The Princeton union., 1910-10-27
JAMES GRAY SPEAKS
He is Accorded Hearty Reception in
Village and Delivers Address
Which is Well Received.
State Fire Marshal Peterson Also Ha-
rangues the Audience on Polit-
icaI Issues of the Day.

and Edward Peterson, state fire mar
sshal, addressed a large audience at
the opera house. Fred Johnson was
advertised to speak with Mr.. Gray
but he was unable to be present. The
proceedings commenced with a very
pleasing overture rendered by Miss
Lola Scheen on the piano, and follow
ing this Chairman j. j. Skahen intro
duced Edward Peterson, state fire
marshal.
Mr.. Peterson began his dissertation
by saying that he had been unjustly
criticised by the newspapers for
travelling about the country spellbind-
ing instead of being up north fighting
forest fires. He said that forest fires
did not come within his Jurisdiction
that G. G. Andrews was the man to
attend to that matter. Knute Nelson
and others, including state officials,
he declared, had attacked him for
making political speeches when, as a
matter Of fact, he was more justified
in his work of stumping the state than
they-he was on his annual vacation
and could pass his time as he saw fit,
but the state officials, most of whom
are making political speeches, are
virtually stealing their time. The
state is paying them for attending to
their duties, while they are galloping
about the country and drawing
salaries for which they are doing
nothing. The speaker read a number
of extracts from speeches made by
Dolliver, Burton, Knute Nelson and
Eberhart to show that the last two
we're allied with the interests and that
they upheld the infamous Payne tariff
law. He tore the woolen schedules to
pieces, saying that the tariff on
second-class goods-goods used by
the poor man-was 141 per cent, while
that on the first grade-used by the
rich man-was but 95 per cent. He
paid "glowlng compliment" to Ed
Smith, saying he had lots of conf
denoe in money but none in the
people. In his concluding remarks
Mr.. Peterson extolled T. D. O'Brien,
Fred Johnson, W. b. Ladner and
other candidates on the democratic
ticket
Chairman Skahen then introduced
Mrs. Claire Galley, who sang a solo
which was we'll received. She was
accompanied on the piano by Mrs.
Ewing. James Gray was then intro
duced and delivered an address which
took we'll with the audience. He is a
good speaker-much better than the
average spellbinder.
Mr.. Gray declared that party lines
we're fast retreating, that they were
being obliterated and that the people
we're coming to the front. This was
due to the progressive movement which
has taken hold of the country and
which is bound in the course of time
to relegate the standpatter to the
background. Party lines he said, are
loose all over the United States and
the fight is between the progressives
and conservatives with everything in
favor of the former. Mr.. Gray
touched upon the tariff and declared
that the wool and cotton men vir.
tually made their own tariff schedules
that there was ample proof of this.
The administrations IS railroad bill, he
said, which pretended to enlarge the
powers of the Interstate commerce
commission, when first introduced
actually curtailed such powers. This
was afterwards remedied by tho demo.
Gratis and progressives. The old
policies accepted today by Theodore
Roosevelt are the same as the issues
set forth Is years ago and until re-
Gently scoffed at. In the republican
party today, said Mr.. Gray there
are progressives and standpatters in
a proportion of eight-tenths to two
tenths. He read extracts from the
Pioneer Press detailing Eberhart's
visit to Taft and said that the latter
was plainly standpatter and that
his views we're directly opposite to
those of President Roosevelt-as
shown in the extracts.
I I.stand fairly and squarely for the
election of United States senators by
the people, said Mr.. Gray. In that
case the senate would not have, as it
does now, the power to block pro-
gressive legislation. I stand for
county option, not as temperance or
prohibition measure, but because it
would give the people the right to
say what they want. Eberhart said
he could not support county option,
as it would bind the republican
party. He said at Mankato it was a