The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-05-30
THE NAN FROM MISSOURI
tBy Ray Stannard Baker in the Ameri-
can Magazine)


remarkable presidential campaign the
country has seen in sixty years For
the first time since the civil war party
lines seem to have disappeared COM
|pletely. The first question asked OF
candidate is not, Does he belong to
the Grand Old Party?" or. rs he loyal
democrat" but, "is he progressive?"
Harmon and Wilson. for example, no
more belong in the same party than
Taft and LaFo1lette. They represent
fundamentally different ideas: and La
Toilette and Wilson, OF opposite
parties, are far more nearly in accord
than Wilson and Harmon.
Considered along these new lines of
division 1t is comparatively easy to
classify at least six of the important
presidential candidates:
Progressives: LaFollette, Wilson,
|Cummins.
Conservatives: Taft, Harmon, Under
wood.
The other two candidates most prom
inently mentioned, Champ Clark of
Missouri and Theodore Roosevelt, are
not so readily classified. Each stands
more or less in a class by himself.
Champ Clark has been the surprise
Of the primaries. No one supposed that
he could so easily carry SO many states,
|or win so many delegates. 1t is true
that he has been a long time in public
life-a member of the House of Rep
|resentatives for seventeen years-but
he has made no especially conscipuous
record, and he became speaker of the
House last year more by virtue of his
long service and his personal popular
ity than because he had become po-s
tent national figure Being democratic
floor leader when his party came into
power he succeeded naturally to the
speakership. His name has never been
connected with notable constructive
legislation. he has laid down no great
principles, nor Illuminated any great
issues of the day Why. then, should
he bulk so large as a presidential can
didate?
Clank's candidacy represents con-
|dition of mind into which a considera-
BILE number of people in this country
have recently fallen. They are a little
weary of the more strenuous reform
|ers who continue to urge upon them
unpleasant facts, of the truth of which
they are already convinced. They have
grown a little irritable over the prev
lalent note of agitation. A lively mind
ed friend of mine in Washington finds
an esoteric significance in the "houn'
Idawg" song, which has come from Mis-
souri, with clark's candidacy. He as
American people
mo matter if he is a. houn'
You gotta quit kickin' my dawg
aroun''
Now. while a large group OF people,
lconvinced of the unhealthy and unjust
conditions prevailing in the country
may not be willing to support stand
patter" who will keep things as they
are tnote the political sense which
causes every candidate in the field to
declare that he is real or true or gen.
| uine progressively, neither are they
quite willing. yet, to take the plunge
into any comprehensive scheme Of re-
| form. They don't want Harmon for the
| first reason and they are against Will
son for the second. What more natural,
then. that they should turn toward the
icolorless Clark?
1t is one of Clark's chief recommen-
dations, indeed, that he has nothing
/ very serious against him. He stands
for nothing new, or strange, or sur
Uprising He is an ld-fashioned in
stitutional democrat. 1t is his fore
most claim as a candidate that no mat
tier what has happened in the last
twenty-five years, he has always voted
the democratic ticket! He was equally
lagfle in supporting both Bryan and
Parker: no matter what a candidate
believed, IL he bore the name democrat,
Clark was behind him He has no ideas
that are not sanctioned by ancient
democratic precedent. Indeed, he is a
fine example of the old-fashioned par
ttisan politician. AS he stands at the
speakers desk in his long coat-and he
lis a distinguished looking figure-or
iappears on the street in his broad
Ibrimmed black slouch hat, with a touch
lof color in his neck-scarf, he makes
ione think-we1l, of Henry Clay. His
Ispeeches are Observation-Disclosures
led by quotations from old poems and
isongs, old adages, and catch phrases
from the Bible and Thomas Jefferson
land enlivened with fashioned jibes
lat the republican party.
pamphlet widely circulated by the
lClark campaign committee gives six
Ireasons why Clark should be president
The first two of these represent the
lstrongest arguments that have beer
Iadvanced for Clark. I quote:
/ L. he is a uepen0aDle democrat
who has never wavered in support OF
his party. He voted for Bryan in 1896
lfor Bryan in 1900; for Parker in 1904
land for Bryan in 1908, and for every
iother democratic candidate since hi
Ibecame of age. He not only voted bu
he supported the ticket with pen and
voice.
so. His record cannot be assailet
from any quarter. for it is straightfor
ward and democratic. His supporter
invite the closest scrutiny Of his Ions
} and active public service. We submit
lit to the democracy of the nation as al
iopen book. and challenge attention"
Thus Clark is the sort of candidate
who can be voted for without thinking
And in these perpiexing times it is har,
work to think and decide
In whatever particulars the old
, fashioned democratic creed is still pro
lgressive-for example, in the matte
tof tariff reduetion-Clark is truly
lprogressive, but 1 have nowhere found
latter a somewhat extensive reading o
I lhis speeches, that he shows any Wig
Iorous grasp of the great economic an
isocial problems which are now crowd
ling upon the country, demanding tn
mastery eIucidation of great states
lmanship. He is. therefore. quite &C
J lceptable to old-line leaders who hav
been fearful of Wilson. We even fin
ishrewd machine politicians in the re
publican party commencing him: 70
they can understand him fully; the
know just how far he will go. For ex
ample. Tawney of Minnesota, formerl