The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-03
DIX STRIKES BACK.
In His First Campaign Speech He Re-
plies to Roosevelt.

New York, Nov. 3.-John A. Dix,
Democratic nominee for governor, made
his first public address in the city at
a meeting at Carnegie hall, which also
served as the occasion for Mayor Gay
nOr's announcement of his support for
the ticket. The mayors voice still
being weak, this came in the form of a
letter to Herman Ridder, who presided.
The assertion that Mr.. Dix was Sc
Iected and his nomination forced by
a political leader hereabouts, 1 know
to be false" wrote the mayor.
Mr.. Dix devoted the greater part of
his speech to denunciatiOn of Theo-
dore Roosevelt. He charged the former
president with Willful falSehOod in re-
peating the accusation for which Mr..
Dix in his Buffalo speech demanded an
apology. He declared that Colonel
Roosevelt, because of what he deems
to be his political necessity of the hour,
struck hands and made political ALI
ance" with William r. Hearst, who.
four years ago Roosevelt had publicly
branded as responsible for the assassin's
bullet which made him president"
This campaign" said Mr.. Dix, like
so many in the past, involved questions
of policy and expenditure; of reform
and retrenchment and the other ques-
tons which necessarily have to do with
carrying on the we'll ordered business
of government.
tied in the usual way by appeals to rea-
son and to experience and by that APP
phcatlon to common sense judgment
which is so distinguished an attribute
of the average American.
But this was not to be. Into the
center of the stage there has been
hurled-by the inOrdinate vanity, the
dangerous ambition and the reckless
conduct of a man who has become the
apostle Of the tumult and the protagon-
,A-Ara.,
question of whether or not our very
Republican institutions should survive,
or, under the assaults of the agitatOr
and the egoist, should go down to de-
struction as have other great countries
under similar assaults.
Never before have we in our history
had SO much occasion to blush for the
conduct of a man who had been the
first citizen of our country and no
greater or more striking difference
could be found in our history, between
the last Republican president and the
illuStriOus men who preceded him in
office, than is found by their conduct
after they had retired from the great
office which they had held.
Search all through the history of our
Country-examine and study the char
acters and careers of all those who have
been chosen to fill tia greatest of hui
man positiOns-and where shall we find
in all the long line of men who have
StOOu IOItn III Jnelr Gay ana genera
ton, each as the foremost American
citiZens-where shall we find a man
whose qualities, whose conduct. whose
career after leaving Office has been so
lacking in dignity and self respect?
Look on the one hand at the man
who typifies assaults upon our courts,
the bulwarks of our liberties, and upon
the freedom of the press, than which
no right is more sacred to free men, and
then on the man whose every thought
and act taught respect and regard for
lawfully constituted authority and say
with which Of these men and their poll
cies you would prefer to stand
Il asked this man last week for the
apology which one man owes another
for even involuntary Misrepresentation.
His answer has been to repeat, and I
now charge wilfully and knowingly TO
repeat, in as many places and to as
many people as his voice would carry,
the statements which l now publicly
brand as falsehoods.
I withdraw my request for an apoI-
ogy and 1 say with all the emphasis
at my command that a man who has
been president of the United States who
would do the things which he has done
during this campaign, merits only the
pity of decent men,