conner. In the pre-
ceding two elections the Ha1fbreed
element had been successful in elect
| ing Robert NJ La Toilette governor,
but unfortunately the legislature was
so constituted that promised legisla-
| ton could not be enacted. The Oppo-
sition was one of the most formida-
BILE ever built up for political purpo-
ses, and nothing had been left undone
breed forces The preconvention
fight between the two factions of the
republican party in Wisconsin was
one of the most fierce and bitter ever
| fought in this or any other state. For
time the question of the renomina-
! ton of Gov. La Toilette was doubtful.
The enemy claimed to have his forces
routed all along the line, and when
his most ardent supporters. those who
/ had clear conception of the situa-
ton, were forced to admit that the
outcome was doubtful. In this hour
of extremity, when it seemed as
though the tide of battle had gone
against the administration forces,
when defeat was almost admitted as
certainty, w. D. Conner was ap
pealed to. He dropped his business
interests and for the next six weeks
devoted his whole time to organizing
the administration forces. At the con-
vention held at Madison in June, Gov.
La Toilette and the administration
ticket was renominated. The same
convention named Mr.. Conner as one
of the four delegates at large from
this state to the republican national
! convention held in Chicago. These
/ delegates were not seated, however,
the national convention being domi-
mated by the system" which seated
all delegates elected by the trump"
convention. The same convention
elected Mr.. Conner state chairman, it
being felt that because of his splendid
executive ability he was the man who
could do most to build up the party
| organization and bring order and sys-
tenn oat of chaos, resulting from the
division of the party.
Upon assuming the Craftsmanship OF
the state central committee, Mr.. Con-
nor found the situation which con-
fronted him peculiar in the extreme.
| There was no precedent to follow,
many of the questions which con-
fronted the chairman were new ones,
large and powerful element of the
party was arrayed upon the side of
the opposition, the organization had
to be built up, and in handling the
work new methods had to be intro
duced and previous political generali-