Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-24
WARM ROAST FOR
SPEAKER CANNON
CONTINUED from First Page.)

OCOntinued from tlIsh Edsb'J
information; you viii get the Aldrich
bill or nothing
This is your record upon our financial
and currency legislation. 1 challenge you
to find a single living man with so rotten
a one. It Is a record Of Ignorance or politi-
cal cowardlce, tor a disgraeeful hybrid OF
the two. And yet, sir, you assume to die.
tate the financial and currency legislation
Of a civilized country.
It wa in contemplating the unmeasured
losses and terrific consequences TO my
country, resulting from the crisis OF 1907
because Of your ignorance, prejudice and
absolutely unchallenged power as speaker
of the house of representatives tina 1 re-
solved, that so far as in me lay, never
again should such a financial tragedy fall
upon the American people because the
speaker OF the house Of representatives
absolutely controlled legislation.
Therefore l announced myself as a can
didate for speaker at the beginning Of the
Sixty-first congress-. but with only one
thought, and that was TO accentuate the
platform upon which 1 stood. THAI all
political power shall be taken away from
the speaker and that he be only II presld
ing officer, just as the speaker Of the
House OF Commons is.
Acts with Full Knowledge.
DO you suppose, sir, that / did not APP
preciate fully the probable consequence Of
my act when / undertook to play my part
In securing this REFORM DO you suppose
that l was not aware of your ignorance,
prejudice, lnordinate conceit, favoritism,
putrid preferences, ana that like all such
characters possessshg absolute power,
malice is the handspring OF your every
action under such circumstances DO not
forget that 1 chose my course In plain
sight Of your political guillotine and the
political carcasses of those you had de-
capitated; but that it had no terrors for
me.
To the membership of the house and to
the whole country II is we'll known, not
w~ithstanding your false pretenses to the
contrary, that you were not acting from
a sense OF duty, nor, ~becausesI could not
secure committee agreements, but because
you revel in a glut Of brutal power like
Nero to terrorize your subjects.
Now, II seems from oil that can be
learned with reference TO the conference
upon the Payne bill, that you. with every
members political head in your basket of
favors, shuttle -cooked through the halls
OF congress-, trying to secure the passage,
generally speaking. of the Aldrich bill; and,
disfiguring so far as you could the Payne
bill, with the exception of a few SEIZED
ules.
1t Is reported that one Of the senate con.
ferees 2said that you would not appoint a
single o~onferee unless Mr.. Aldrich o KID
and approved him.
In other words, did you not enter into q
conspiracy with Mr.. Aldrich to pack the
confsrees on the part of the house for the
express purpose Of adopting the senate bill
so far as possible instead OF the house bill
with a few exceptions, when you were
honor bound to DO everything in YOU
power 70 secure the adoption OF the hous.
bil9
have gone into these details to lay bar,
your miserable, contemplate false pretenst
and to expose your dupllcity, treachery and
pertidy TO tina legislative body over which
you preside, whose bill you were bound t
defend and not destroy.
Taking an the facts as they appear n
the case, from start to finish. a lawyer, al
Intelligent erimina lawyer, would say tina
It looked like a conspiracy. You seem Il
nave measured the conditions with &C
curacy. and to have calculated the dis
tRnees to the. various points OF agreemen
carefully, and YOU seemed to be almos
upoR the point of concentrating your un
dertRkinE when the great unknown facto
became the determining force.
Both of you seemed to have forgotten
that the president was a great lawyer,
Judge OF large experience, a men Of ex
tensive dealings I'm great affairs, intelli
gent, honorable. courageous and patriotic
The scheme failed because Mr. Payne an
the president stood IKE honest and brsv
men Tor the redemption Of the pledges Q
the republican party.
Though this scheme failed, It exhibit
.-"Cannonasmy In Its highest and most per
feet development.
Isehaienks you TO cite In all our politics
history a more dishonorable and disreE
utaBie piece Of business unless. perchane'
youJeite something In your own career q
which the paople are not yet advised.
Just at this j~unpture Il Is most pertiner