Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-05-05

PooAAS1ioB Sdku JuO SoNCiuol VI AoNdJ
On September IA, 1906, before a vast
multitude at Harris Grove in Webster
county, in speech opening his cam
paign for the Office which he now
holds. II don't like to hear a man
talk of progressive republicans and
standpatters. There is no such thing,
because every republican is progress
sive, and the history of the party is
the history Of progression. I am an
old fashioned republican" confined
the governor, ian Abraham Lincoln
Grant-McKinley republican without
any embellishments whatever. I was
born republican, and know that
the republican party is now and al
ways has been progressive party,
and know that there are no laggards
IN our ranks. We are holding up the
old flag Of the union, just as our
fathers did years ago, and l can't be
tempted to divide this old party into
any such factions and fanciful names
as these. We are all striving for the
same thing, the same ends"
Whatever crisis there is In Iowa
now was here summer before last, and
unless we are content to feed the
people of Iowa on steady diet of
humbug and discrimination, we ought
to see to it that this unseemly dis
paragement Of one another, so profit
able in securing nominations and so
embarrassing on election days, is eff,
fectually done away. Unless such
tactics as these come to an end, the
appeal Of editors for the united sup
port of our nominations will be in
vain. You cannot defame the
character of one.half the membership
of your party, representing whole
communities, as under the corrupt in
iuence of corporations, without invit-
Ing a retaliation as deserved as it is
inevitable. There has been no crisis in
our national life in which the repre-
sentatives of Iowa, following the
counsel and leadership Of William B.
Allison, have not borne manly and
honorable part. There are scores of
men in Iowa who have heard from the
lips of President Roosevelt his hearty
and sincere tribute to the fidelity
with which every man from Iowa has
stood by him since the day poor Nc
kinley laid down the presidency with
his life.
Repeats Governors Compliment to
Iowa Delegation.
II the Iowa delegation in congress
stood in need Of any words Of COM
mendation from me, 1 could do no bet
ter than to repeat the words of Gov.
Cummins hardly more than a year
ago, when he said:
'It is the proud distinction Of our
commonwealth that in the session Of
congress just closed the delegation
from our state stood nearer to this
great leader than the delegation from
any other state in the union. And
without invidious comparison l desire
to embrace this opportunity to lay this
tribute of my praise at the feet of our
within a year. the flowers Of this tri-
butte are faded.
Mayor John Lacey, has been shelved
and other congressman are driven in
disgust into retirement; others
brought into line by threats Of defeat;
others solicited to be neutral, while our
greatest leader, the closest adviser of
the president, not even excepting his
own cabinet, the man Of whom Presi-
dent Roosevelt when the rate bill was
up said in a letter intended for the
congressional record: II earnestly
suggested to all whom I spoke that
they should communicate with you
whose purpose and mine were identi-
cal.'-this man Is made to realize that
neither age nor service nor fame, nor
the reverence Of his colleagues nor
versaries, is able to protect his gray
hairs.
There was time in Iowa when
men were able to run for office on the
nublic recognition of their talents,
their superior ability, their party ac-
tivity-in word. on their merits. All
of that seems to have gone, and now
candidates are announced for practi-
cally every office on the ground that
they are somebody's man, and it has
only become necessary to popularize
order to fill the state with a swarm of
announcements, bearing significant
witness to the fact that the payroll
and the cause Of progress work to-
gether. At this point the great crisis
arrives in the life of the nation. And
SO we have been treated for years
with the same spectacle which we wit
ness now, bogus division in the re-
publican ranks Of Iowa, kept alive for
nomination purposes only.
My fellow citizens, this is a beauti-
full spring to put a final quietus on
this time honored fraud
Glad to be ALlson's crutch.
Not long ago newspaper devoted
to the governors interest in Fayette
county sought to bring me into ridi-
Guile and reproach me because I al
lowed myself to act as a crutch tc
support the tottering footsteps Of my
| colleague, "a playedout politician" il
l remembed the language of the edi-
tor correctly. I did not particularly
| resent the mean disparagment with
which the editor referred to Senator
Allison. Brutality of such calibeI
has had so versatile an expression II
our state that 1 was able in general
way to understand the character o!
the writer, but 1 could not help wond-
ering whether there are very man,
people in Iowa who really enjoy that
| level Of public discussion. I was as.
ISOLATED for a great many years witt
our most famous Iowa congressman
and | remember how the children who
act as pages. in the House, used tt
| fight among themseles for the privil.
| eye of carrying Colonel Henderson:
crutches to him, and even the mem.
bers, when division was ordered
were eager for the honor of bearine
the crutch between the telers to bt
counted when the old soldier could not
comfortably leave his seat. 1t may be
| that have morbid continent ol,o,,,