Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-10-29

The following letter from Pontiac
Republican is republished from the
Chicago Inter Ocean because it so
aptly presents the situation from the
standpoint of down-state voters:
ITO the Editor: You are right
There are abundant reasons why Gov
Deneen should be defeated and why
he will be defeated. Self-respecting
Republicans in Illinois are in no way
bound to support for governor a man
who is anything but a Republican.
who knitted and helped to defeat four
Republican candidates for mayor of
Chicago, whose whole record is
stepped in treachery and hypocrisy,
and who now. with his pay roll syco-
plants, is secretly conspiring to stab
in the back the Republican party's
| nominees for the legislature.
Since Deneen and Harlan and that
type of nonpartisans have had any
| thing to do with guiding the Republi-
can party in Illinois it has gone stead
lily backward. They sought power
and wealth through their politics
They got the latter and enough of the
former to split the Republican party
in their efforts.
| why should any self-respecting Re-
1
| spiration from Lincoln and Grant and
Oglesby and the great war governor,
feel in the slightest way bound to sup
port this Deneen type? Where is
there in his record anything that
should appeal to a Republican whose
Repuhlicanism is not a mere cloak,
not a mere mask behind which to raid
the state asylums at midnight with
Chicago henchmen-a mask to cover
up this reign of horrors in the charit-
able institutions of the state?
Have we Republicans of the old
school down here in the state got to
support a man who grabbed s1S0.000
lof public funds. besides his regular
salary of $4,000, and then had suits
brought against men who are in their
graves and whose lives were clean
and noble and whose names were re.
tspected fer so years in Illinois, and
who did not steal public funds as
Gov Deneen said in his Rock Island
speech?
What kind of Republicanism is this
that prompts the governor of Illinois
10 send his paid attorney, William
Moulton, supposed to be chairman OF
the civil service commission, around
the state proclaiming with one breath
the purity of the asylum management
and with the other condemning ar
honest attempt to see if there was
, anything wrong and using all his in
fluence to hide the true situation?
Have We Republicans down here
in the corn belt got to join the govern
, or in shouting to our friends thai
there is nothing wrong when we know
there is? How can We hope to pre-
serve the party on such hypocritica
platform as this?
How can we Republicans apologize
for Gov. Deneen when he goes ou
and defends the asylum managers il
, the face of sworn evidence that il
the old days of English jails the hor
rors were not more terrible than IL
some of the asylums of Illinois undel
d this reform rule?
rs it fair to expect us to join il
: this mad plunge to party perdition
4 Must we follow Gov Deneen in thi
foolish course? Does he think tn,
I people of Illinois are numskulls an,
E idiots? Does he imagine for one mo
lment that this hypocrisy is not know
| land understood? Does he not under
, stand that the voters of Illinois know
: lhim at last and that he is but diggin,
the grave deeper by persisting in thi
: lhypocritical role?
, eWhat is the patriotic, party dut
iof us farmers out here in the cor
!. Ibelt? Is it not up to US to purg
!. 1.-THE party of Deneenisnl, feeism, masl
u lism, sham, and pretense, in order tina
lwe may make new start With
Iclean slate