Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-10-08

!ect lesson? George W. Perkins
Frank Munsey, Medill Mccormick,
Dan Hanna and others have been pub
.licly charged with having furnished
your sinews of war since you threw
your hat into the ring, and you have
v denied 1t. And are not these men
the representatives Of the steel and
harvester trusts, namely the trusts
protected by you and prosecuted by
President Taft? And as the candidate
OF these men you dare to appeal to the
plain people for their support and do
It without blushing? Oh, reform, what
crimes are being committed In thy
name!
Eighth.-T charge you with having
accepted, by your diatribes against the
national committee, to incite the peo-
pie to riot and bloodshed. Have you
forgotten what you said about such q
crime-and a crime It is-in your first
message to congress after the assas-
sination OF President Mckinley? Have
you forgotten that you sent your then
secretary Of state to New York to
charge Mr.. Hearst with responsibility
Tor that great national calamity. But
Mr.. Hearst's editorials were mild al
compared with your furious outbursts
IN which you characterized honorable
men as thieves and brigands. The
popular mind was unusually excited at
the time and every patriot felt 1t his
duty to counsel calm d~eliberation. An
authentic report actually reached the
hall In which the committee met that
It's members were to be mobbed. II the
plan, after all, failed Of execution, you.
Sir, can claim the credit for 1t, as on
the contrary you were engaged from
morning till night pouring oil into the
fire.
NINTH charge you with having
hasely betrayed a friend in the person
OF President Taft. Your standard Of
morals may be different from that Of
us common mortals. but surely the or
binary citizen would rather do pen
nance for the balance of his life than
to have such an Indictment hurled
against him. You had left your sue
cessor a deficit of fifty-sfx million dol
lars and besides bequeathed to, him
the tariff question and other knotty
problems. You saw him struggle brave
ly for the public good under diff
%culties which, In their totality, almost
amounted to a tragedy, but instead Of
Fastening to his aid to tighten his bur-
den, such as any upright friend would
have done, you secretly conspired with
his enemies and finally fell onto his
hack when he had every a to
count on your friendship and support.
Even today neither he o the country
can account for your faithlessness ex-
cept on the theory Of your W inordi-
nate ambition for the legal ~procedure
against your pet trusts. And was not
President Taft, by virtue Of party ira
cition as we'll as his conscientious
performance Of duty and progressive
achievements Justly entitled to q sec
ond term?
TENTH shall not only support Mr..
Taft. but oppose you with all legiti-
mate means at my command, because
|of the contrast between you and him.
Mr.. Taft Is sane, safe and %judicious,
and under him the country's progress
and peace will be ecure He is a
man worthy Of the dignity of his high
office. During the last years Of your
administration I had almost become
I~disgruntled with public life. Your con-
slant playing to the galleries, your
hobnobbing with the political bosses,
your COHLlHuOuS pOAItlCdl ulCASIlN6
and bidding for notoriety and your
perpetual declarations without actual
performance had thoroughly disgusted
me, and the cant and %insincerity OF
it all had ygotten on my nerves. And do
you know what reconciled me to con.
tinue public s~ervice1 It was the ad.
vent OF President Taft. After all the
sham here was pure gold again!
Standing before him with his kindly.
open face beaming on me, I felt In
stinctively that l wal facing the ma
jesty Of an honest and sincere man,
and in his more than three years Of in
|cumbency he has not, in q single In
stance, fallen short OF that first. good
impression. But what is the use Of tell
ing you? You know all this to be true
and have said the same things your.
self, only in much stronger and more
glowing language.
These ten reasons may suffice for
the present to explain my attitude In
this campaign. There are others, but
II do not wish to strike below the belt
unless compelled to.
Very respectfully,
Richard Bartholdt