The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-11-13
Despite Weather Twelve Hun
dred People Hear Him.
DME SIDE LIGHTS
w. L. Brown, Permanent Chair
man, ShOnS in 0ratOry.
Speaker Greatly Pleased With
Reception in Kansas.


] Dodge City Saturday on the occasion OF
the Seventh district Democratic con-
gressional convention was printed in
the State Journal Saturday. 1t win
! be used as . campaign document by
/ the Democrats. 1t was a mastery ad-
dress and doubtless will stand as the
standard presentation of Democratic
| doctrines by the leading Democratic leg
/ iSlaJOr- But those who heard the speech
! know how colo and dull and colorless 1t
appears IN type. Aalr OF the effect OF
/ the speech is lost in the reading. One
misses There the Missouri drawl of the
! speaker. His soft southern accent,
| changing III a flash to a thuncerous de-
nunc1at-On.
Clark held his audience in the hol-
/ low of his hand for more than two
| hours. The Republicans present passed
under his charm. The Missourlan is
a master OF the art of oratory, and
that Is a fact.
The hit of the speech was when Clark
referred TO the late Judge Madison's
stand with the Democrats shoulder to
shoulder in the fight against Speaker
Cannon and the house rules. He dWelt
| in emphatic detail on the record of the
late insurgent congressman and then
concluded with the words: And yes
terday the Republicans nominated a
standpatter in the place of this staIwart
insurgent. And today it showed His
accent of the word showed" was a
chapter by itself. The drawl. The dry,
cracking SyllableS, the barb al the end
and the poison on the barb.
When Clark entered the coliseum
there were 1200 people present who had
faced q bowling blizzard and risked
pneumonia in the barniiKe structure to
conc anu hear him speak. AS Clark
stepped on the platform the crowd rose
ana cheered for minutes Then they
resolutions pleading the district to
Clark for president We're read. Only
c. f. Foley, of Rice county, raised his
voice against them. Mr.. Foley is an
able man and he made a strong speech,
not against Clark, but the haste in en-
dorsing him. Maybe three men voted
with Foley against the resolutions. The
other 200 delegates voted aye loud
enough to be heard across the county.
W. F. FEEDER, the Barton county edi-
tor and member of the last two legisla-
lures. made Il speech while the conven-
ton was waiting for the committee re-
ports. He MADE a good speech, too.
FEEDER will try for the Democratic nom
nation for lieutenant governor next
wear and has the Seventh district pretty
well behind him in his candidacy
w T. ("Iron1aw") Brown of King
man, that old war horse, was in his
glory at this, the last Kansas conven-
ton. Brown was elected permanent
chairman When he took his place
he started in on one of his character
fstic address. He called on the hlgh
gods to witness what his district ana
his party had been through. He paint
ed the sky and the earth and the wa
ters under the earth. He drew that
picture of home and mother and the
vine growing round the door The
fields and the fullness thereof, the run
ming brook and the gardens of the
flowers, all these were conJured from
the blizzard that ragged outside the hall
and held before the audience as con-
trast. Later when it came time to in
troduce Champ Clark, then did Brown
begin all over again. He climbed ia
coh'S ladder to new skies beyond those
that arch the earth and drew upon
new worlds that whirI in spaces I'M
dreamed of by man before. He paint
ed Solomon's lily a whittier white. He
changed brooks to rivers and lakes to
oceans He put on the soft pedal, he
fed the American eagle and played
with the double eagle, he sailed strange
seas and SCARED the sky and entered
the flames he was companion to demi-
gods and he yoked together the wild
and the passive elements of nature and
led them from the war of the revolu-
ton down to the eleventh Gay of the
eleventh month of the year nineteen
eleven Great was Brown as he took
his last great opportunity.
Judge w. H. Thompson of Finney
county, who wrote the resolutions Tor
the convention and read them from
the platform, was quite a figure at the
Seventh district gathering The judge /
is the choice of the Seventh for the
United States senate. He has carried
a strong Republican judicial district
i'll the southwest corner of the state
twice in succession and the people of
his bailiwick think he is peer of cam |
paigners.
There is no doubt that the election |
of Taggart in the Second district has
nerved the Democrats all over Kansas /
to a big effort next year. This was ap- |
parent at the Seventh district Demo- |
cratic convention Saturday. They are
cock sure they will win next January
and will put up an awful fight. George
Neeley, their leader, is also a fighting
campaigner of the buzz-saw brand.
Mr.. Clark arrived in Kansas City I
Friday afternoon and worked the rest
Of that day on the Kansas part of his
Dodge City speech. He had not yet 1
finished that work. when the state
Journal correspondent, who made the
Dodge trip with him, was admitted to +
his room at the hotel The speaker of +
the house was in a bad humor. He
had a bad cold and he was in doubt
to lay the blame on Kansas
or Nebraska, as he had campaigned in
beth states lately Then again he was, /
to use his own words, "harassed to
death by everybody for speeches
have more dates than 1 can fill. 1t is
hard work. this travelling around,
writing speeches and keeping tab on
public affairs and answering about 500 /
letters a week.
After his speech had been finished +
the speaker was in a better humor.
He talked a little-and that is a whole
lot for Champ Clark when the subject
IS politics right at this time
up until a short time ago I had /
not the slightest idea in the world of
the presidential race. I OPP