Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-10-16
DEMOCRATS FIRE THE
FIRST POLITICAL GUN
SPEAKING CAMPAIGN OPENED
HERE LAST EVENING.
Burt Williams. Mayor of Ashland.
Sounds the Keynote of DemOCrd-
Cy at Turner Opera HOuSe-Bril-
liant Young Orator Spoke Over
Two HOurS-ArgumentS Many.

The democrats of Watertown opened
the local campaign last evening at the
Turner opera house, the speaker OF the
evening being Mr.. Burt Williams,
mayor of Ashland, and the democra-
tic candidate for lieutenant governor.
The speaker of the evening was intro
duced by Mayor Arthur Mulberger,
who paid many high and deserving
compliments to the brainy and brilli-
ant young orator from the northern
part of the state.
Mr.. Williams spoke for over two
hours upon matters of Importance
which enter into the present political
campaign, presenting them from the
standpoint of democracy in verv fair
and impartial manner. And it can
be sand to his credit that he refrained
from resorting to any personal abuses
throughout his able discourse. Mr..
williams is one of the most able
young men of the state and even
though he spoke from the view point
of dem Dcracy, his efforts were worthy
of far better representation of his
party than that which greeted him.
The speaker introduced his remarks
by paying compliments to Mayor Null
barger, the chairman of the meeting,
also to the good old city of Water
town asserting that the influence ut
the citizenship of our city had not on
ly been felt throughout the state, but
the nation az we'll, in the industrial,
commercial and civic activities. Mr..
Williams made but meager reference
to his own candidacy and spoke char
itably of his opponent, adding that he
did not appear to speak of men, but
rather of principles as espoused by
true democracy. Considerable stress
was laid upon the growing spirit of
independence, adding that the masses
were not as ready to follow the lead
of party busses or voting for machine
candidates. "The man who holds his
party first and the country afterward,
is not a good Citizen" said the speak
er. lie then cited what he believed
to be a fact, that one man who held
his country above party principles,
was the democratic candidate for the
presidency, giving as an illustration
the attitude of William Jennings Bry
an on the message of President Roose-
velt to Congress, in which the dOcu-
FOL hu hn
moner in face of the fact, that at the
time Mr.. Bryan did not know but
what he and the president would be
rivals for the presidency. Mr.. Bryan's
praise of Senator La Toilette was then
referred to, adding that if all the U.
>. senators. were of the stripe of Mr..
La Toilette. there would be no danger
of that branch of Congress going to
the democracy. These were given as
further illustrations to show that
growing spirit of independence, argu-
ing that democracy represented equal
and exact justice to all men.
The speaker stated that the cuntest
in the United States at the present
time was whether We (the people)
rule, or whether we do not. Refer
ence was then made to the fabulous
wealth which has been permitted to
grow up in the country among a few
and unprotected by any legislation
as far as the masses are concerned,
the augmentation being that to hon.
estly gain the fortune of Andrew Car
neige would take 5, 900 years. Refer
ence was also made to the fact that
through the lack of proper Legislation
In preventing the watering of stocks,
it was possible in one night and in a
single transaction to take millions of
dollars from the people and convert
the same to the Golfers of a greedy
few-the watering of stock with no
legislation to restrain. As illustra-
tons of these corrupt practices, Mr..
Williams paid his respects to the Con-
tnental Railway company of New
York, the Sugar trust and the Anal
gamated Copper company. AS another
evidence of the fact that the rich are
growing richer and the poor poorer,
g it vas shown that out of the 229, 600
miles of railway operated in the Uni
ted States, one sixth, or 35, 900 miles
are controlled by Mr.. Hartman, the
Railway King" of the United
a States.
Then the speaker gave the Standard
Oil company a little merited notice.
1t was shown that this company owns
under the earth, pipe lines covering
almost the entire oil fields of the
world. 1t was further argued that
owing to the exclusively high freight
rates, it WAS absolutely impossible
for the independent companies to com-
pete with the Standard and they were
forced to go out ef business and the
trust absolutely dominates.
Speaker Williams stated that he did
not appear as u campaign speaker to
decry wealth gained honestly, but
stated that he WAS opposed tn monop-
oily. The trend of his argument then