The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-11-12
MR.. HEpBURN's DEFEAT.

The defeat of Representative William
Peters Hepburn in the Eighth Iowa dis
trict is described as one of the sur
prises of election. From all ordinary
viewpoints it is surprising. From one
viewpoint it is important.
Mr.. Hepburn is serving his twelfth
term in the House. He has been there
continually since the Fifty-third Con-
gress. He rs an active and capable
member, whose diligence has made him
one Of the leaders of the House and
chairman of the Interstate commerce
committee.
His district has long been normally
republican by at least 5000. 1t is a
typical American rural district, with no
large towns and stable population.
Furthermore, Iowa is noted among
western states for the continuity of it's
representation at Washington. Yet Mr..
Hepburn was defeated by democratic
| opponent hitherto unknown outside of
Iowa.
There is justice of political morals
in his dofeat-of the morals that go be-
yond personal honesty and routine
assiduity and determine the character
of a legislator by the way in which he
meets an emergency or great occa-
!, sion.
| Such an occasion came to the Hon.
William Peters Hepburn and such an
emergency confronted him at the last
session of Congress. He was asked to
father before the House legislative
project whose visible aims were such
as no patriotic American, respecting
the Constitution, should have supported
for moment.
| IF 70 IF
reputation of American ideas of lib
erty, and of it's tendency to subvert the
Constitution and change our form of
government, the Hon. William Peters
Hepburn accepted the commission. He
gave his name to the Hepburn amend
ment to the Sherman and antitrust act
The origin Of this project was we'll
known. Cries of rage and distress
were coming on the one hand from
leaders of labor unions because the
courts have decided that the members
of these unions were subjects, like
others to the Sherman antitrust act
On the other hand, representatives of
organized wealth were seeking peace at
any price with the administration.
So short cut was devised, the pro-
duct of a reformatory Impotence that
considers the end to justify the means.
To reconcile the malcontents of "organ-
lied labor" it was proposed to give
legal sanction to the boycott, and to
make trade unions boycotters exempt
from laws which all other citizens
would still be required to obey.
To reconcile certain great final inter-
ests in control Of enormous industries
it was proposed to make the righteous
ness or unrighteousness of combinations
of capital and labor not a question of
evidence to be passed on by due process
of law but a matter of executive discre-
ton and administrative decree.
1t was proposed to make the life or
death of industrial and mercantile or
ganizations-doing four-ffths of the
business of the country question for
personal determination.
1t was proposed in a word, to set up
under forms of law, reign, not of laws,
but Of men merely, in this nation, and
to create an industrial despotism with
whatever man might happen to be
President as the despet.
| To this iniquiti0us measure the Hon.
William Peters Hepburn consented to
give his name. Let us not inquire into
his motives. For verify he has his re-
ward already.-Inter-O Ocean.