The Oskaloosa herald., 1908-05-28
KEEP HISTORY STRAIGHT.

Ottumwa Courier: The Des Moines
Register and Leader in a carefully
worded editorial in last Saturdays IS
sue, comes out in its true colors, and
ignores all republican members of the
Iowa delegation in congress and lauds
only the one democratic member
That the Register and Leader should
take that position regarding Congress
man Hamilton, is to say the least,very
consistent, inasmuch as that paper did
all it could to bring about Mr.. Hamil,
tons election. For the past three
years or more that paper has been
such chronic fault finder that it has
come to be looked upon as kind of
common scold. 1t nagged and nagged
about conditions it alleged prevailed
in certain Iowa cities until it had got
ten the governor in a position that
embarTasses him in his candidacy for
SCI, sshat9T With i eyeERhlns that re-
publicans do is wrong ana everything
democrats do is right.
The article referred to is written as
If 1t had been prompted by some one
outside of the Office, but of course,
efforts of this kind to deceive, do not
get very far with the public. The
Register and Leader referring. to the
appropriations for Iowa from the gov
eminent says:
Dan Hamilton, democrat,
seems to have been more successful
than anybody else"
This article is studied effort on the
part of the Register and Leader and
gave the democratic congressman
from this district Daniel w. Hamil,
ton. the credit for obtaining the appTo.
priation of 100000 for the federal
building for Ottumwa. No one be-
lieves that Mr. Hamilton will even
claim the credit for getting this ap.
preparation. This appropriation was
made necessary by the fact that
through Major Lacey Ottumwa was
designated as point for holding fed
eral court. Previous to that, however
there had been an appropriation grant
ed to Ottumwa of $4,000 for enlarg
ing the present postoffice.
After Ottumwa was selected as a
point at which to hold federal court Il
then became necessary that the gov
eminent should provide building in
which to hold this court. At this
juncture the department of Justice
called on the Treasury Department fol
accommodations for the Ottumwa
court and also on the federal judge
and U. S. marshal for data as to the
space required. The matter was tax
en- up by local people with the Iowa
delegation in congress and through
the efforts of the local committee and
the republican members of the Iowa
delegation it was shown to the Wash
ington officials that II federal court
was to be held in Ottumwa there mus
be some place to hold it, and that tho
government would have to build a
building and that an appropriation GOV
ering the cost OF the building would
nave to be made, and therefore it was
made. Congressman Hamilton nc
doubt did what he could, but being
on the minority side he was abso
lutely powerless to accomplish any.
thing that would not have been done
had he never been born.
Placing this matter in the light that
1t belongs. it is summed up in this
manner: That there would never have
been any need OF the 100000 appro
priation for ottumwa II Major Lacey
had not gotten the federal court locat
ed here. but as he did get ii located
here. then il was necessary for the
government to take care of It. and
through the efforts of the local PEG,
pie, Senators Allison and Dolllver took
the matter up and pushed 1t to It's final
termination.
Such efforts as were made in Satur-
days Register and Leader do not tend
to increase the confidence OF the PEG.
pie in newspapers nor the respect OF
the public for an editorial column.