Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1910-05-19
Wanted-A Character.

| w
The Mitchell Republican, which is
probably the only republican newspaper
in South Dakota that is remaining neut-
raj during the present fractional fight,
says:
THE weakness of the progress
sive' campaign in the state is its
negative nature. There seems more
interest in attacking the record of
Treasurer johnson or the editor of
some newspaper than in giving
character to the movement which
the 'progressives' profess to rep
resent"
The trouble with South Dakota's
alleged ''progressives" is that their
movement has lost what little character
it ever did possess, and the efforts of
the so-called "progressive" newspapers
to rehabilitate it with the vestments of
responsibility have proven fruitless.
The former campaigns of the reform"
machine were conducted upon the
"holier than thou" plan. They pro-
fessed to be paragons of virtue-the
only real, dyed-in-the-woo reformers
the state of South Dakota possessed.
With tear-dimmed eyes they told the
voters of the ravenous railroad machine,
of the extravaganza of the stalwarts,
and they plead with the voters to put
them in charge of the state. Promises
of every kind and character they gave
without stint, and through this method
they succeeded in elevating themselves
into power. But in this campaign they
are absolutely without an issue, and no
reason can they present to the voters
for their retention in Office. They have
made their record, and it is one they
cannot refer to without numerous apol-
ogies. Their path is lined with shatter-
ed promises and broken pledges; their
legislative enactments have been weak
and incompetent; they have created an
immense debt; have squandered the
states money recklessly; and last but
not least, the leaders of the reform"
machine have at last displayed the
cloven hoof and proven themselves to
be nothing more than votaries of the
South Dakota railroad machine over
which Harry Hunter and Aleck John
son preside.
Not one of their most important plat
form pledges did they enact into laws.
In 1906 their leaders promised a depos-
itory law, but it was not passed, and
the reform" machine and State Treas
urer Cassill pocketed $25, 100000 of the
states interest money, and it was only
after stalwart was elected to the
office of state treasurer upon plat
formlpledging him to turn all interest
moneys over to the state that the "re-
form" leaders allowed the passage of
the law. They performed in the same
way with their pledges to correct the
abuses imposed by the railroads and
other public service corporations. The
votaries of the railroad machine. who
evidently operate the reform" fac
ton for the benefit of the railroad cor
porations, succeeded in annulling the
effect of every anti-railroad bill that
went through the legislature, and under
the reform" regime this state has not
made the least advance in this impor-
tant line of legislation. In 1906 the
"reformers" also pledged to conduct
TIE states affairs economically and de-
nounced Mr.. Elrod's administration as
"extravagant. How have they kept
this pledge? Look at your tax receipts
for the past three years-and then re-
member that in addition to the heavy
taxes they have levied they have bur-
dened the taxpayers with million
dollar state debt.
In view of these facts it is not
strange that the reform" newspapers
should find it useless to attempt to give
character to what they term 1.-THE pro-
gressive movement" The faction they
represent has renounced all right to
the confidence of the voters. Their
leaders have betrayed every principle
the faction was supposed to represent,
and no amount of withdrawing" can
give character to political faction or