Norwich bulletin., 1914-04-01
DRAMATIC SPEECH BY CHAMP CLARK
Speaker Declares He Enertans No I Toward President Because of Baltimore ConventionIs Not Candidate For Presidency 1916-Resents Intmations That He is Try ing Disrupt Party Canal Tolls Issue.

Washington, March 31-Speaker Champ Clark's speech in the house to- day, closing the argument of the op- ponents of the canal tolls exemption repeal bill was one of the most dra- matic features of this extraordinary contest. The speaker said:
 'iMr Speaker, there is no personal issue between the president of the United States and myself. There has not been at any time. I trust there never will. 1 have a 10 time uttered one word of criticism of the president. At no time so far as l am informed, or believe. has the president said one word of criticism of me. In the nature of things a maj who is worthy to hold a high public post in the service of his country. must believe that other public servants are actuated by the same high, courageous and patriotic motives by which he believes himself to be moved.
 No Breach in Democratic Party.
 T have never for one moment enter tained the opinion that President Will son is actuated by other than the highest patriotic motives. I do not be- lieve that President Wilson has ever entertained any other opinion as to the conduct of us who find it necessary to differ with him on this measure. PreSi- dent Wilson does not desire a, breach in the democratic party. I do not de- sire a breach in the democratic party, and there is no breach in the demo- cratic party. 1 would scorn to believe that President Wilson conferences for one moment the efforts of some of the jacka1 press to represent that we are seeking to disrupt the demo- cratic party The president is too big a man not to desire that this great question should be fought on it's mer- it's, free from personalities, which can do no good and may do much harm The president has too high an idea of the duties of a. public servant to de- sire members to do other than vote their conscientious convictions With most of those who have asserted that I am seeking to disrupt the party the wish is father to the thought.
 Denurciation of New York World. In the New York World of Tuesday. N;ar.h 24, appeared a scurrldous and slanderous article with these head lines: Leaders Work to Split Democ- Tacy Over Canal TOlls-As Filibuster Against Exemption Repeal Goes On in the House it is Said that Both Speak CT Clark and Mir Underwood Will Op- pose the Presidents Measure
 That is one of the most preposter- 0us statements made in any newspa- per since Guttenberg invented movable type
 You. gentlemen, in whose faces am now looking, know the democratic leaders of the house better than any other men on earth know us Does any man in this house believe that the democratic house leaders are workin g to split the democracy. If so let him courageousiy stand up here; and now.
 "The democratic leaders oftthis house led in the long, bitter and successful fight in the Sixty first congress. which elected a democratic house in 1910 and set in motion the forces which put a democratic president in the White House gave us a democratic senate, and a democratic majority of IA in this house. It is a proud record, and yet the New York World has the gall to charge that those same leaders are trying to split the democracy. I can stand now here and point out fifty or sixty men who would never have sat in these historic walls had not the dem ocrats and insurgents made that fight in the Sixty first congress.
 Quotations from the World.
 Farther along in the aforesaid World article occurs this passage: