The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-01-04
II Cannon Quits.

Sioux City Journal: II is safe "
assume there will be a disappointed
outfit of insurgents If Speaker Can
mon fulfills the confident predictions
that he will not again be candidate
for the speakership, And the safety
OF this assumption offers one OF the
most plausible reasons for concluding
there may be some basis for the Can
non withdrawal rumor
Speaker Cannon today is q pogv
man of more artistic construction than
we have seen in our politics for many
A day Actually Uncle Joe has been
one Of the most useful statesmen Oh
his time able. patriotic and honest.
He has made really great speaker.
Personally he is genial, kindly ana
naturally very Hkeable he mas ms
little el,centricities, which do not de-
tract from his quality as man, Due
rather add to the picturesqueness OF
his character But the Insurgents
needed bogy man in their business
If is the easiest way to attract pop
u,ar attention. So they dipped their
brushes into the paintpots and pro-
ceeded to make poor old Uncle Joe
a weird looking spectacle he mas
b zen made to typify all that is worst
in politics and statecraft Personally
he has been transformed into domf
neering. irritable, narrow-mnded,
blasphemous, immoral man. How the
TRANSFORMATION was effected without
everybody seeing the artiftciahty o.
the coloring is a mystery. But the
trick was turned, somehow. and now
bundreds of thousands of good men
shudder with combination OF scorn
and hatred when Uncle Joes name Is
mentioned.
Joseph G. cannon's record IN pub
liz life has been long one. He first
gained fame as Watchdog OF lhe
treasury, People liked him theh.
He was liked by Democrats ana ne
r,,b,icans. in congress and out, during
HE first two terms in the speaker
chair. Until little more tnan TWO
Years ago his name was rare men
toned in other than terms OF ahec-
tiona+a regard. But the exigencies OF
;naureent politics demanded that IN
cIe Toe he made over into a bogy man,
and bogy man he is today Inc lnsar-
gent inquisitor can put the question,
Are YOU with Cannon or against MIN!
If you say you are with him, political
virtue is not in you. You are as bad
as Uncle Joe himself Pious politics
las no use for you.
Having got their bogy man into
good working order the ingenious in
su.gents would like to use him to
the best advantage Their work was
so well done as to enable them to
come within few votes of defeating
Cannon for the speakership at the
present session. They were not really
very sorry over their defeat, how
ever, for 1t left them a chance to use
the bogy in the next congressional
elections. The plan of campaign was
to be simple. TO every congressional
candidate, In districts where the very
name of Cannon has come to make
good men froth at the mouth they
would put the fatal question, Are
you for Cannon or against him? If
the candidate failed to prove his vir.
tue by repudiating Cannon, he must
be deprived of the support of all vir-
t;tous men. 1t has not been denied,
even by men who have not been
fooled by the bogy painting process,
that the question would be an awk-
ward one in great many congress
sional districts where the word of
Golfers or Success or some Of the
other circulation seeking periodicals
or dailies is accepted as political gos-
pei
Suppose Uncle Joe, with political
sagacity gained by experience, shall
take himself out of consideration, as