Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-08-27
CANNON A MENACE,
CHARGES FOWLER
REPRESENTATIVE, IN OPEN LET.
TER, SAYS SPEAKER UsURPS
LEGISLATIVE POWER.
SAYS HIS RECORD is ROTTEN.
In the Tariff Fight, New Jersey Man
Accuses "Uncle Joe" of Duplicity
and Treachery.
HE CoNsPIRED WITH ALDRICH?

ELIZABETH, N. j., Aug. 24.-Repre-
sentative Charles n. Fowler, recently
-sfeposed as chairman of the committee
On banking and currency, has made pub
BIC his promised open letter to Speaker
Cannon. He announced several days
ago that the contents of the letter would
be Of national Importance, and would go
TO the root of the trouble which resulted
in the attempt of the insurgents" to
defeat the speaker for reelection. MIR.
Fowler was modest, as politicians who
saw advance copies of the letter learned,
for the communication is by Tar the
most vigorous and comprehensive attack
on CannOnism that has yet appeared.
Mr.. Fowler does not hesitate to call
spade a spade. In language that would
make Senator Tillman envious, he lays
charge after charge at the door of the
speaker, winding up by declaring him
national menace that must be removed If
Republican government is to continue in
the United States.
Mr.. Fowler charges Speaker Cannon
with being responsible for two-thirds of
the national losses in the panic of 1907,
through his defeat of the bankers bill
providing for a system Of credit cur
Eency. He declares that the speaker
cOnspired with Senator Aldrich to dis
credit the President and defeat the
Payne tariff bill. He warns the Ameri-
can people against Mr.. Cannons plan
ITO make American banking and COM
merce the football of our politics, pre-
,Cisely as our productive industries are
today. by the establishment of central
bank"
Tariff Tilt Challenge.
SO challenge you," he writes of the
Eariff controversy, Ito cite in all your
political history more dishonOrable and
Il utoh of
.perchance, you cite something in your
own career of which the people are not
yet advised"
And finally: GAS you are aware, we
aow have government by edict, SO
completely have you absorbed and
usurped all power, legislative as well as
political. You have succeeded in Rus
sianizing the House of Representatives.
But You will be the last of the political
Bourbons, and the conditions which
made such a creature you possible
will end with the Sixty-irst Congress-"
Beginning with the recital of the cir
.cumstances of his candidacy for the
Speakership and his subsequent removal
aS chairman of the banking and currency
committee. Mr.. Fowler dominates the
speaker briefly for membership in the
.Anauias club in connection with the CON
CHEESEMAN'S deposition, and passes quick
ly to q review of Mr.. Cannon's record
IN financial and currency questions.
In taking up the subject of the credit
currency bill prepared by a commission
of fifteen bankers in the fall Of 1906,
IAe writes:
after the bill had been reported by
Che banking and currency committee to
the House, | went to you as was nee
-assary. disgraceful as the necessity may
seem under the circumstances to ask
whether L could call up the bill for con-
-Bideration, telling you we were facing
"a financial crisis, that something should
De done to meet it, and that this bill
dIad been drawn for that specific pur-
pose.
Lays Blame for Panic.
~'You literally hooted the idea of a
GJanic, and inquired, What does this
bowling in Wall street amount to? The
country don't care what happens to
those spectators. Everything is all
right out west and around Danville.
The country don't need any legislation.
Then. l don't take any stock in your as
set currency AS usual, your ignorance
and prejudice were all-sutfictent then.
But the panic came, as every man
who had any intelligence on this subject
knew it would. And one-haf to two
thirds of all our losses | charge to you
personally, because if the bankers bill
had passed the House and gone to the
Senate these losses would have lain at
their door if they had failed to pass it
as the matter now stands, they lie
at your door
and currency legislation. | challenge you
10 find single living man with so rot
zen a one 1t is a record of ignorance
.or political cowardice or disgracetul
hybrid of the two And yet, sir, you
assume to dictate the financial and cur
eency legislation of a civilized country
1t was in contemplating the unmeas-
-21red losses and terrific consequences to
my country resulting from the crisis of
1907, because of your Ignorance. preJu-
dice, and absolutely uuchallenged power
as speaker of the House of Representa-
tives, that | resolved that, so far as in
me lay, never again should such fnan-
,ciai tragedy fall upon the American peo-
pile Therefore, l announce myself as
candidate for speaker.
Ignorance and Prejudice.
t'Do you suppose, sir, that l did not
appreciate fully the probable couse-
play my part in securing this reform
appointment of a calendar day for in
Producing bills)? Do you suppose that
[ was not aware of your ignorance, pre-
judice, inordinate conceit, favoritlsm,
putrid preferences, and that. like all such
characters possessing absolute power
malice is the handspring of your every
action under such circumstances?
''You can insurge and plot against the
Republican platform, and against the
President hlmSelt-Of which L shall now
ndduce stronger circumstantial evidence
than that on which many a man has
gone TO the gallows.
1t seems from all that can be learned
with reference to the conference on the
Payne bill. that you, with every mem
beers political head in your basket of
favors, shuttle-cocked through the halls
Of Congress, trying to secure the passage
of the Aldrich bill and diSfiguring so far
as you could the Payne bill, with the ex
ception of a few schedules
,J,J n ii NJ