The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1906-09-13
THE BOLT AGAINST CUMMINS.

Ceuar NapluS hepuDllcan, council BUNS
Nonpareil and Waterloo Reporter are all
off the reservation and arc getting on
their war paint. You may say they are
merely making feins and performing
few fancy scalp dances and green corn
dances and snake dances, but they have
| real war paint on. There is nothing
make believe about it. 1t is the real
thing. We thought for long time that
they would execute few dances, and
camp off the reservation little while
and then they would wander back again
but not so. 1t looks more like savage
war cloud every day.
We even thought that this talk
against Cummins and about his dema-
gogue was all tommy rot. That it was
all for effect and that they were merely
trying to scare the republicans into
nominating Perkins, but they are in
dead earnest and were all long. o, yes,
and we forgot the chiefest indian of
them and that is nobody but Col. LATE
Young and his Capital. LaFollette
Brookhart calls it an anarchist sheet
when he is in real playful mood. 1t is
really more warlike than any of them.
Now, the Cummins men say that the
Burlington Hawk-Eye is owned by the
Q railroad and we presume it is. Blythe
may shape the policy of the Hawk-Eye.
We do not know for certain. He is
blamed for so many things that he prob
ably does it. He probably makes the
Mississippi, that flows past Burlington,
flow south. He could if he wanted to.
So maybe Blythe does tell the Hawk
Eye what to print, but it does not tell
the rest of them what they are to run
in their papers. If he does, then we
give it up. He is the marionet of Iowa
politics.
And these are not the only papers
that are knocking on Cummins. All the
little papers like the Democrat, we
mean country papers, are off their feed.
They may be forced up to the watering
trough, but you can't make them drink.
They may be running the ticket at the
head Of their columns but they are do
ing bad job supporting it. They are
supporting Cummins with faint heart
and damning him with faint praise as
William Shakespeare would say. A
country paper often has to do things
against it's judgment because country
paper is not big enough to hew out it's
own course. Never before were any of
the daily papers of Iowa big enough to
do it, but this year they are whetting up
their war knives and already have their
tomahawks sharpened up and are ready
for fight.
And these things are not to be ignor-
ed. You have observed, if you read the
Democrat, that we do not overestimate
the influence of the newspaper in poll
tics, Ordinarily the people do about as
they please when it comes to voting.
They often elect men that are being OPP
posed by all the papers. We make due
allowance for that But the revolt in
Iowa is too big to be ignored. The
Register and Leader realizes the danger
and set up cry for help to come over
into Macedonia, but there is nothing
doing. The Register and Leader will
have to tread the wine press alone.
Outside of the Cummins machine no
body will help.
And you need not take the Democrats
word for it. We know that there are a
few misguided democrats who will vote
for Cummins. There are not many
There will not be as many as
it seemed there would be month ago
The democrats have ticket and plat
form of their own that suits them. Go
out among the standpatters of Washing
ton county and see what you will find
We make guess right at this moment
that 500 old line republicans of this
county are off the reservation and are
whetting their tomahawks every day
They are not mealy mouthed about it
They want it known that they are not
for Cummins and they are not ordinari.
ly soreheads or anything of the sort
They are the men who have spent theil
time and money for the party. If you
go and ask any of them, right after
reading this article, if they are fighting
Cummins they might deny it, but we
: have talked with fifty in the last weel
who did not deny it. These 500 repub
lican are power. That many whee
horses out of line will work havoc will
an army. And they say that vote
: against Cummins is not vote agains
the republican party and anyhow
Didn't Cummins teach us how to Dol
! when he voted for Boies." And hov
will the Cummins men get enough int
line to elect their man?
We do not know of man who is al
t Office seeker who is against Cummins
1 If, is the nlain old home snun farmer