Judsonia weekly advance., 1916-03-22


 kansas-Greetings:
 Whereas, William A. Oldfield has written letters, I am informed, to peo pie in Searcy, in White county; to people in Batesville and Newark, in Independence county; to people iii Melbourne, in Izard county; to people ill Heber Springs, in Cleburne county; to people in Clarendon and Brinkley, in Monroe county and to the people in my own conuty, Fulton, and most probably to people in other parts of the district, endeavoring to mislead the people into believing that my op- position to him in this race for re- election ito Congress is based on the fact that he declined to appoint one of my brothers cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Now, Mr Oldfeld indicated by these letters that he believes that some explanation favorable to him of my opposition to his reelection to Congress should be made, and in mak- ing this explanation he has followed his usual custom of resortin9 to false hood and deceit when such a course will not better serve his purpose than 60 state the truth. I want to say to he people Of my state that l have found out from experience that MT Oldfeld is not person who will not deal honestly in controversies with ais friends nor fairly with his en- emies. Since the question of my po- itical separation from MT. Oldfeld himself, l deem it but fair to myself and due to the people to make eXpla- nations of the real causes of my oppo- 5ition to the reelection of Wm. A Oldfeld to Congress.
 In December 1914, and in January, 1915, MT. Oldfield stated to me that we could pick up some easy money" if I would follow his suggestions" and proposed that l submit to George ". Ogilvie, a publisher in New York City, and the q. & c. Merriam Com )any, publishers, of Springfield, Mass, respectively, a proposition to bring about the enactment or defeat of House Bill 21137, pending before the Committee on Patents. MT. Oldfeld was chairman of this committee and I clerk. The bill in question proposed legislation which would amend the copyright laws to such an extent as to permit George w. Ogilvie, or any other publisher, to use the name Webster" as applied to dictionaries,
 and to publish their yariously com piled dictionaries under that name. The Merriam company bitterly op- posed the bill Oh the ground that they were the owners of the original copy lighted Webster" acquired by them by purchase from the descendants of Noah Webster, and argued that they had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars i'll preparing and advertising the present high standard "Webster's Dictionary" under the name of Web ster," and were entitled to exclusive use of the name by reason of their ownership of the copyright and their acquired property in the said title ac- cruing from long continued use, and because of the fact that the public 4ad come to recognize the reliability of their ''Webster's Dictionary" George w. Ogilvie waged as strong fight for the bill as Merriam did against it, and the Committee on Patents stood just about evenly divid- ed for and against the measure. It was indeed d very important bill, and at this point MT. Oldfeld, welding the power of chairman of the committee, saw an opportunity to profit by reason of his position enabling him to control the action of the committee on the bill in view of it's evenly divided member ship. At this stage MT. Oldfield an aiyzed the situation to me and insist ed that 1 propose, first, to George w. OgilYie, that for ten thousand dollars i would obtain a guarantee from the chairman of the committee that the legislation would be enacted" second in case George ". OgilVie would not trade, to propose to the Merriams that Cor ten thousand dollars l would oh lain guarantee from the chairman of the committee that the legislation would be defeated"
 declined to enter into this scheme, and few days later, on March 3 or I, 1915, resigned my position as pri- vate secretary to Mir. Oldfield, for the reasons stated above, and for other reasons of prior date, involving be trayal of Mir Oldfeld of the conf dence of the people who had elected 1 him, l decided to abandon him, and ,ld so, and commenced working Hi the United States Patent Office May 1, 1915, where I am employed today l l did not intend to go any further in this campaign than to write the letter, copy of which is printed below to the President to prevent MT. Old field securing his endorsement with which to mislead the people into re electing him to Congress. Knowing his former practice of relying in his campaign principally upon the en dorsements he was wont to secure | from others. such leaders as Speaker Clark, Secretary Bryan, and the Pres ident, 1 felt quite sure he would at tempt the same trick again, and re solved that l would try to prevent his further imposition upon the President in this respect, and at the same time do real service to the people. Hence wrote the President this letter ane received from his secretary the ac
 Acknowledgement of it's receipt appear ing below:
 Washington, D. C., Feb. 24, 1916.