The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1908-05-07

part, as follows:
Where is one thing about the career
of Senator Allison which makes mis-
name valuable asset to the re-pub
lican party in Iowa at this time
Never in all his long career has he
been fomenter of strife or the bene
ficiary of divided party counsels. Hi
influence has been TO unite conflict
ing elements, to conciliate minor diff
ferences, to reduce the friction Of per
sonal contention, and TO lead his as
sociates in the paths of peace. There
is no republican among us who has
not during the last few years seen
with regret the intrusion into ouI
party leadership of the elements OF
discord, deliberately brought about, to
forward personal ambition; the lines
of faction have been distinctly drawn,
and the people notified to get on one
side or the other and spend their lives
in quarrel that seems to have no
end. There was time in Iowa-and
there are signs that ii is coming back
when men are content to be called
republicans, to share the traditions OF
their party on equal terms, and to re-
joice in its victories, without the bit
terness of personal disappointment II
is the mischief of factional politics
that both sides are prone to fall to
the miserable level which it imposes
upon all its victims. What we have
seen in Iowa is only a natural out
come of the situation which We have
SO long tolerated; neighbor arrayed
against neighbor; old friends parted in
angry discussion; wholesale defama-
ton of character; universal impeach-
ment of motives; plausible lies sub
stituted for the truth; suspicion pois-
oning every mans cup; the whole
wretched comedy ending at last in
party humiliation little short of dis
aster.
In the midst of all this strife, we
have had one man too great and too
wise to descend into our petty
squabbles: one man whose influence
has been used to compose our diff
culties and to promote the success OF
our candidates. He has never spoken
an evil word of his fellow republicans,
nor planted thorn in any mans
pillow. He has never sacrificed his
party to win any reward for him
self, but throughout his public life
has made himself the obedient ser.
want of the whole party and the whole
From this man, now busy
with the great affairs of the govern
ment at our capitol, bring this mes
sage to the republicans of Iowa: He
ss7cesssss me viii Of alf; he, asks the
support of an. From the least to the
greatest among us, there is place in
the kindly heart Of our old leader
Tor every Iowa republican. When he
hears men. standing up before the
people, saying thai the time for har-
mony is long past, he knows that there
must be some mistake about that, for
the governor seeking his second nomi-
nation, called upon him to sit down
with one of the most ominous Gre
ations of the progressive Imagination,
and write a platform broad enough to-
the whole party, in order
that the candidate might escape the
of Improbable strife. 1t
since the famous peace conference
and that afterwards it became neces-
sary to label republicans, calling some
Corporation tools" and others friends
of the people" describing one man as
a "standpatter" and another as pro
gressive;" there are good many evi.
dences that those popular definitions
have been used, not SO much to pro-
mote the general welfare, as to for
ward the official interests of indi-
vidual leaders. ...
There are some undoubtedly sincere
persons who think that hostility, or
even indifference to the program which
the governor has arranged for his own
advancement, is conclusive evidence
that the demon of corporation rule
has not been thoroughly cast out. The
great mass of our people, however, feel
that II is necessary to any longer pa
rade the virtues Of the governor under
a banner marked progressive, or to
designate as "standpatters" those who
revere the name of Senator Allison
and feel drawn to him all the more
closely on account Of the infrmities
which he bears.
Not long since 1 read in the COVER
nor's organ at Waterloo this sentence:
Allison. an old man in his dotage,
with one foot in the grave and the
other on the 'standpat' platform" Is
il any wonder that republicans through
out the state by unnumbered thous-
ands, are turning away from can
didacy which accepts without shame
such support as that II is the good
fortune OF the friends of Senator ALI
son that they may appeal to the re
cord to say whether he ever stood
on any platform except the platform
OF the republican party. And while
none OF Us stands very far from the
grave, so that not even the str INCEST
ought 10 boast OF his strength there is
d peculiar sanctity which in civilized
communities Is usually su% Gent to
protect from sheer and insult the gray
hairs Of good man.
venture to say there was never