Barton County democrat., 1914-12-25
HE SLAPPED OUR WRIST.
Local Democrats Are Ignored By
Congressman Neeley In Post
Office Appointment.

hon. George A. Neeley, con-
gresham from the Seventh Dis
trlct and the man who diSpenSeS
the poStoffice patronage, is evil
IDENTIFY not one of the contribut-
orS to the Belgian Relief Fund,
Tor ne believes in the old adage
that charity begins at home, and
in accordance with that belief he
has appointed John F. HoStetler,
his brOther-in-law, and resi-
dent of this city for about eight
months, as the postmaster for
this city, and his name was sent
to the senate for confirmation
last week.
The poStoffice appointment for
Great Bend has been a question
which has been an interesting one
for the past year and has been
more discussed than even the
tariff question and has called for
more arguments than the time
honOred question of How old is
Ann"
There have been a number of
applicants for The poStoffice here
for the past two years, and each
candidate had a number of warm
supporters, and practically every
politician Of nOte in The county
and state as well as every patron
of the office was lined up behind
one or the other of the appli-
cantS. w. E. Stoke, D. C. Luse,
j. W. SOderStrom, Harry Diffen-
bacher, D. j. Coughlin, Frank
Wells and one or Two others were
all active candidates for the place.
Everyone Of them good, capable
men, well qualified in every way
to fulfill the duties of the office
in a manner which would have
been pleasing to all of the patrons,
and all of them bearing good en-
dOrSementS.
m
The Democrat man was also an
applicant for the appointment, but
we will leave his qualifications
and virtues for our enemies to
discuss. Suffice to say that he
had enough endorsements from
prominent Democrats of the
county and slate TO land several
poStOffice jobs, not 10 speak of
about one thousand private en-
dOrSementS. But the Democrat
man became tired and suspicious
and Mr.. Neeley'S continual 'HeSi-
tatiOn Waltz" after the primaries
and acknowledged to his sup
pOrterS that he was out of the
race, had he ever been in il, which
is extremely doubtful from the
fact that Mr.. Neeley gave unlimit-
ed encouragement 10 all who ap-
piled. Bat we did believe that
the gentleman could still find one
Democrat in The town who was
good enough for the job, and who
had been affiliated with The party
in this county, and who he be-
Iieved was entitled 10 the place,
but this does not seem to have
been the case.
There are no sore spots OH the
writer's anatomy because he did
not land the place, for we had
made up our mind some months
ago that Mr.. Neeley intended to
follow out his own sweet will in
the matter, regardless of the
wishes OF the people of his party
or of the patrons of the office,
and for this reason our surprise
at the appointment is not as great
as it might have been, but the
gentleman eveidently believes
that If he cannot remain IN the
public crib himself he intends to
have the family represented.
hence the appointment of his
brOther-in-law.
We do moi blame Mr.. Hostel
Ter in the least for taking the
place, but we also do not believe
that he is in the least entitled to
the same. There are a number
of men in Great Bend who helped
to bring Mr.. Neeley from the OBJ
Scurity of third rate lawyer and
place him in congress, and in
doing so they have not only spent
their time and used their influ-
ence but have used their hard
cash as well, and to us it looks
like the limit of ingratitude for
him to ignore the wishes of these
men, and of the entire Democratic
party of Barton county and prac-
tically of the state. Mr.. NeeIey
cannot use the excuse that the
fight between the candidates had
become so bitter that he was
forced to pick an outsider, from