Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-01-22

Later Career of the Man who Really
stands Pat.
Sam Blythe in the Saturday Evening Post
stand pat!" ordered General Mark
Hanna, away back yonder
Ave, ave. slr!' replied Colonel Lafe
Young an da few million others; and no
matter where any or all of the few mil
lions may have strayed meantime, Colonel
LATE Young is standing pat yet
Talk about your immutable propositions,
that's the coloners middle name-Immuta-
ble-Colonel Lafayette Immutable Young,
of Iowa, where the corn grows and the
farmers, at present writing, get 50 hun
dred for hogs. Iowa, you remember, is
one Of the few states where the horrid
census man dug up the disconcerting fact
disconcerting to Iowans that is-that there
was a decrease in population in the rural
districts Admitting this, Colonel LATE an
nounced, in the speUSh where he bulged
effulgently into the arena OF the senate
after a mature service of some seven or ten
days, that though 1t may be true that
many farmers have left Iowa, no politicians
have left; nor has LATE. He is still there,
standing pat.
LATE has been running newspaper at
Des Moines since 1880 or whereabouts. Be-
fore that he had one in smaller town. In
the days of his beginnings as an editor the
old Gear-Allison- Blythe machine was in the
full flower Of it's marvellous perfection; and
later there came that time when Iowa was
pretty much all there was to it in congress,
with Senator Allison holding the leading
IN, ha Hpndprgnn
speaker of the house, and various other big
Iowans scattered here and there as chair
men Of great committees. For fifteen
years. or such matter, of this time, Cum
Minis, now senator and Colleague OF Lafe,
was fighting for what came to be known
as the Iowa idea, which consisted of many
Of those state reforms and national policies
that are today the main part of the pro
gressve creed. The late Senator Dolliver
was on the Allison side in those days, and
LATE as editor OF the principal newspaper
that supported the old regime, waded in
daily with an ak and let whatever fell fall
where it might. He chopped legs and arms
and other useful members off Cummins
times without number but that very serca-
tile person seemed to sprout a new APP
pendage every time Lafe Topped one off
"Ha," Lafe would shout when Cummins or
a Cumminsite came around apparently with
a full complement of limbs. II trimmed
that person dow nto a quivering trunk only
yesterday. Now he seems to be whole
again. However, have at him." and out
would come the editorial ak. Believe me,
those were great and CORY days.
All this time Lafe was UNFOLDING the
protective principle. He was the Iowa
tariff Atlas Revise the tariff he would
cry. Certainly; but revise it upward. The
salnted policy Of Protection must and shall
not perish from the earth-particularly
from that favored section of the earth
known as Iowa" Wherefore she would
print a most convincing article showing
that il it were not for the exclusion of
the pauper labor OF Europe and the bene-
ficent fostering OF our infant industries,
the Iowa farmer would be obliged to con-
tinue burning his corn and using the hogs
for fertilizer, instead OF disposing of said
corn for large sums and selling said hogs
by the carat. And he meant it, too. LATE is
an earnest little worker.
Well, time passed on, and LATE, stand
ing steadfast on the job, saw Cummins
become governor, saw Cummins put over
many reforms, and saw Cummins go TO
the United States senate. Also, he lamented
the deaths of Gear and Allison and BlytheT
and he saw Dolliver become progressive
but did any of these disasters feaze him?
Not on your Chinese wall! There was Lafe,
hurting hot ones at the enemy day after
day and two orthree times a week letting
out a zip for protection that echoed from
Winnebago to Appanoose, from Fremont to
Allmakee.
> But all was not labor. There were diver
; sions. When we invaded Cuba to hurl the
naughty, not TO say garlicky, Spaniard
from the Western hemisphere, LATE was
! there. doing some hurting himself in the
8 shape of burning descriptions of what
3 was going on for his Des Moines paper
e II my memory serves me right. very few
5 persons, save T. r. and General, Leonard
. Wood, got anything out OF the Spanish wal
4 save malaria; but LATE was an exception
He got his title Of colonel. Opinions vary
2 as to how he got it. Some say he found II