Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1910-01-06

arise concerning the insurgent
movement. The political stu
dent asks, What is an insurgenti"
The general public, always interested
IN personalities, inquiries, who is an
tnsurgent?' Uncle Joe Cannon, in
more or less bewhiskered and unsteril-
ICED language, rises TO the question,
''Why is an insurgents" To answer
all three queries adequately would re-
Quire several books. But as l have
not time to write the books and no.
body else would have time TO read
them we will have to boil it down.
To begin in the good old ordinal and
ordained way: Firstly, what is an in
surgent? 1t depends on who is giving
the answer. If 1t were Robert Marion
La Toilette he would doubtless reply,
IAN insurgent is the nobest work OF
God" having i'll mind, perhaps, one
particular insurrecto. II il were Can
non who was giving the opinion But
wait! There are postal laws in the
United States against printing and dis
seminating certain kinds of words, and
l have no desire to get either myself
or the editor into Jail. Either the La
Toilette or Cannon idea would prob
ably be biased TO take n perfectly
dispassionate view, an insurgent is one
who wants to change the rules of the
house in which he is serving; also the
rulers He has Il passion for ripping
II into Cannon and Aldrich. He wants
TO revise the tariff downward empha
sis on the ''down"-or at least he
wants to do it to all the tariff that
does not affect his district. Finally
and foremostly, and this is the imme-
date object of his being, he wants to
chase Cannon and Aldrich of the po-
Iitical map. If he is in the house Of
representatives-wh an irony there
Is in that word representatives,
objects to the speaker being the whole
works. He now regards the house as
consisting of a number SO large that
there is not type case In existence
with figures enough to set it up, Can
non being represented by the figure
Il" and the other 800 members by a
long string of ciphers trailing after
That would be something like one
million billion trillion quadrillion quin-
tillion-oh, figure 1t out yourself
Ny own view of an insurgent is that |
he Is an honest man who by some mis- |
take broke into congress. The other |
members do not know what to make |
Of him. He knows what he would |
like to make Of himself, but the |
speaker won't let him. That is the |
whole story. The insurgent wants to |
save the country and cover himself |
with glory, and here is this white |
whiskered tyrant with the gavel, this |
old man with the artillery name, who |
bars the way. 1t is enough to make |
q saint insurge.
= A Growing Army.
As to the question, "Who is an In
surgentT" his name is legion. The po-
litical woods are. full Of him. Nobody |
is certain Of his neighbor He does
not know who will insurge next. May |
be it will be himself There are those |
who think that every time Speaker |
Cannon biffs the table with his gavel |
a new insurgent springs into being. |
If this is true there will soon be mil |
Hons Of him. For man OF his |
years Uncle Joe certainly does NAL
treat that innocent wooden hammer. |
He could give points In the tattoo
line to snare drummer or to the
active and incessant woodpecker
To be accurate. there are thirty in |
surgents in the house and something |
like eleven In the senate. Yet / can |
remember the day when Robert Mar |
ion lie Toilette was insurging alone. |
First he had to convert the state
Of wisconsin, and when that job was !,
done to his satisfaction he started in |
10 convert the entire nation. This
work Is still in process. At about the
time La Toilette was making the VOL
verene railroads and regulars jump
sideways Albert Baird Cummins was
causing the stand patters to see red !
with his Iowa idea The careers of !
these two progressive leaders have
many features In common. Both had
TO fight the machine in their own
states, both were elected to the gov
ernorship for three terms, and both
while serving as governor were ele-
waited to the United States senate.
Both are effective speakers, and both
deal with facts rather than figures of
speech. The difference In their per-
sonal appearance and manners. how
ever, is as striking as the resemblance
In their careers. Both are fighters.
but Cummins is courtly and has gained
the sobriquet Of Handsome Albert"
while La Toilette is pugnacious. with
bristling name.
other senator's that have broken out
of the reservation are Jonathan z. Dol
liver who did not always insurge, but
was once tame enough to eat out of
ones hand, then grew excited and res
tive when Cummins built back fire
behind him; Albert J. Beveridge Of In
diana, who has always been an orator
and Ia becoming q statesman: Joseph
J.. Brjatov Of Kansas who drove. tina