The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-01-18
GEORGE W. EGAN, FIGHTER.

fighter wins a battle against odds,
without much regard to the cause for
which he has been fighting. This in
stinct will find expression over the
reinstatement of George w. Egan as a
practicing attorney by the South Da-
kota supreme court. Whatever else
he may be, Egan is the best single
handed fighter ever developed in
South Dakota politics.
Disbarred by the Minnehaha County
Bar association early in his career in
SUuth Dakota, the young lawyer from
IOWA was apparently down and out.
Even though, as Egan strenuously
protested, the disbarment was due to
a complication of political, legal and
business motives, nobody believed that
the handicap thus created could be
overcome. Even his friends, and they
were not many al that time, expected
he would pack his traps and make a
new start elsewhere under more
suspicious conditions. But Egan
didn't quit for minute. Having lost
his fight before the bar association,
to lose again. Then he took an ap-
peal to the electorate of Minnehaha
county by projecting his candidacy
for county attorney, an Office for
which he could not qualify while the
disbarment stood. Egan said he
wasn't particularly interested in the
office; he wanted the vindication. He
pleaded his case so eloquently and
effectively that the voters of Mime
haha county actually elected him to
the office that he could not fill
elected him by one of the largest ma
jorities ever given in the county. Mr..
Egan made another fight to be al
lowed to qualify, and lost it, of course.
Still he wasn't ready to quit
Unable to practice his profession,
Egan established weekly newspaper
in Sioux Falls, mainly on nerve.
With rare egotsm, as nearly every
body thought, he announced that the
mission of his newspaper would be
the vindication of Egan, and as
means to that end, the promotion OF
his Independent candidacy for gov
ernor. 1t did not seem likely that
anybody would care to pay for or
read such purely personal organ,
but many must have done so, for
Egan continued to hang on, publish
ing a long serial story of his troubles,
and discharging weekly broadsides at
his political and personal enemies
and at the courts, which he contended
had denied him justice. Egans news
paper regularly presented him as a
candidate for governor, but politicians
smiled at the absurdity of the notion.
When the primary campaign of
1910 opened there seemed to be no
place for Egan. The old fractional
lines in the republican party were
drawn anew and factional states were
prepared. The faction with which
Egan was in sympathy was supporting
the governor of the state, then serving
his first term. The opposing faction
had candidate of its own, and had
no use for Egan in any event In the
it was supposed Egan
would not present his candidacy at
the primary as republican. but
might project an independent candi-
dacy in the fall This was another
poor guess. Egan entered the pri-
mary in competition with the other
two republican candidates, and the
proceedings amazed all
onlookers.
Egan hired an automobile and pro-
ceeded to give the term "whirlwind
new significance in South
Dakota. He travelled from town to
town, holding open air meetings and
his personal and political
with fiery elOquence and
enthusiasm that infected the crowds.
The reports began to go the rounds
hat "Egan was getting the voters
but still the politicians refused to take
him seriously as factor in the cam
Daign. When the primary returns
began to roll in, however, it was
found there was basis for the reports.
Egan had got the voters, tens of
thousands of them, from towns and
farms alike. On the day following the
election it seemed sure that he had |
oeen nominated. The official returns
showed he had distanced one of the
fractional candidates and had just
fallen short of beating the other. 1t
was generally admitted that if the
'whirlwind campaign had covered |
more territory Egan would have won
he nomination.
Egan disappointed the guessers
L.. Il Il