Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-11-26
We Shall See, Mr.. Cannon

ll a tISbN -
Cannon, at Elgin, on October 10 served
notice that he means TO purge the
threshing-floor Of the Republican
party of such chatf as Cummins, La
Toilette, and their followers by
these terms, Cannon describes the Pro.
gr~essives-who, of course, are followers
of neither Cummins nor LaFollette,
but of their own unbought and un-
subdued minds.
"These people," Speaker Cannon Is
reported to have said, "call them
selves Republicans; but if they are,
then l am something else.'
We hope that cannon Is right. If
by these remarks he means that
there is an irresistible conflict within
the party between C%annonism, on the
one hand, and the principles Of the
progressive Republicans, on the other,
he is quite right.
There is such a conflict. 1t is a
conflict between the Progressives, on
the one hand, and Mr.. Cannon and
his sort, on the other, for the control
of the party that once followed Lin
cOln.
1t is like a contest between two in
tereSts in some great organization,
the controlling faction of which, rep
resented by Cannon, has diverted it
from its original objects, and by an
ZEN bezZ!ement Of power entrench-
ed behind the voting trust Of the
caucus, the convention, the Cannon
rules, the drilled political henchmen
Of Special Privilege and the corrupt
ing influence OF predatory wealth,
has long bid defiance to the scattered
majority or the stockholders, the
voters Of the Republican party-feel-
ing their way to control of their W
organization through such methods
as direct primaries, popular election
of United States Senators and corrupt
practices laws.
If Cannon is a Republican,, these
undrilled citizens, are not. If Cannon
is a Republican, Lincoln. and Summer
and George William Curtis, and Carl
SchurZ, and the men who followed
Sherman and Grant, and the COM
manders they followed, and the
founders of the Republican party,
we're not Republicans.
Cannon may speak the truth when
he denies that he has made a corrupt
deal with Tammany whereby he will
aid.the Tiger in New. York while it
continues to aid him in Congress in
his contest with the Progressives, or
''insurgents."
He may.
They may have come to his aid in
that grim crisis of last Congress, not
because of anything he promised
them but because Of the deep
sympathy that exists between such
men. For if Cannon is a Republican,
Tammany is Republican, and so is
Cox of Cincinnati. Sullivan, "Bath-
house john" and "Hincky Dink" of
Chicago, and the powers that prey
everywhere. They may not pass
lnder the same names, but Cannon
himself IS authority for the state
ment that party titles are deceitful
now.
But about one thing, Cannon is
evidently mistaken. He cannot gavel
through his classification Of Republl-
;ans as he gavels through his schemes
in Congress. The voters of the Re-
publican party will decide as to who
IRE Republicans and who are not.
There will be stockholders meetings
rom time to time and tests Of strength.
The "voting trust Of Cannonism, the
caucus, and the convention may finally
win, and Cannon's definition of Re-
publicanism may be set up as the
correct One.
We shall see.
But we shall never believe in the
identity Of the party of Lincoln with
the party of Cannon until the last
BALLOT has been counted in the last
contest. The Progressives may we'll
bide their time and laugh at the
Examinations of the Gar of the House.
Their time is coming. Cannonism is
merely a survival. The stars in their
courses tight against it, and it is
doomed. A free, untrammeled ballot
in the Republican party would strip
Cannon OF every vestige Of power
tomorrow. His pronunciamentoes
are but the snarlings of a grim old
wolf who hears the beaters in the
woods, n scents them closing in.
He is still at large, and his fangs are
long; u the days of his depredations
within the SheenfnldS of tho noonla