The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-01-19
CHAMP CLARK'S
FAMOUS SPEECH
A Portion of Champ clark's Famous
Speech Delivered Thirteen
Years Ago.

The following is an extract from the
proceedings of the house of represen-
tatives on March ,, 1898. 1t is well
worth reading. The horse was con-
sidering the Loud bill. which proposed
to increase the postal rates on country
newspapers and to adopt number of
restrictions on their transmission
through the mails. Champ Clark de-
feated the bill by his speech, a portion
of which follows:
Newspapers are great disseminators
of information The mammoth metro
politan papers with their vast circula-
ton are splendid educators, but after
all ten persons read the little country
weekly where one reads a metropoli-
tan paper.
Having once been country editor
myself. entertain a most kindly feel
ing for my old confreres. ! am willing
to make affidavit that the eleven
months | spent editing rural journal
were the most beneficial of my life to
myself, perhaps to others. l am proud
to have belonged to the editorial guild
/ am unalterably opposed to anything
that will iniure the country editor,
curtail his profits, circumscrbe his
usefulness, or place an additional
thorn in his pathway
The rural editor-God bless him!-
is the most persistent of teachers. Like
charity as described by st. Paul in the
thirteenth chapter of the First Corin.
thians, he "suffereth long and is kind
which can not be said of the men that
got up this bill He "envieth not" in
! which he does not resemble some pee
pie over on this side of the house. He
''vaunteth not himself" in which he
lis differentiated from the leaders on
!, the other side of the big aisle. He is
not puffed up, in which he rises high
{ above a good many of us. He does
| not behave himself unseemly: seeketh
iOl lid ONh 10 AoN NcolJ PAOfOhNd.
He is the pack horse of every com
munity, the promoter of every laudable
/ enterprise, the worst underpaid labor
] er in the vineyard. Counting his space
as his capital, he gives more to charity
: his means considered, than any other
t members of society He is a power
S in politics, pillar of the church, a
e leader III the crusade for better morals
Y He is pre-eminently the friend of hu
e manity
S Line upon line. paragraph upon par
e agraph. day by day he is embalming
S in cold type the facts from which the
$ Herodotus, the Tactitus. the Sismondi
9 or the Macaulay of the future will write
the history of our times (Applause)
, He joyfully announces our advent into
/ this world, briefly records our upris.
ings and our down-sittings and sor-
5 rowfully chronicles our exit from this
vale of tears.
AS a creator of beauty, he double
discounts Nine Aver, who undertakes
) to increase reminine pulchritude only
in particular instances; but the coun-
: try editor in the exercise of plenary
power. impartially beauties all wo-
men whose names appear in his col
umns daughter and applause). By
touch OF his magician's wand he con-
verts paste into diamonds sparkling
ON beautys neck, and with skill of
! which ancient and ambitious alchem-
, lists only dreamed. and with politeness
which Chesterfield might have envied,
he transmutes brass trinkets into
! jewelry of purest gold. when they ap-
. pear as ornaments of the family of his
subscriber
He is the greatest and most ingen-
ious of manufacturers, for, while other
manufacturers produce only perishable
stufrs, he manufactures immoral states
men out of raw. sometimes very raw.
material (Laughter) This laudable
industry no Dingley bill can protect
him, and he must ex-necessitate work
: in competition with the pauper manu-
facturers of Europe.
lie is
To our virtues very kind
And to our faults a little blind
We are all more or less, generally
more, his handiwork: and it does not
become the creature To injure the bus
mess of his creator, Without his in
genious. generous. and enthusiastic Ia
bors most OF us would never have been
here; and when he tires of us. we viii
retire to private life, amid scenes pro-
pitious for secret meditation and 81
lent prayer (Laughterl Working
night and day during the campaign.
often without money and without price
when the election is over, the victory
won and the loaves and fishes. now
.u1f,d s.,,tO .,,o H., l;c