Devils Lake inter-ocean and Devils Lake free press. (Devils Lake, Ramsey County, N.D.) 1905-1909, 1908-12-11

tuition of the United States was the
widest document which ever came at
one time from the hand of man. It's
spirit Is representative government
Our political practice, both national |
and state, has justified the theory of
representative government. The peo- |
pie, absorbed in their individual affairs |
and business in selecting those who !
hall meet, deliberate and act for them,
secure the best government the world
has ever known. 1t would be impossi-
BILE to devise any other process to Sc
cure the men who must transact the
! public business which would give as
good results.
Legislators have their ears to the
ground and are eager to hear from
their constituents. The action OF the
Union League club the other night was
| eminently proper. The Elimination of a
choice here this evening, by the lead
er Of our district, with our senator and
member present, and similar sugges-
lions DR. appeals everywhere are well
coined by legislators, but the gayety Of
nations is promoted by the election
which lis now going on for United
States senator as if the senate and
assembly had neither brains, con-
science nor duties. Every morning the
newspa pers announce that United
States senator to succeed Senator Platt
has been elected in Washington, the
Hot Springs of Virginia, or New York
City, One important and powerful
politician announced the other day,
through the Associated Press, that he
had elected my successor to the senate.
The papers recently gave an account
of fight at Chicago among the sons
in-law outside the door of the dying
/ testator over his estate, but that poor
man had only a few hours Of life left.
A mans spirit can watch the post
mortem on his body, but this confident
dispenser of the peoples patronage
performs the operation and divides the
fortune nearly three years in advance.
/ was a member of the legislature in
1862 and again in 1868. There is no
4 justification for the current abuse Of
Legislative bodies. A man must have
isTisen' inssome meritorious way SO that
his fellow citizens could see him above
the crowd in order to become mem
Der of the legislature, national or state.
There are two hundred and one men,
bers of our legislature, one hundred
and fifty in the assembly and fifty-one
in the senate. The republicans are in
large majority. They have the sole
power of selecting our senator, and l
believe that they know best whom the
people want and will so record by their
votes. I think that the legislature to
be elected two years later, whose
members are now not selected, will not
care to have their constitutional duties
pointed out to them two years in ad.
: vance of their selection. The conf.
dence with which a half dozen states
men thus perform, in advance, the
functions Of the legislature is JOY for
the reporters and amusement for the
people.
am charged with telling old stor
' les. My trouble is that / discover OF
invent a story and use it in speech
b 1t gets into the newspapers and wher
l repeat it they say, There is one o.
Chauncey's old chestnuts." l used {
> story many years ago which had grea
vogue at the time, but think Is nov
forgotten. A farmer came into thu
l. freight Office of one of our wester,
= roads and said to the agent, "The new
summer hotel down our way tells MI
they are going to feed their boarder
+ frogs legs and I have undertaken t
supply them. wish you would hav
+ freight car at my station Monday TO
I have a pond so full Of frogs that;
9 will need the car, and the hotel peopl
u say they will take them ALL" The fal
II mer came down a few days afterwar
q and said. II won't want that car. Yo
], isee the frogs in my pond made such \
e noise with their, eroaking that N
I. family could not sleep, nor my COW
u chew their cud, but when I*drained tn
a'I pond there were only four " !
III Well, gentlemen, this is: hardly a
y occasion for serious discussion w
Y fhave won . great victory and we ar
z very happy. We have rescued bushes
y from peril and placed prosperity upo
Y solid foundations The country neve
Z. was ia rich. the markets never so ope
4 and the ability to manufacture and hu
Y never SO great, but It was all standin
= still awaiting the result of the election
y On the one hand was experimer