Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-01-17
Was 1t an Accident.

A Pierre Correspondent of the
Sioux Falls Press reviews Mr.. Mar
tins accident" address in the follow
ing language: SIN announcing him
self a candidate for congress on the
republican ticket, Hon. E. w. Martin
Of Lawrence county, gives the people
of the state an opportunity to peep
into his hypocritical nature when he
says that his defeat for the senate
last year was an accident" AS we
all know, Mr.. Martin had been
honored by the republican party Of
this state with several terms in con-
gress, until last year he came out
and announced that he had burned
the bridges behind" him, so far as a
seat in the lower house was concerned
and that he wanted to succeed Gamble
in the United States senate. He an
nounced also that if the voters re-
fused to elect him to that place that
he would retire to private life.
Well, the people refused to elect
him a United States senator, and now
he comes back at them with the in
sulting remark that his failure was
an accident! If that is not the big
gest chunk Of insult hurled in the
faces of the people Of this state, and
in the teeth of a large majority Of
the republicans of South Dakota, l
don't know how to name such an act
OF brazen-faced impotence.
An accident--indeed!
After one of the hottest political
fights in the state, a campaign in
which the regular party organization
of which Kittredge was the boss and
Martin and Burke his chief lieuten-
ants, fought the rank and file Of the
republican party and the people in
general, Mr.. Martin came to the state
convention at Sioux Falls with his
Black Hills delegates in special train!
Was that an accident?
And when the convention voted on
the party platform, Martin and his
railroad delegates voted may" Was
that an accident too?
In that platform the republican
party of South Dakota endorsed the
stand that President Roosevelt had
taken against the la~w-breaking trusts
and corporations. Was it an ssacci-
dent" that the stalwart supporters OF
Messrs. Martin, Burke, and Kittredge
in the same convention voted against
this endorsement?
After a hard and fair contest be-
tween Martin and Gamble the state
convention endorsed Gamble as a can
didate for reelection to the senate
with a vote of 901 against 46S for
Martin. To call this an accident"
as Mr.. Martin has the nerve to do in
his announcement, is to defame and
belittle the good Judgment and intel
ligence not to speak of the manhood
and self-respect, Of a large majority
of the republicans of this state who
for years have honored him with a
seat in congress.
Anyway, Mr.. Martin should not al.
low his defeat for the senate last year
w iduhlC WIFI HIui Ill lIllo iudLiilcI,
in order tc satisfy himself and his
friends that the intelligent people Of
South Dakota did net know what
they were doing last year, he ought
to and shop'd go before the primaries
next Inc as a candidate for the SEN
ate ar < IL the people elect him, /
shall take pains to have the word
accident" in our dictionary given a
brand new definition to suit his con-
venience. The kicking COW Of n
O'Leary caused a fire that laid Chica-
go in ruins. This has up to date
been considered a fair example Of
what an accident really is, but /
never heard, or read, that the turn
ing down of a bc"ch of grasping cor
poration politicians by people was an
accident. An action of that kind is
an expression Of the will Of the peo-
pie. When MI. Martin swells up and
gets to be so big that he sneeringly
alludes to the expressed will of the
people of South Dakota as an ''acci-