The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1911-03-02
MB. BRYAN ON HOME RULE.

William j. Bryan, who attended
. tn" convention of the PRESBYTERIAN
brotherhood of America ia st. Louis
last week, was invited to address
the Legislature" while in Missouri.
Witch hr did last Thursday. He
-p"k" tor t"u hours, dealing In a
r"mprrh"noiv" manner with many
subjects now "ngrOssing the nj
tcntiou Of both State aud national
lawmakers, referring particularly to
III" necessity Of minority party rep.
r"s"ntatl"n on election boards equal
t" tn" majority party.
II" laid special stress on the con.
t"ntiun that the minority party
should be permitted to select its own
representatives on these boards in
stead Of having them appointed bv
III" majority party. This is Just
what III" hom" rule bills sponsored
by III" Democrats provide.
They civ" to the people tie
rlEht To- select the Police, Election
and Excise boards, stipul0ting that
the member OF one party shall vote
only FOR his party representatives on
the boards
81 hope you will pardon me-" said
Mr.. Bryan, at say a word in re-
gard to what We call our election |
laws. | am not acquainted with |
your election laws in this State. fl
do not know whether what | nm 20. |
ing to say affects you. In fact, am
rather glad do not know ANYTHING
about your laws because | can speak |
more freely il am ignorant of your
conditions.
Honest Elections Needed.
IF We are 10 have elections that |
command the respect of the people
they mus: be honest elections. |
hope that the spirit Of patriotism
will so rise above the spirit of parti.
sanship in all States, Democratic
and Republican alike, that we shall (
at least be able to agree upon cleo
tion laws that will guarantee honest
counting of votes.
II have long since reached the
that no election machin-
cry can he trusted in times of temp
tatton which does not give each of
the political parties an equal Oppor-
tunity in counting ballots, The rep
resentation of the majority party
should not he more than that of the
minority party, and each party
should select It's own men and men
should not be selected by the oppo.
site party.
we are rejoicing over prOspec-
tive change In the rules of the Ma.
tional House of Representatives,
ana ] believe your great citizen,
champ CLARK, who is to be Speaker
oi the next House, has won n per-
place IN history already,
even before he enters upon his term
ms speaker, because he has shown
that rare virtue, the surrender of
personal power.
He has done what IL so hard or
Tor a man to do. He has
power that was with
II his grasp instead of insisting that
ne should have the power because
'ther Speakers had had It; he should
Ne permitted To reward his friends
because other Speakers had rewarded
heirs.
Instead of insisting that he
hould have the power to control
ppointments, instead of insisting
hat he should have the power to
oerce members by appointments
nd to deal out the most prominent
ppointmants to members, even of
ne minority party as other Speakers
ad done, he led the fight for
hange In the rules, which stripped
I'm OF the power and puts II In the
ands OF Congress, that that body
ay again become q representative
,dy.
1.-The very principle which has
'retefore been displayed In the Ma