The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-08
THE FARMER: MARCH s. 1911

out to the suburbs with their big
packs of goods and work their way
home disposing of their wares during
the day.
sin those days we had a rule which
permitted the conductor to either take
or reject passengers with large pack
ages Then the prejudice against
| that people in that neighborhood was
very strong and very bitter, and
many of our conductors, when we ar
| rived at Twelfth Street, would refuse
even with an empty car to allow them
| to ride. Frequently l have seen
these men get on the car with a pack
and lay it on the platform, and have
seen the conductor stop the car and
| kick it out in the street with his foot.
stayed there, or else he walked out
into the suburbs.
EITHER my folks taught me to have
prejudice against nobody or God made
me that way. and 1 have no prejudice
| against anybody of any nationality.
When 1 came along in the morning
and had no passengers / always took
| these men on board with their packs
| and I carried them out to the end of
! the line until 1 became known among
them as the man they could ride with
and they waited there for me.
| 1T turned out after a while that
| every morning I would get a large lot
| of those men. These men increased
in number and moved into that neigh
borhood. I was known as their
| friend. 1t was a small thing to do,
| and there was no reason men should
| have any gratitude on account of me
permitting them to ride and pay their
| fares, but they did have it. After
I quit the service on the car I lived
| in the same ward with those people,
| and as they came in 1 became better
! acquainted with them. They talk
| ed with me.
''Then I entered politics. When
entered politics not one of them was
ever permitted to vote at the polls.
| Nobody would have anything to do
with them or allow them to go near
the polls, and if they undertook to go
there they would knock them down
and throw bricks at them and drive
them away.
81 organized every precinct in
which they lived and I gave them
protection. It got so that every one
who had small trouble came to my
home at night and talked it over.
maybe-coming to my house and lay
ing their little troubles at my door
and asking for help. I helped them
always.
''Then I moved out Of the neighbor-
hood, but when I go down there now
to attend a meeting-and I go there
about once every year or two-they
have large halls and large meetings,
and I am met there by the old citi-
zens and the rabbis of the neighbor-
hood.
known as ''The Father"
81 am taken around and introduced
to the newcomers, and 1 am not in
trOduced as Mr.. Lorimer; / am not
presented as Congressman Lorimer;
I am not made acquainted with these
people as Senator Lorimer, but 1 am
taken from one to the other and in
PRODUCED as the father
when people come to believe In
you and come to trust you, and al
most to revere you as these people
do-when they come to the point of
introducing you as the father that
is the greatest compliment that race
Of people can pay to any man. Wheth-
er L deserve that confidence or not,
whether / have earned their graft
tude or not, that is the condition
there, and no man that would de-
clare for the political, for the bust
ness. for the, financial, or for the So
cial destruction of Lorimer. and run
for any office in that district, could
get votes enough to put in his pocket.
mo man can go into that district
as my enemy among those people and
live politically. and I state this not
in sense of boasting, but because
it is matter of fact; and Nanny
Abrahams could not have gone back
home to look his people in the face
if L had been a candidate and had
been beaten by one vote, and he had
failed to vote for me-.
But beyond these personal friends,
Lorimer laid his success in winning
Democratic votes to his having cham
pioned the plan for deep waterway
from the Lakes to the Gulf. After
describing his manifold activities in
this campaign, he inquired of Sen
ator Root
) ct would like to know from the
Senator from New York if he has
ever been identified with a work of
tact with his Democratic brethren
and worked with them in season and
out of season for project that would
benefit the whole people of his State.
If he has been connected with such
work he can say whether, when he
was doing that work, he was not
making friends among the people of
his State regardless of their party af
filiations.
but there is an abundance of evil
dence here to show that work in ia
vor of things that help a great State
is appreciated by the people who get
the benefit of the effort. I have d
list of Democrats here who voted for
me on account Of nothing but the fact
that they felt had been doing some
thing, that / had been helping in a
work that meant much to Illinois,
and if they put me in seat where
/ could be secure for four or six years
that this improvement would finally
be brought about"
Another Democrat. Sidney Espy
told Lorimer, during this waterways
campaign, that his work would make
him governor, or senator, or presi-
dent of the United States,' and that
when the time came he could count
on his vote. This was long before
Lorimer thought of going to Con-
gress and before Espy thought of be-
coming a member of the State Legis-
lature. Of course, when Lorimer
was a candidate and Espy's vote could
help elect him to the United States
Senate, Lorimer got the vote of this
warm. close and enthusiastic friend
A Personally Conducted Campaign.
One other phase of this explanation
of members of the opposing party is
worth reciting. 1t had been charged
that while the State Legislature was
in session LOrimer occupied the
Speakers room at the apitol-Speak-
er ShurtIeff is his friend-and that
he consulted there with members On
this point the Senator said:
Much has been made in state
ments here upon this floor of the
face that 1 am a personal friend of
Speaker Shurtleff, and the further
fact that during my stay in Spring
field I occupied the Speakers room at
the Capitol; that I met Shepherd in
the Speakers room, and 1 talked with
it was a suspicious Circumstance that
1 should occupy the Speakers room
''Wen, that may be so in other
States do not know ANYTHING about