Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-05-30
"a Strong and Logical Plea to the
Voters by One Of the Repub.
lican Candidates for
Governor.
HELPED HIS OWN. CANDIDACY
Left no Room for Doubt as to Where
the VETS Stand in This I'm
! portant Campaign,

1870
The address OF Attorney General
Cosson, republican candidate for
governor, at the court house Friday
evening, was listened to by small
audience, there being about sixty
present. The speaker was deserv-
ing Of a wider hearing. He made a
very good impression upon his audi
tors and discussed the issues of the
campaign in a straightforward and
impassioned manner. O. ]. Hender-
son introduced the speaker in his
usual pleasing manner.
Mr.. Cosson dealt in no "glittering
generalities,'' but maintained his ar
gument by frequent reference to the
record. He took issue with Hon. w.
L. Harding. also republican candi-
date for governor. upon several i'm
portant points raised by Mr.. Hard
ing, who recently attacked the prin-
ciple of having commissions to en-
force certain laws. Mr.. Cosson show
ed that but for the Interstate COM
merce commission, which took
years of hard effort to-. es-
tablish, the fight being led
by such we'll known statesmen as
Senator Dolliyer and President
Roosevelt. the railroad legislation
enacted during the incumbency OF
Roosevelt, which protected the ,peo-
pie from unjust demands OF big ship
pers likeithe Standard OIL company,
would have been of little public BEN
eft. He also defended the industrial
commission of Iowa, which commits
sion, under the direction Of Gov.
Garst and later Senator Funk. had
accomplished much in the interest of
the wage earners of the state. The
national pure food commission. an
other commission created under the
leadership OF President Roosevelt.
aided by Senator Dolliver, has also
been prolific Of much good and has
served the people we'll. The speak
er named number of other commits
sions that had fully vindicated their
existence by the records made.
The attorney general said Mr..
Harding was trying to confuse the
road issue by insinuating that he
.(the attorney generaD wanted to
force paved roads upon the farmers
of the state. Mr.. COsson declared
that he was in favor of good roads
and wanted the people Of the var
ious counties to have the kind Of
roads they desired. To that end he
was In favor OF permitting them to
issue bonds, same as they do for
school houses, court houses, ETC.. first
submitting the question to vote of
the electorate.
Mr.. Cosson attacked the temper
ance and other reform records Of the
lieutenant governor. He declined to
say that Mr.. Harding is for the vets
but declared unequivocally that the
vets are for Mr.. Harding, and he
sustained this proposition from the
record, demonstrating that the vets
had good foundation for their con-
tidence. In the election of 1914, Mr..
Harding lead the attorney general in
the wet river counties by more than
5000, votes, while in. eighty counties
of the state the attorney general led
sthe lieutenant governor. Here in
the Tenth MIR. Harding carried Car
roll and Crawford county. both wet,
while the attorney general carried
the balance Of the district. The leg
islative record was then called up
as a witness and the record showed
that the attorney general either vot
ed against nearly all measures cal
culated to curb the saloon or failed
to vote at all. The Freeman-Trib-
une cannot recall just what bills Mr..
Cosson referred to in showing the
tendency of Mr.. Harding to remain
loyal to the so-called liberal element.
but he certainly proved his case He
might have cited the record as fol-
lows:
In. the Thirty-Second general as
sembly Mn Harding failed to give
his support to the bill requiring pub