Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-09-03
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR
GOVERNOR CONFINES KEY
NOTE ADDRESS LARGELY TO
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ISSUES.
UNUSUALLY SMALL
CROWD Az MEETING
ATTENDANCE NOT MORE THAN
$50 WHEN SPEAKER REA@@
TALK AFTER BEING INTRoDU6
ED BY CHAIRMAN w. 7. WILSON

The keynote speech Of the guberna-
torial campaign at the Grand opera
house last night by Hon. Fred. E..
White, Democratic candidate for gov
ernor, was heard by not more than
ESQ voters. Announcement of the key
note speech by Mr.. White was herald
ed through the streets yesterday by
the Fifty-fourth regimental hand andi
an old fashioned fife and drum corps,
but despite these preliminary ar
rangements the audience did not fill
the lower floor of the opera house,
and eighteen voters, three women and
one boy occupied the balcony. Sixteen
voters and Mr.. White occupied the
stage, which recalled the former DEM
ocratic principle of sixteen to one.
According to his usual custom, Mr..
White read his speech, and while he
was handicapped by i'll health and all
impaired delivery, he was in-t
terrupted but little by applause. His
address was marked by an absence of
reference to state issues and was
more of an assault on frenzied flan-
ciers" and captains Of industry, whom
he asserted were the white plague"
Of today He eulogized the administra-
tion Of Theodore Roosevelt and en-
phasized the statement that William
Jennings Bryan was better fitted to
carry out the policies Of the present
executive than William H. Taft, who
"temperamentally is entirely unequal
to this tremendous task"
Committeeman T, H. Picker opened
the meeting by introducing County
! Chairman W. T. Wilson. Mr.. Wilson
ill I. short talk, lauding Mr.. B"yan.
| introduced Mr.. White.
At the conclusion of Mr.. Whites
! speech, Congressman Dan w. Hamil-
| ton gave a short talk, in which he res
| ferred to his actions while in Ottum-
wa yesterday and asked the voters to
study well the substance Of Mr..
| Whites speech.
Wilson's Introduction.
/ Introducing the speaker of the even-
ing, Mr.. Wilson said:
"My friends and fellow citizens: -
| We are standing tonight upon the eve
of a great national presidential cam
paign The fundamental laws Of our
land require that each four years we
must choose a new chief executive
for our nation.
Tonight the great Democratic par
| ty of Iowa (the oldest party polite
that exists today is firing the open
ing gun of the campaign.
ri appreciate deeply the honor that
has come to me at this time to preside
as chairman of this meeting. I appre-
ciate the fact more fully because that
the man that I have the pleasure Of
introducing to you tonight came from
Keokuk county, where my life com.
panion was born and partially reared
"It matters not how well known a
man may have been; it matters not
to what high position in the civic af
fairs of his country man may have
attained, there is an universal custom
that prevails that when he comes to
address an audience Of his country.
men, he must of necessity be intro
duced, even If, as in this case, 1t be
/ by a man of much less Importance
and notoriety than himself.
j Lauds "Peeress Leader"
"When that peerless leader OF
Democracy, William Jennings Bryan
who had served his district in the
house of representatives In congress
who, when he found the principles 0.
Democracy were being assailed, at 6
\
cago in 1896, with his matchless elo
: quence he stormed the ramparts of the
enemy and carried their citadel anc
captured the flag of the standard bear
er Of the Democratic party and car
ried it for the first time west of the
Mississippi river and planted it upor
: the prairies of Nebraska. II matteret
not that in the greatest Spectacular
campaign of your country's history HI
went down to defeat, that in the cam
paign four years hence, he again wen
down to defeat. 1t mattered not tha
J after that all-night convention at st
|, Louis, that he again went down to de
feat and arose greater each time, an,
yet when he took that historic tril
around the world, private citizen
and was received in all the courts o
. Europe and the orient, and when h
3 returned to the shores of his nativ
), land a plain ex-congressman from
: Nebraska district, he was awarded
+ greater ovation than any citizen o
!. our land had ever had, not even ea
e cepting the hero of Appomartox
"Yet, friends, when the great com