Fergus County Democrat., 1916-09-21
wilson PRAISED
BY BULL M00SER
RESUME OF AN ADDRESS BY r.
j. HENEY "WHY AM FOR
WOODROW WILSON,.
IN A LETTER TO lEW|S7OWN LADY


A Lewistown lady recently received
from friend residing in Los Angeles
a letter telling of a speech delivered
in that city by Francis j. Heney, the
famous graft buster" of San Fran
cisco and who was regarded as one
of the most forceful leaders of the
progressive party cause four years
ago The readers Of the Democrat
will doubtless read with the utmost
interest the following very fine ac-
count of the Heney meeting:
Los Angeles. August 27, 1916,
Am going to do my best to give
you resume of an address given by
Francis j. Heney in Trinity auditor
ium, Friday evening, Gil Why Am
for Woodrow Wilson, I wish that !
might give you not only every word
OF this splendid address, but some
thing of Mr.. Heney's manner as we'll.
You can imagine how forceful he
must have been on this occasion, when
tell you that every seat and all Of
the available standing room was
filled, and that that immense audi
ence sat spellbound for three solid
hours on an extremely hot night, lis
tening to. every word.
"Mr. Heney was the district attor-
ney in San Francisco who so fearless
ly conducted the Investigations and
consequent prosecutions for graft.
You will perhaps remember that he
kept on even when his friends begged
him to desist. as his life was almost
hourly threatened, especially when he
| went after those higher up. There
were many dramatic episodes connect
ed with the exposures which he made.
and finally he was shot one afternoon
in the court ROOM All this | expect
you saw in the papers at the time.
He is the idol of California and the
moment he appeared on the platform
pandemonium reigned. have never
seen such an ovation accorded any
one, ever Hiram w. Johnson. When
quiet was at last restored, Mr.. Heney
began his address by saying that he
had Just been looking over the pro-
gressive platform of 1912, which he
himself helped to frame, and found
that Woodrow Wilson had carried out
or was about to carry out, every single
item on it. and that possibly explained
| WHY oCluG VI tHC pAA6l SoSAfVS "CtO q
going to vote for Hughes, there was
nothing left to do. He, then rather
elaborately explained why he left the
republican party in 1912. which rea,
sons you will find outlined in the
copy of his telegram to Woodrow VIII
son. and went into details regarding
the rottenness Of machine politics and
the boss SYSTEM which prevailed, in
the republican party, and as to how
Wall street had previously governed
politics. He then explained how very
cleverly William ]. Bryan put one
over Wall street by getting Woodrow
Wilson nominated. He then explained
what it meant to the country to be
free of bosses in politics, and that in
electing Hughes to the presidency of
the United States, we would simply
have return of the boss system and
machine politics which existed during
Taft's administration, characterizing
Taft as large, good-natured mass
of fat who promised 10. revise tariff
downward. and instead. OF which we
got the Payne Aldrich revision which
suited nobody. He stated that in case
Hughes were elected, we would get
the same thing, only 1t would be called
the Penrose-Cannon revision. He fur
ther stated that this battle door and
shuttle cock workings Of the tariff
would be the ruination of this coun
try, and the only suitable solution was
the hon-partisan tariff commission
suggested by Wilson. He said thai
Hughes could promise all he wanted
to, he would have no more to do witt
the tariff revision than Taft did. The
nom partisan tariff commission woul6
regulate tariff in a manner satisfac
tory to every one.
"He then touched upon the subject
of woman's suffrage, explaining why
it could not be made an amendment
to the constitution. and said Hughes
when promising to make it such. knew
that it could not be done, for the rea
son that 1t takes three fourth of al
the states voting favorably. to pas!
an amendment, that 36 states coulG
not be found who would vote fav
orably, on account of the opposition il
the southern states to the negro vote
Mr.. Wilson knew this. and for thai
good reason thought 1t best to let eacl
state settle the matter the difference
between Mr.. Hughes and Mr.. Wilson
being that Mr. Wilson busy as he
was, took the trouble to so to New
Jersey and vote for woman's suffrage
while Hughes not only had not voted
for womans suffrage, but had not once
voted during the past six years, ant
SO had not exercised his duty or his
privilege as a citizen of the United
States.
"Mr. Heney then took up the Mexi
can situation, commenting Wilson fol
his attitude toward a weaker and less
enlightened nation, and cited instance.
under various other presidents il
which the situation had been mucl
worse than it had been lately, bu
where our country was not dragged
into war. and where the other presi
dents had been commended rather
than condemned for their action II
not going to war. He spoke of tht
Lusitania and other disasters, and sale
we must remember that Wilson was
the custodian of one. hundred miHior
souls and could not do as might like
/ to RI Ia =.