The Prescott daily news., 1914-03-10
SENATOR JAMES p. Clarke AD-
DRESSES VOTERS IN PRESCOTT
Large Crowd of Citizens Gather at
Court House this Afternoon at
80 to Hear Senator Clarke
Speak for denomination

/
court house this afternoon when Unit
ed States Senator James P. Clarke
delivered his.
0. S. Jones was elected as chairman
Of the meeting and Mr.. Clarke was in
troduced by Col. C. C. Handy who
made quite a nice talk, touching upon
the ability, integrity and devotion of
duty by the Senator
Senator Clarke spoke for about an
hour and in part sad
81 expected that my return to the
Senate would be contested, because it
is fact that in our State there are
large number of professional office
seekers who seem impressed with the
fact that any public office is a mere
personal prize to be competed for be-
cause of the emoluments it will bring.
the ease it will afford, and the titles
1t will confer. | felt that if my can
didacy for the Senate was to be an
tagonized, | might expect to have my
public career investigated fully and
fairly, and that supposed defects there
in would be made the basis of resist
ing my retention as a senator for a
longer time. | did not suppose that
the grounds for opposing my return
would consist of long catalogue of
mud-slinging charges uttered without
any foundation in fact, and completely
without relevancy in the determina-
ton of the question that the voters
ought to settle before a United States
Senator is elected. | was mistaken
about this. | did not suppose that
Judge Kirby, even with his extrava-
CANT ideas of his own Importance.
would regard himself as fit material
out of which to construct a United
States Senator. But we never know
what wild notions are lurking in the
brain of a small fellow who has once
enjoyed the intoXication of power and
public honors. | knew that opposi-
ton could not rightfully present it
| =
since Arkansas has never had sena-
tor who was not elected to remain
there three terms, where the discharge
of his duties have been fairly salts
factory to his constituency. There
have been senators who have served
less than that length of time, but
Iafa A1 hnf o+
period had passed, when they were
willing to serve longer | say that
have rendered acceptable service at
Washington up to the limit possible
to me as a member of the minority.
During the first term | served, the
Democrats had about one-third of the
membership of the Senate. Our num-
bers were so small, and the organiza-
tion of the Republican party so COM
pact and thorough, that little could
be accomplished, even in the way of
resistance by our party. During my
second ter m, the Democratic member
ship in the Senate was much larger.
we NelS eiioleu, ny IlS oSSdSioilai
cooperation of certain Insurgent Re-
publicans, who were beginning to APP
pear in the Senate at that time, to
accomplish many things by way of an
improvement pending legislation, that
could not otherwise have been brought
about During that term | was as
- hn nd ioto
Committee, the Committee on Com
merce. the Committee on Interstate
Commerce, and various other COM
mittees of minor Importance. These
were all stations of considerable i'm
portance and value to the minority, as
it enabled the members thereof to get
information at first hand concerning
the structure and principle of the leg
islation proposed, and thereby equip
themselves to point out errors and de-
fects where these existed. | was also
made a member of the Democratic
Steering Committee, which is sort of
Board of Control over party affairs.
1t consists of nine members. This
committee makes up the membership
of the Democrats on the committees of
the Senate, and assigns to each sena-
tor the place where seniority and his
developed capacity entitle him to go,
and otherwise exercises a general SUI
pervision over the party's policy and
action in dealing with questions of
legislation and party action and policy
generally. 1t is position of respon-
sibility, and membership on the com
...;4Ann L. n,.idoncn of the fact that the