Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-08-25
THE NEW POLITICAL INFANT.
Origin of the independence Party and
What II Stands For.

In national convention assembled
at Chicago the Independence party
places in the race Thomas L. Hisgen
of Massachusetts, for president and
John Temple Graves of Georgia for
vice president of the United States.
The independence party, which a
great many persons are apt to call
the Hearst party, is radical in plat
form The planks in that document
are reformatory almost to the point
of revolution. But the first thing the
new party does in the way Of turning
matters upside down for a new. deal
lis to nominate for the tail Of the
ticket a man of national reputation
and for the head of the ticket a man of
local reputation only. This is a re-
versal of form, so to speak. The two
old parties usually do it the other
way about.
1t cannot be disputed that William
Randolph Hearst is the father of this
new party. Without Mr.. Hearst, his
set of political policies and his chain
of daily-almost hourly-newspapers,
the independence party would not
have been born.
Mr.. Hearst declined to run for the
presidential nomination. There are
those who aver that the New York,
Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and
Los Angeles newspaper proprietor in
this declination is looking toward the
future. 1t is suggested that Mr.. Hearst
hopes the independence party will be
stronger in 1912 than in 1908. If
this turns out to be true, then the
public confidentially may look for the
name of William r. Hearst at the top
of the Independence party ticket four
years from now.
The chief hope Of the new party In
the present campaign is to Kill off,
utterly and absolutely, the Democrat
ic party. While the Independence
platform denounces both the Repub-
lican party and the Democratic par
ty, the one consummation devoutly
wished by those who stand for the
new political baby is the defeat Of Mr..
Bryan for the presidency This Is
true despite the fact that Mr.. Hearst S
newspapers warmly and flamboyant-
ly supported Bryan in two presiden-
tial campaigns and despite the fact
that Mr.. Graves, the man Of national
reputation who ornaments the tail of
the new ticket, also has been an ear
nest and enthusiastic advocate of the
Nebraskan.
AS late as April 10, 1907, Mr.. Graves
said in a speech at Chattanooga,
| among those who have led us in the
past and among those who are to
lead us in the future there deserves
to live and there will be left to live
no name more honored, no character
more revered, no leadership more
trusted and no personality more be-
loved than William j. Bryan Of Ne
braska."
In the same speech Mr.. Graves
called upon Mr. Bryan to nominate
for president of the United States as
the candidate of the Democracy in
1908, Theodore Roosevelt.
About seven months ago Mr.. Graves
accepted a position as chief editorial
writer for the New York American,
Mr.. Hearst's leading organ.
| Genesis of the New Party.
| Mr.. Hearst built up the Independ-
ence party out of the material left by
the Independence league, a political
organization which he created in
spots throughout the country a few
years ago. The independence league
grew out of the municipal ownership
movement in the main. In 1904 Mr..
Hearst was a candidate for the Demo-
cratic nomination for the presidency.
He received more than a hundred
votes in the st. Louis convention.
Then he returned to New York and
ran for mayor on a municipal owner
ship platform. He was defeated. He
which nominated him for governor
in 1906 The Democracy also placed
him on it's ticket. He was defeated.
Mr.. Hearst thereupon determined to
create for himself a new national
party. The Hearst newspapers took
up the matter with JUNCTION and vim.
Such is the genesis of the Indepen-
dence party. This is the first time in
our history that one man has manu-
featured a national political organiza-
ton.
| The independence nominee for
president, Mr.. Hisgen, lives at Spring
field Mass. He is loved by the peo-
pie in his part of Massachusetts for
one of the enemies he has made-the
Standard Oil company. Mr.. Hisgen
| conducts the Springfield establish
ment Of the Four Brothers Oil COM
pany, an Independent concern which
proposes to stay Independent. 1t grew
out of the axle grease business. The
| four Hisgen brothers about twenty
years ago began the manufacture of
axle grease at Albany n. Y. Their
many, had a formula for making
axle grease, at which he experiment.
ed unsuccessfully for years. Finally
the boys took it up and found that it
was a good thing if properly manag-
ed. They started a factory on a cap
Iital of $500. The factory burned
down, but the Hisgens sold and pawn
ed some of their valuables and start
ed up again. In few years they
built the biggest axle grease factory
on earth. They were business men.
Dealers who sell axle grease must
sell petroleum also. Mr.. ROckefel-
lers oil octopus observed that the His
gen axle grease was becoming Nigh
| ty popular. Emissaries of Stan
dard Oil visited Albany and offered
the Hisgens 100000 for their plant
and business. They declined, for it
was a good thing to keep in the fam
| lily. Standard Oil then set out to kill
the Four Brothers axle grease trade.
Dealers were notified that if they sold
Hisgen axle grease they should not
sell Rockefeller oil. This method
was calculated to kill a timid con-