The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1910-04-21

Senator Cummins, of Iowa, in
Everybody's Magazine for December,
defines the coming struggle in these
words:
The real issues that will be fought
out in the immediate future is wheth-
er the republicans of our part of the
country will accept the leadership of
Aldrich, Hale, Cannon . or wheth-
er they will adopt the views and fol-
low the counsels of the men who have
acquired the name which some people
use to disparage them, but which l
use with a good deal of pride-"in-
surgents.
Senator Cummins states it as an
issue of men. And, in it's simplest
form, an issue of men it is. But it is
due to the intelligence of the public
that the issues be stated in terms of
principles and conditions. That can be
done with the following letter as a
text:
THE White House at Oyster Bay,
N. Y, July 25, 190S.-Dear Bona
parte: l want to congratulate you on
the admirable stand you have taken
in this matter. If the electric inter-
ests are not joined in an illegal COM
bination-if there is not conspiracy
between the General Electric and the
Westinghouse people, which has en-
listed strong moral support to the
telephone and telegraph interests and
the street railway interests-why
need there be alarm over a private
investigation? 1t shall go to the
bottom. There must be no deviation
If some of my good party friends
should feel embarrassed, it should
surely be no fault of ours. Really,
there seems to be no end to the
influences which are being operated
in this case. What a scoundrel-
must be to try open bribery! And
how refreshing it is to know that
there is so much money at hand by
PROSTATE industries which might
be put to proper use in an honest
way! Ii -5- comes to you again
| shall really be delighted to have you
tell him straight from me that the in
vestigation will pressed with the ut
most energy to conclusion, and that
this will be done whether his clients
contribute a million for the election
of Taft or million for the election
of Bryan, or whether they fail to con-
tribute cent to either side. | would
really like you to give him just this
message from me, and put it in writ
ing if you desire.
Yours respectfully,
Theodore Roosevelt"
This letter, as the date shows, was
written during the last presidential
campaign. The investigation refer
red to was instituted by Roosevelt to
determine whether there was a trust,
composed of the electric interests of
the country, seeking to monopolize
the waterpower sites of the nation.
The letter was made public by the
NV York World. 1t is a pity the
World did not fill in the blank. But
no one familiar with high politics can
fail to read between the lines that the
man referred to is one who is at once
powerful in finance and powerful in
republican politics-sufticientl pow
erful to go to the attorney general of
the United States, and even to the
president himself, with demands and
threats. Now it is this sort of man
that dominates the republican party
today. A list of the men Who at once
occupy places of power in the sugar
trust and in the republican organiza-
ton, would be an amazing illustration
of the interlocking of the trusts and
high republican politics. Men of this
type dominate the republican party in
the house, in the senate, in the cabi-
net, in the republican national COM
mittee, and in the state committees of
the east
The present struggle is to deter
mine whether the republican party
and congress shall be controlled by
men of this kind, of like men like
Beveridge, of Indiana, Cummins and
Deliver, of Iowa, Clapp and Nelson, of
Minnesota, LaFollette, of Wisconsin,
and Bristow, of Kansas. In this
struggle, within year, every voter
in the United States will have a
chance to cast his ballot. Between
June and December of next summer
every member of the lower house of
congress must go before his constitu-
ents for reelection or defeat. In
every district the dominant question
should be: Will you vote with Can
non or against Cannon? And every
voter in the country should cast his
ballot knowing the candidates
answer to that question. Golfers
Weekly