Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-09-10
COLONEL'S TALK
WAS A SIZZLER
GRAFT IN ILLINOIS DRAWS FRI
FROM FORMER PRECEDENT IN
ADDRESS AT BIG BANQUET
LAST NIGHT.

ciup " greatly wrought UP today
following the RooseveIt-Lorimer
Incident Of yesterday. LorImer has
host OF close friends In the club
and from these today came rum
bllngs Of revolt and readiness to
rebuke President Batter for 40
cepttng Roosevelt's uitlmatum re-s
garding the banquet. They say II I
Lorimer resigns his membership
In the club they Will do likewise,
but 80 far he has not given the
word. President Taft's meeting
with Lorimer at a number Of func-
tions when in Chicago In March
Is declared by members to have
made RooseveIt's move all the
more unexpected.
Chicago, Sept. g.. Theodore Roose-
velt in an address before the Hamilton
club in the Congress hotel last night
verbally skinned the jackpctters" of
the Illinois legislature alive and cSen
hung up the. pelts to dry In the 81 Jza:
lot public .scorn
IN electing William Lorimer tc4tlie.
senate and in participating In the var
ious forms Of graft which have made
the last session OF the assembly motor
ious, Roosevelt said. they had "been
guilty Of the foulest and basest cor
ruption and therefore of the most in-
famous treason to American institu-
TONS
The speech was the sequel to the for
mer presidents action earlier In the
day Of refusing to attend the banquet
unless the invitation sent to Lorimer
was revoked. He said that he would
not sit down to the same table with
such man.
AZ Though Hypnotixed.
The former presidents mrOadside was
received at times by tremendous ap.
plause and at times with q sort Of fright.
ened silence. The Hamiltonians
cheered the generalities, but when the
colonel got to talking man to man and
driving what he had to say close home
to them they sat quiet as though
hypnotized.
There were some, too, who did not
his utterances and who found way OF
expressing their dissatisfaction after
the colonel had finished by shouting
for Uncle joe"
Uncle Joe" did not speak, however,
Roosevelt did not want to hear him,
and Judge John M. Batten, president OF
the club, having received his cue ear
lier in the day during the painful col
loquy with the former president over
the inviting Of Lorimer, diplimatical
ly steered the guest OF honor out Of the
room before the cries became so insis
tent as to cause embarrassment.
LorImer Men There.
Lorimen's seat at the banquet was
occupied by James r. Garfield. n the
"blond boss" was away, however, a
good many of his followers were pres.
ent. They didn't get great deal OF
comfort out of Roosevelt's remarks and
Of course, they didn't applaud They
simply sat still and chewed savagely
at their cigars.
Summed up briefly Roosevelt said:
That the republican party OF Him
OILS was face to face with the alterna
tive Of purging itself Of its rascals OF
or of proving itself recreant to its trust
and going down to a disgraceful and
deserved oblivion.
That no honest man who had read
the evidence adduced by the states
attorneys OF Sangamon and Cook coun.
ties could have failed to have formed
the opinion that the charges Of corrup
ton in the last legislature were true
and that most OF teh men are guilty
That whether or not these men can
be convicted in q court Of law is beside
the mark. II they are morally guilty
they ought to be bounded out Of public
life.
That the plain duty Of the republi.
can party in the state is to turn the
ras calls out" and that 1t should not rest
from the performance of that duty until
all the rascals high and low-the bribe
giver as well as the bribe taker- had
been pilloried before the public.
That the state was disgraced so long
as 1t permitted men to represent 1t
either In the national or the state legis-
latures who are known to have OBJ.
tanned their offices by currupt means
Il am good party man." said Roose-
velt, driving these points home, "but
I'm an American first, and this republic
cannot live unless we put loyalty to
country ahead Of loyalty to party"