Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1910-05-05
AN OUTSIDER TALKS
ABOUT OUR STATE
Hon. M. F. Eddy A Former Member
OF Congress From Minnesota
Expresses Some Opinions.

VI congress from minnesota
Expresses Some Opinions.
I-o-way," is what the corn huskers
call it. 1t is Iowa" in drawing rooms,
is bounded on the north, east, west and
south by Albert B. Cnmmins and its
capital is Jonathan Prentiss Dolliyer.
Politically, Iowa is divided in 'Stal-
wart" and Progressive" Republicans.
There are no Democrats--a genuine Dem
ocrat would be as great curiosity as
the singing topi that Roosevelt is bring
ing home for the Smithsonian Institute,
that nobody in this country ever heard
of before or in Africa either But there
is no lack of political excitement. The
"stalwarts" and 'progressives' are
fighting each other with a vitiolic viru-
lency that would make the battle of
Gettysburg appear like stick-and-cob
battle between school boys; but there
isn't much to fight any more The "Stal-
warts had good machine in way
but it was only little two-cylinder
runabout and while they were running
over the state, putting on style and own
ing the earth, and there wasn't anyone
watching him, Gov. Cummins was
quietly building new six cylinder tour
ing car, and when he finished it he took
the road, smashed into the runabout
and all the 'stalwarts" whose necks
were not broken in the catastrophe hop
ped right on the car and kept on going
and now all that is left of the stalwarts"
in Iowa is George ID. Perkins, General
Lacey, Bob Cousins, LATE Young and
growl
Dolliver watches the breezes of popu-
lar favor as no other man in the country
watches them, and he always keeps his
hat half off, so he can turn it to suit the
occasion, and public sentiment would
have to make lightning change if it
would turn before Dolliver could turn
his coat and be ready for it. He is the
best political barometer in the republic.
This in no way initiates against his
usefulness or ability. 1t takes greater
man to shape himself to circumstances
than it does to shape circumstances.
Public sentiment is much more apt to
be right than wrong, and it is safer for
public man to follow the composite
judgment of the disinterested American
citizen than it is to follow his own, or
that of the wisest statesman that ever
lived, if it conflicts with theirs.
The chief productions of Iowa are
corn, conjecture, pigs, drug stores and
the Iowa idea.
Iowa is gridironed with railroads but
they are not called by that name, they
are known as branches" They have
no starting points and no destinations
and they never run trains ''wild" on
these roads, they just run them crazy.
The principal works of fiction read in
the state are the railway time tables,
but they are barred out of the public
libraries on the ground that they are a
menace to truth and veracity to the ris-
ing generation. No one ever knows
when a train will arrive in town or when
it will leave. 1t is no uncommon thing
to see one wheel in town that was due
last, week followed by one not ex-
pected until day after tomorrow.
The only way you can get any where
is to stand on the platform and jump
the first train that comes along and
trust in the Lord, and if the Lord hap
pens to be busy with other matters, you
get carried by your station.
Iowa is great state. Any resident
therein will corroborate this statement
1t is great state, even if its railway
trains are run by time cards emanating
from insane asylums. Its people are
great people, even it they are snake
hunters and invalids in dry belt. :
They are the squarest men and the fair
est women in the Union, except Mime
sofa. They live with their own wives
breed genuine American citizens, pay
their debts, go to church, train up Their
sons and daughters in the fear of the
: Lord, and vote some brand of the repub
, lican ticket, treat stranger not as q
friend but as q kinsman, and they are
; so intelligent that they attended my
] lecture i'm crowds and cheerfully paid
, an admission fee to hear me.