The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1912-09-13
CONGRESSMAN NEELEY
SPOKE TO AN EN-
TRUSIASTIC
CROWD

A good sized, and very enthusias-
tic crowd met Congressman Geo. A..
Neeley at the City Hall Monday night
and listened attentively to, his story
about the things he has done for us
in Congress. First, he told us how
he went there with two main ideas
in his head. One to promote good
roads, and another, to help the old
soldiers who had fought for their
country, to get their just dues. He
found that there was no money to
do this with, so he set to work to
find a leak somewhere, and get the
money. An investigation was start
ed, He found that each room in the
house had at least two policemen in
1t to protect the paintings and other
valuables and that they did very
poor job of 1t at that. They fired"
35 of these men and saved $40, 900
per year the first thing, but that
was not a beginning. He found In
some places far too many clerks. For
instance, clerks were watching the
'U S. Treasury door. Purely graft
he fired 1863, thereby saving $138,-
900. He abolished the Commerce
court which netted $4,000 to the
people. He saved $249,0OO on the
red tape system of mailing bulletins.
He cut off 703 officials and saved
over quarter of million, and at
last, he had thirty-three million dol
lars for the old soldiers and good
roads.
Perhaps the most interesting
things told by Mr.. Neeley was about
his experience while on the Currency
and Banking committee; his hunt
for the man who was onto the inside
workings OF capital, the discovery OF
the 1906 and '07 coffee graft. Also
the lawless Clearing House Assocla-
tion formed by the six great
"monied men" and how they crushed
the Oriental National Bank of New
York and placed it in the hands or
the receiver, and some of their meth
DDS. Mr. Neeley here stated that
the question today was THAT THE
PEOPLE CONTROL THEIR OWN
FINANCES" And he prayed that
the people here send man to the
Senate with enough backbone to put
the law through, that he, Mr.. Neeley,
has placed that TAR
MFR. Neeley had promised the peo-
pie when he was here before that ne
would try to pass a law whereby
the people could elect the U. s.
Senator and he came back Monday
night to report to us that he had
done it, He used every effort to
place trust STUFF on the free list
and he met with success.
Mr.. Neeley was one of the COM
mittee who investigated the Law
renee, Mass, affair and he found
terrible conditions existing. Mr..
Neeley cannot see the advantage our
working people get from the fact
that it costs twice as much to buy
clothing in this country as in Eu-
rope; nor can he see t he justice in
protecting trusts that pay freight on
their products to Europe, and then
sell cheaper to foreigners than to us
at home. He found that the cotton
and wool industries, in which the
protection is the highest, pay the
lowest wages. While the steel in
dustry, where we are able to sell
our goods in Europe and In which
little protection is needed wages are
high. The work Mr.. Neeley has
done towards the betterment of child
labor is highly praised. He said that
If there was one thing above all 9TH
ers he must consider sacred to his
trust, II was that the little child have
the right and chance to be well born.
Mr.. Neeley touched but once upon
the presidential campaign when he
said that Woodrow Wilson was to
be elected, in his opinion.
He also said that during a little
talk with Fred Jackson this gentle
man had said that there would not
be 100 Republican Representatives
in the House, and that they wouldn't
be enough to even get job of Post
Master for man. There are some
hopes, however, that there will be
enough Republicans elected in the
coming campaign to serve as historic
specimens.
The American people nowadays
show little interest or enthusiasm for
any politician who has not fought
the bosses with all of his power, but
Mr.. Neeley has an exceptional rec
ord behind him, the people here are
for him. and as far as
we are concerned. he will again be