Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-18
FORDNEY SECONDS THE
NOMINATION OF CANNON

Representative J. w. Fordney of Michi-
gan made the seconding speech for
Speaker Cannon taking the platform as
soon as Mr. Boutell had finished his
tribute to the candidate Of Illinois as
1.-THE strongest and bravest ally of Presi-
dent Roosevelt"
Representative Fordney said:, rise
to second the nomination of the
Hon. Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois.
do not concede this grand old
man Of the republican party to the state
OF Illinois. but claim him for the United
States. His work for the past third of a
century has been for the nation, for
Michigan and New York and for New
England. and the great west, and for the
south as well. where he was born. He
stands and has stood throughout the
period of our greatest prosperity and
development and our most dramatic his
tory. in the forefront of the republican
column, guided by sober sense and ex-
perience. neither hurried into precipitate
advance by the hysteria Of those who cry
aloud for novelties in government. nor
frightened from going forward by the
reactionartes who fear progress.
He has stood as bulwark in the legis-
lative halls against useless extravagance
and also against retrograde economy. He
thinking patriotic sentiment of the coun-
try, and has had the courage to ignore
the attacks of those who sought to sweep
the government from its sale moorings
while helping to direct 1t into the chan
nels of the peoples government. Like the
great Lincoln. he has kept in touch with
| the people, in order that the government
| should not lose its sense of responsibility
to the people, who really constitute the
government
In the House of Representatives, when
| the turbulent and revolutionary minority
sought to paralyze the government. he
CT
Thomas B. Reed. calmly bringing the
| mob rule under subsection, that the voice
| of the majority might be patent and full
fill its responsibility to the country.
Cool Under Clamor for War.
When the Spanish atrocities in Cuba
stirred the blood of the American people
and with one voice they clamored for war.
| this man, then at the head of the appro-
priations committee. controlling the purse
strings of the nation, did not join in that
clamor, but after quiet conference with
President Mckinley as to the prepared
| ness of the nation for war, presented to
Congress and in two days placed upon the
statute books law absolutely and un.
reservedly giving to the President fifty
millions of dollars for national defense.
There was no preliminary advertising
for this move on the international chess
board. but when 1t came it was the most
dramatic as we'll as the most effective
answer Of the United States to the talk
| of European concert.
This man, born in the south, when slav-
cry rested like a blight upon half the ma
tion-reared in the west. where the true
| spirit of American manhood has been best
exemplifed in the pioneers of the great
Mississippi valley-has come into the
| councils of the nation as a true REPRE-
sentative of the spirit Of Lincoln. AS
| was said of another great son of Illinois
| so 1t can be said OF Uncle Joe"-his in
| tegrity, his common sense. his courage,
| his unequaled experience are the qualities
| offered to his country.
True to Every Pledge.
| He has been true to every pledge and
has been deaf to the appeals Of friends
and the threats of opponents where these
came in conflict with his sense of duty to
| the trust in his keeping. He has been
| praised and criticised but neither praise
nor criticism has Influenced him in the
| discharge or his duty. He has said mo"
with emphasis where there was any doubt
| in connection with the demand for appro-
priations but he has ever been ready to
| champion a righteous cause. without re-