Omaha daily bee., 1906-01-27
WHICH MR.. CLlNCri
The plot thickens.

And there is blood on the moon.
II is now admitted that the reply to
Senator Burkett's letter addressed to
William Ten Eycke Fonda answering
the circular letter of protest against rate
regulation which the railroad publicity
bureau has been sending out over the
names of Union Pacific employees was
written by Mr. Clancy.
But which Mr.. Clancy?
The concluding paragraphs of the
made-to-order statement read:
As locomotive engineers we risk our lives
daily to assist in maintaining commercial
supremacy in the United States, conse-
quently we feel we are as much the sup
port of the government as other citizens
in any walk OF life. We do not propose to
sacrifice or jeopardlze the wage we receive
to insure political preferment to anyone
We will not admit that those who special
ize in any profession, not excepting that of
law, have a monopoly of intelligence and
common sense. We at the throttle have
time to think. There Is not with us the
mad rush for the almighty dollar the
desire for political preferment We ask a
plain living, good schooling for our child
rem, TO stand well with our fellow men and
our God at the final. We analyze this ques-
ton with the same elaboration and cool
ness required TO safely handle our engines
Now Mr.. Fonda is not a locomotive
engineer All he had to do with the
letter was to wire friend in Omaha
to "call at Clancy's Office and sign my
name to letter for publication as re-
qhested."
Everyone knows that there is a Mr.
Clancy connected with the Union Pacific
fully equipped to write a letter that
would extinguish every argument for
rate regulation put forward by President
Roosevelt to say nothing of Senator
Burkett. This Mr.. Clancy might easily
be the person described by the letter
writer. He is quite capable of telling
his chief, John n. Baldwin that though
the latter has specialized in the profess
sion of law, he has mo monopoly of
intelligence and common sense" This
Mr.. Clancy has had years of experience
at the political throttle and he is an
adept at the manipulation of the legis-
lative oil can. Except for few hours
of forgetfulness he has never been in
'the mad rush for the almighty dollar"
Except for foreclosing on three or four
appointive positions he has never
evinced "the desire for political prefer
ment" That he is risking his life daily
as engineer of the railroad political ma
chine and that this risk is multiplied
by the fact that he never ran real loco
motive goes without saying.
But this Mr.. Clancy has not laid claim
to authorship of the clinching epistle to
Burkett. On the contrary, if he did
write it, he is modest by standing in
the background and allowing his laurels
to be snatched by usurper.
For here comes another Mr.. Clancy,
who explains that "he did it with his
little typewriter"
Mr.. Fonda, who Is in Denver, had prior
to going there prepared letter setting out
his ideas and left the same in my office. It's
publication was not thought of at the time
1t was a letter In response to one from
Senator Burkett, On second thought, in
asmuch as Senator Burkett's letter had
been published, 1t was thought advisable
to publish the response, and The Bee hav-
ing professed to be friend of leboring
people, Mr. Fonda desired that it be pub
lished in The Bee. In this connection he
| directed Mr. Sorenson to call at my office
and sign his name. Is there anything
wrong about this?
Nothing wrong at all. But Mr.. Fonda
is a travelling freight solicitor who never
professed to be a locomotive engineer,
and the second Mr.. Clancy signs himself
u. d. Clancy, Operator Union Pacific
Railway, Union Station, Omaha" which
means in plain English that he is a
knight of the telegraph key and no more
of locomotive engineer than the first
Mr.. Clancy.
To be perfectly fair, it is only right
and proper to say that Joe Sorenson,
who was directed by wire to sign Mr..
Fonda's name, is a really truly loco
motive engineer.