Barton County democrat., 1914-12-25
AN OPEN LETTER TO
CONGRESSMAN NEELEY.

Dear George
Under date of December 5th |
received a letter from you in
which you addressed me- as my
Dear Brother Stoke, and which
letter said, in part: ~As the Off
cial in command of the Demo-
cracy of your county l desire to
thank you for the splendid gen.
eraIShip displayed; for the 10y
atty, the industry and capacity,
and the arduOuS work performed
by yourself and the other men,
berS of the county committee.
From my heart thank yOu," and
much more of that sort of guSh
which you have inflicted upon
county chairmen bi-annually-
and then Some-for the last half
a dozen years.
will answer that letter at some
length, beginning with my first
acquaintance with you after you
landed in Kansas from 'Picking
cotton with the niggers down
SOUTH" to quote your own Ian
guage used when you boaSted
about it at the Democratic ban
quet here in Great Bend last
spring-the time you know,
when you re-haShed that tale of
your wonderful work in Sleuth-
ing out the "lair of the Money
Trust" from which banquet you
remember prominent Democrats
gOtup in disgust and left the room
while you were yet speaking. Fol-
lowing your Sky-rocket career
from that time until last week
when you gave notice to all pa
irons of the Great Bend poStof-
flee that you had wished on us
your brother-in-law, Mr.. Hostel
Ter, of Mulvane, and willed that
we should celebrate the Yuletide
with HoStetler's BitterS instead
of the good old prohibited "Tom
and jerry, | want to call your at
tention to a few of the un-Demo-
cratic, unmanly, and wholly un-
called for things you have writ
ten, said and done-"leSt you
forget"
| may have to touch upon per-
SOnalitieS at times, George, but
you will pardon me, | know, be-
cause of our being such "dear
friends" and the way | have
torn my shirt" as it were, to help
you to office, in the mistaken be-
lief that | was assisting another
honest, capable and ambitious
young Democrat to attain the goal
of his ambitions.
You remember, George, when
you first ran for Congress against
the lamented Ed Madison (mOre
especially lamented since we have
found what it was we had put
up against him) Barton county,
through the efforts of the county
organization of which | was act
ing secretary, gave you a hand
some majority. After which you
wrote me a letter something like
the one quoted at the beginning
hereof.
Then, a few months later, when
Congressman Madison passed to
that. bourne which fellows like
you may never hope to reach,
when you again aSpired to fill his
seat; you remember Will Stoke
again had something to do with
bringing about your election, |
being chairman of the Barton
county committee and Secretary
and treasurer of the Seventh Dis
trict Congressional Committee.
You was elected that time, George
and you remember Barton county
gave you a neat 600 majority
about what your total majority
was in the district over Judge
Martin. And right here | want tC
publicly beg forgiveness from
the many loyal Democrats
whom | urged to wade or drive
through snow two feet deep
which they did, in order to elect
you.
Then you went to Washington
George, and began to swell up
You had somehow put a spell OF
good old Champ Clark, and he
as Speaker of the House, pushed
you to the front as no young con
gresham ever before had beer
pushed or boosted. We though
it was good to watch you. W.
honestly thought you was the rea
thing your press agent was al
industrious young fellow and yol
pof hold of hip hatch of gardeI