The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1910-09-22

the manufacturers of baking powder
not containing alum paid for the enact
ment OF a bill prohibiting the sale OF
baking powder containing alum, al
the next session the manufacturers OF
those powders containing alum paid to
have the bill repealed. Legislation
was simply sold to the highest bidder.
Such was the condition of affairs
when there came a time when Col.
Phelps and VIM. joel Stone became
arrayed against each other. With the
railroads and other powerful interests
at his back it was practically certain
that Phelps would win if the game was
fought out under the old rules. Where
upon Stone denounced Phelps as a
lobbyist and briber. 1t was then that
Phelps made his famous reply we
both suck eggs, but you hide the
Shells
From that moment dates the decline
of Phelps and the rise of Stone. It
has never been considered wrong by
the Old Guard of Missouri to suck
eggs or bribe; failure to hide the
| shells or getting caught constituted
| the crime. And the influence Of Bill
Phelps, who left the shells lying adroun
promiscously, continued to wane until
he was let out by the Missouri Pacific
and for the last few years he has been
retired from politics. But now he is
back in the game. He is the Demo
cratic candidate for the legislature from
the Carthage district of Jasper county
and as such attended the recent Dem
ocratic state convention and took a
large part IN the making of the plat
form. The why's and wLe-efo-es of
which have got lots of folks studying.
In the first place it can be safely set
down that it is not the Insignificant
salary attached to the Office tnat is
taking the colonel back into the polit-
cal arena. In fact there are very few
men go to the Legislature fcr ihe sal
ary. What attracts most of them is
the honor, but this cannot be the fact
in Phelps case because his election
will refreshen the memory. of-ihe high
estate from which he has fallen. We
must search for other reasons.
There are some who think that the
return of Phelps to influence means
that his party is going to quit hiding
the shells, but. the signs don't point
that way. There has been organized
to act in conjunction with the Demo
cratic state committee so-called
Business Mems Auxiliary. What for?
Well, you see there is law in Mis-
souri that says that every candidate
and every committee shall make a
sworn statement OF al campaign ex-
penses. Under this law the committee
must tell how much it spends, David
R. Francis must tell how much he
spends bur there isn't any law that
says a Business Mems Auxiliary must
tell how much it spends to carry the
state Legislature and send Francis to
the United States Senate. That doesn't
look like they have quit hiding the
shells. Rambling away from the sub
ject little, the other day heard one
of the leading local Democrats say that
Dave Francis has done more for Mis-
souri, than any other man. There is
no doubt that Dave has done a whole
lot for certain inGiyi1e;,i -.I:3soa-ians
and that IS IA as fancy county IS con-
cerned they are going to deliver to
him the solid Democratic vote for
Senator
Then there are those that think that
in his enforced retirement Phelps has
had time to reflect on his past follies
and mistakes and has become a shell
hider himself. But the colonel is most
too old dog too learn new tricks.
There is one other guess as to why
Bill is getting back into the game
the sandbag. That's the guess with
which am inclined to agree. It is a
well known characteristic of human
nature that q man feels most bitterly