Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1908-05-14

tired from active service, but not from
the ministry. The action was taken be-
cause of the wishes of the men involved
and because of infrmities. The question
OF the retirement of Bismarck by the
German emperor was shown to have been
caused by the great chancellor's refusal
to commend the marriage of the young
emperor and not because his counsel was
not well advised
"The question, Mr.. Editor" said the
speaker, sis not the question. of firing
Senator Allison-it is whether to allow
some politician to beat him. True, if we
had an age limit it might be all right,
but if that was the case it would curb
the ambitions of some of our most active
politicians in this state"
Senator Dolliver concluded his address
with the following tribute on Senator
Allison:
There is one thing about the career
of Senator Allison which makes his name
valuable asset to the Republican party
in Iowa at this time. Never in all his
long career has he been fomenter of
strife or the beneficiary of divided party
counsels His influence has been to unite
conflicting elements, to conciliate minor
difference, to reduce the friction of per-
sonal contention, and to lead his asso-
ciates in the paths of peace. There is no
| Republican among us who has not during
| the last few years seen with regret the
intrusion into our party leadership of
| the elements of discord, deliberately
| brought about to forward personal ambi-
| ton; the lines of faction have been dis
tinctly drawn, and the people notified to
| get on one side or the other and spend
| their lives in quarrel that seems to
| have no end. There was time in Iowa,
| and there are signs that it is coming
back, when men were content to be called
| Republicans, to share the traditions of
| their party on equal terms, and to rejoice
in its victories without the bitterness of
| personal disappointment. 1t is the mis-
chief of fractional politics that both sides
are prone to fall to the miserable level
which it imposes upon all its victims.
| What we have seen in Iowa is only the
natural outcome of the situation which
we have so long tolerated; neighbor ar
rayed against neighbor; old friends part
ed in angry discussion; wholesale defa-
nation of character; universal impeach.
ment of motives; plausible lies substi-
tuted for the truth; suspicion poisoning
every mans cup; the whole wretched
comedy ending at last in party humilia-
ton little short of disaster.
Too Great to Stir Strife.
"In the midst of all this strife we have
had one man too great and too wise to
descend into our petty squabbles; one
man whose influence has been used to
compose our difficulties and to promote
the success of our candidates. He has
never spoken an evil word of his fellow
| Republicans, nor planted a thorn in any
mans pillow. He has never sacrificed his
| party to win any reward for himself, but
throughout his public life has made him
self the obedient servant of the whole
party and the whole community. From
this man, now busy with the great
affairs of the government at our capital,
l bring this message to the Republicans
of Iowa: He seeks the good will of all;
he asks the support of all From the
least to the greatest among us there is
a place in the kindly heart of our old
leader for every Iowa Republican. When
he hears men standing up before the peo-
| pie, saying that the time for harmony
is long past, he knows that there must
be some mistake about that, for the
| governor, seeking his second nomination,
called upon him to sit down with one of
the most ominous creations of the pro-
| gressive Imagination and write a plat
| form broad enough to accommodate the
whole party, in order that the candidate
might escape the discomforts of unprofit-
able strife. 1t is said that conditions
have changed since that famous peace
conference, and that afterwards it be-
came necessary to label Republicans, call
ing some corporation tools and others
friends of the people, describing one
man as 'stand-patter' and another as a
progressive There are a good many
evidences that these popular definitions
have been used not so much to promote
the general welfare as to forward the
| political interests of individual leaders.
No Differentiation.
"There are some undoubtedly sincere
persons who think that hostility, or even
Indifference, to the program which the
| governor has arranged for his own ad-
vancement, is a conclusive evidence that
the demon of corporation rule has not
been thoroughly cast out The great
mass of our people, however, feel it is
unnecessary any longer to parade the vir-
/
marked progressive or to designate as
stand -patters' those who revere the
name of Senator Allison and feel drawn
to him all the more closely on account of
the infrmities which he bears.
| "Not long since / read in the gov
| ernor's organ at Waterloo this sentence:
| allison, an old man in his dotage, with
| one foot in the grave and the other on
l tho Ncfon1 ,,la T., 4
wonder that Republicans throughout the
state by unnumbered thousands are turn
| ing away from candidacy which accepts
| without shame such support as that? 1t
| is the good fortune of the friends of
Senator Allison that they may appeal to
| the record to say whether he ever stood
on any platform except the platform of
| the Republican party. And while none
| OF us stand very far from the grave, so
| that not even the strongest ought to
boast of his strength, there is a peculiar
sanctity which in civilized communities
is usually sufficient to protect from sheer
and insult the gray hairs of good man.
No Reason For 1t.
| 81 venture to say that there was never
any reason for dividing the Republicans
| of Iowa into two classes and stirring up
strife between them. 1t may be that
there have been some differences of opin-
ion, growing out of mems conflicting
ideas about public policies. But all these
differences could have been made the
subject of friendly debate among the
people and brought to satisfactory adj
justment without rending the party into
hostile factions. We had only to follow
the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt to
have escaped most of our troubles. For
tunately for the party at large, his lead