Times-promoter., 1908-10-23
HEAR PLAIN SPEECH
VOTERS LISTEN TO A LITTLE
STRAIGHT TALK.
Man Of the People Points Out to In.
terested Listeners the Real Issues
of the campalgn-Joe Can
mons Position.

MohroeVllie democrats, assisted by
the county committee, had planned
what the posters called "A Monster
Bryan Ratification Meeting" The Re-
publican school teacher remarked that
the first three words of the placard
held more truth than all the rest OF
the sheet; but then, he was a recent
Importation from Boston, and SO was
expected to sit in the seat of the
scornful Undisturbed by any such
grammatical peccadilloes, most of
Monroeyille's thousand voters, and
several hundred men from the outly-
ing country, turned out to hear the
music and the speech-making.
There was CONSERVATION In the
ranks of the committee when the eve
ming train brought no Lawyer Squires,
the bright oratorical light upon whom
their faith had been pinned. The
meeting had begun before the train
arrived; the preliminaries had been
disposed of and the local talent we'll
nigh exhausted when the noEplussed
committee arrived with the bad news.
Before it could be broken, however,
Zed Rumford, the hotel-keeper, whose
committee badge outshone his dia-
mond, had an inspiration Why not
ask Tom Harkins, Ware & Tare's star
drummer, to give the crowd the same
sort of talk he had made to the boys
in the hotel lobby that afternoon7
Thus it came about that instead Of
pompous orator In a frock coat,
there was introduced well-groomed
young man in brown, who began by
saying: Amt it awful, Mabeln !
blew into this burg to talk Ware &
Tare's dry goods, and here they've put
me up to show line of Republican
green goods. Instead of a big gun,
you've got a Cannon-cracker, for /
want to take crack at Joe, since he
and Senator Son-in-law Oilrich are
more of an issue than Teddy's expand
ed shadow, Injunction Bill /
wouldn't be afraid of the big stick in
Taft's hands, any more than Wall
street is afraid of 1t; but Taft is only
the respectable cigar-store front of
the meanest gambling joint that ever
stacked the cards against sucker.
The real owners are Cannon, Aldrich,
Rockefeller, Hartman and that whole
push. Uncle Joe's lightest cuss word
is weightier than Taft's most delphic
deliverance. For what Cannon says
goes, because he does not speak until
he has been spoken to by the men
higher up'-and the higher up where
Cannon goes for ordes is not heaven,
either Do you catch my point? There
is no voting for Protege Taft, or Err
rand-Boy Sherman, without voting
for the continuation and strengthening
of the Republican ring in house and
senate, a ring so crooked that, except
for few months in presidential year,
even the Republican editors are kept
busy telling the nasty truth about it.
If you want more of the reign of the
gang that has proved itself mightier
than even Terrible Teddy then vote
for the amiable Taft and the shrink
ing Sherman"
Il had a next-door neighbor once
who woke in the night and found a
hall light burning downstairs. He
thought it was burglar. What do you
suppose he did? He stood upstairs
shivering in his nightie, hoping the
burglar would go away. Is that the
way you do, when your wife shakes
you out of your beauty sleep and tells
you that there is a burglar down.
stairs?"
mot on your life!" calculated
bushy man in the audience; Il go
after him."
well, gentlemen, that is just about
what is up to you to-day in this politi
cal campaign. Your fundamental, in
herent manhood rights are at stake,
Your country, which is as sacred to
you as your home-myriads of patriots
have left their homes at the call Of
country-has been invaded by thieves
and robbers, The ideals Of American
government have been violated. Your
property rights have been taken from
you. Some of you have become so
supine and unnamed that you grin
and gloat over the power and audacity
of the men who have plundered and
shamed you. You say they're migky
smart, and that you'd do the same II
you had the chance. A man who talks
like that is at heart q crook here
the speaker grew vehement, and
jabbed his fore-finger viciously into
the air--''and no decent citizen of this
republic
A tenseness In the atmosphere and
low murmurs Of appreciation, rather
than cheers, greeted the speakers
reasoning here. "But that sort OF fell
low, while the mainstay of the Repnb-
lican organization, is not majority
in America, not by several. Like the
eminent Republican, his satanic ma
jesty, I've been going to and fro on
the earth good deal, and I've talked
with all sorts of people. Frankly, I
tell you I'm amazed at the deep seri-
BUSINESS OF the voters Of to-day. Men
are thinking things through for them
selves; and whenever you find man
thinking the present situation through,
there you find vote for Bryan. This
election is not going to be decided by
campaign speeches, but by the course