Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1916-10-24
JOHN F.DALTON RE-
PLIES TO MEREDITH
Says the Democratic Gubernatoriai
Candidate Bears False Wit.
ness Against Him.

visitor here and meets u business
men often. The Freeman-Tr1bune
never had any business relations
with Mr.. Dalton, but it has known
him for years and has always re-
garded him as a man OF truth II
veracity. There has been an ex-
change Of open letters between NJ.
w. Fitz of Manson and MI. Mere
dith and Mr.. Meredith intimated
that Mr.. Dalton and Tom Long, edi-
tors of the Manson Democrat and
Journal respectively, had a hand in
the writing of Mr.. Fitz' letter. Mr..
Long vigorously denies this state
ment in his newspaper, declaring
that he knew absolutely nothing Of
the letter until after it was sent out.
Mr.. Dalton also denies previous
knowledge of the letter sent by Mr..
Fitz and makes further comment up
on the letter written by Mr.. Mere
dith as follows:
Chou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbour"
The reason that l am preaching
this sermon is that religion and pol
itics are so inextricably mixed In
the unfortunate gubernatorial cam
paign that now besets Iowa that ev-
en- l must preach instead of declaim.
Sad as it may appear to those who
love him best and confide in him
most, Edward T. Meredith has borne
false witness against his neighbor,
thereby committing the sin Of break
ing one of Gods divine command
ments. And I am the neighbor
against whom he has borne false
witness. His letter to Morris Fitz,
a brother Methodist of this city, is
the instrument he uses to bear false
witness against me, his neighbor.
This letter was published in the Des
Moines Register and it would be idle
for me to speak of it's contents, for
the whole state of Iowa knows them
and knows the unenviable light the
statements of that letter have plac-
3ed me in before the people Of Iowa.
Forgetting, for the moment, the
ssitccnl i.nrcndo of many phrases
a2d sentences in that letter, l will
take ~ ;hc paragraph in which my
r~eigllcr, Edward II. Meredith, has
lornc f.lsa witness against me:
"YGu also charge that I attended
a beer party" given in your city in
1915.
'"The facts of the case are that on
the occasion to which you refer, l,
with a number. of bankers who were
attending a convention in Manson,
was invited by Jack Dalton to in
spect his newspaper plant there.
"When we got to his Office we did
find that Dalton had. a key of beer
on tap, but we had no knowledge of
this fact when we accepted his in
vitation. I personally drank no beer,
or any other intoXicant there.
"Mr. Dalton, who rendered this
"beer party" in Manson, is a wet
democrat, and one of the many Of
that stamp who are bitterly opposed
to my election. His influence is
plainly to be read between the lines
Of almost every section Of your let
ter, and Mr.. Dalton, a wet of the
vets, is responsible in large part for
several other assertions you make,
and which are in the main false"
The false witness borne in the
above statement must be divided in
to firstly, secondly, thirdly and
fourthly. Firstly, I, the Jack Dali
ton so contemptuously referred to,
did not invite them to inspect my
newspaper plant any more than l
invited them to the basement where
/ had some very fine key beer and a
delicious Dutch lunch ready and
waiting for the visiting bankers OF
Group Two, Iowa Bankers associa-
ton. Edward T. Meredith and the
gentlemen accompanying him knew
full well that the aforesaid beer was
there and ready for them, for 1 had
told them so. l had told several
members of the association by word
of mouth and had eve written some
Of them in advance of the date of
the meeting, (which was May ~,
1915, that 1 would entertain them
with such a spread and it was gen.
orally known among them that I
was to tender such entertainment to
them. Edward T. Meredith was not
pulled, dragged, coaXed, coerced,
scared, driven or otherwise inveigled
into going into my basement. He
knew what was awaiting him there
and went along with the other gen.
tlemen and made no attempt to es-
cape.
Secondly, he did drink beer free
1y in my basement on that day and
/ personally drew it from the key
into bis glass and handed IL to him