Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-05-05
lotive and prospect of their own adj


ancement.
Death Has no Favorites.
The present session of the senate
has seen the old, the middle aged and
the young among our members called
suddenly to their account. Proctor APP
preaching eighty, Latimer not YET
sixty and Bryan of Florida, after three
hand of disease has fallen with linz
partial severity upon nearly the whole
senate. The sickness which fell upon
Senator Allison visited more than
score of others, many of whom are
now in beds of pain, watched over by
pride in Iowa has been hurt by seeing
the footsteps of Senator Allison
logged all winter by political spies,
making bulletins of his attendance up
on the senate, for the use of such
newspapers as would receive them. He
that it busted all the doctors of Wash
ington like an epidemic, and / think
| there must be few people in Iowa
who will not find satisfaction in his
returning health and strength. think
that ought to say all the more so be-
| cause Senator Allison has more than
once spoken Of it with pathetic evil
dence Of gratitude that the Register
and Leader has done everything with
in its influence to prevent the SENATOR
ial discussion from becoming mere
diagnosis of the diseases of old age.
Again and again have seen the shadow
| pass over his face as his eye caught
some thoughtless paragraph which
thrust upon his attention the fact that
out In Iowa, among the people whose
interests he had made his own for so
many years, there were men deliber-
ately measuring the remnant Of his
span of life and cody counting UP the
chances of his recovery. 4F
There is much force, although / do
not think the arrument is at all con-
elusive. that men ought to quit the
employment which has occupied them
before old age overtakes them. In
other words, that having done their
| fair share Of the worlds work. they
ought to welcome the privileges of :
the retired list. That is certainly SO
Of those occupations which require
physical strength, though there are ex-
| ceptions even to that, like the case Of
Won Moltke at the head Of the Prus-
sian army of invasion, or in an epoch
making battle in earlier times, Of
which Macauley says that If the hos
pitfalls of Europe had been searched it
would have been hard to find two more
helpless invalids, than the hunch- back
dwarf who led the fiery onset Of
France, and the asthmatic skeleton
who covered the slow retreat of Eng
| land.
Always Room for Wisdom Of the Sage.
! In those departments Of life where
the faculties of the mind require less
reinforcement from mere physical
strength the rules becomes less
and less applicable until at
length in the realm Of states
manship there is room always
for the wisdom of the sage and de-
| mand, not always well supplied, for
the tempered prudence Of old age. It
will not be denied by anybody fa-
miliar with the recent history of the
United States that Senator Allison
stands apart from all his contempo-
raries by the exceptional service which
he has rendered to his countrymen.
So that If the question were merely on
of continuing him in his office on ac-
count of the public need for his serv-
ices the force Of the argument in his
favor would be irresistible. But / do
not conceal from my republican
friends in Iowa that Senator Allison's
case before our people stands upon
higher ground even than that. 1t is
not necessary to argue the question
whether his candidacy was well or i'll
advised. The question for Iowa is:
How shall we deal with this man
whose name is before us for endorse
ment or rejection? 1t is q question
that concerns Gov. Cumnins and the
senator less than it does u.s. If he had
ever failed in his devotion to our people
or they in their devotion to him, our
duty might not be so plain He has
not been man prone to exaggerate
his Importance or to think Of himself
as indispensable to the public service.
| He has borne himself with such
gentle and kindly tolerance Of others
that in the days of his strength no
man thought of such thing as raising
his hand against him. and so his peo-
n h, writ, y,,>i1a nj
good will down to the very borders Of
the river. His adversaries Of today pro-
fessed to be his friends and he er-@
tered upon the candidacy, which we
are here discussing, with the assur-
ance that the whole state desired with
| loving hands to put the crown Of their
approval upon his public life.
And so, my fellow citizens, I renew
| the appeal which I made on former
occasion to the people Of Iowa. !
wish to do what l can to presere the
great traditions Of the commonwealth.
public opinion, which has rallied our
fellow citizens throughout the state
around the standard Of the veteran
leader who never turned his back up
on a friend or faltered in the presence
of any duty.
| have not attempted to conceal from
you that old age has crept upon him,
the tolls of nearly half century.
When his enemies exaggerate llia
weakness and disport themselves in
breezy accounts of the ravages which
sickness made on that stalwart strength
instead of turning the people of Iowa
away from his cause they only draw
more closely about him in the bonds
of an affection, which only grows
stronger as the end Of his great career
approaches.
i I have a great ambition for Iowa.
I do not want the record of these
/ times to disclose that her people, led
by the intrigues of fractional politics,
consented to disown the most honored
name in our annals.
Appeals to .>eopIe of Iowa.
For myself 1 have no unsatisf1ed
ambitions. The people of Iowa have
been generous to me, far beyond the
!. measure of my deserts. / speak to the
firesides of Iowa. to the fathers and
the mothers of the state to the young
rt,ha he. no 20, ;11r