The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-04-05

shoe squeaked in the closing hours OF
the Stone administration.
Soon after leaving the executive Of
flee In 1897, Stone went to st. Louis
and engaged in the practice of law.
About this time the American Tobacco
co company was trying to acquire a
large number of independent concerns.
Among these three or four were In St
Louis A large stockholder In one of
them was the late Col Moses Wet
more, personal friend of Stone and
an influential man in democratic poll
tics.
The company was willing to pay
enormous prices for the stock of the
concerns 1t wanted to buy, but, al
though the figures offered for Liggett-
Myers stock were large, Col. Wetmore
started out to bull the price OF the
shares held by him individually To
do this he interested his friend Stone
and the state officials needed to insti
tute proceedings in the courts by way
Of injunction and through interpreta-
tions OF the Missouri antitrust laws
against the contemplated merger.
Not creditable Act.
The record is written in the court
proceedings Of Missouri, and need not
be recited here. The trust had ma
jority Of the stock without that held
/ by Wetmore, but under threats of
custer it paid Wetmore much high
err price than 1t paid anybody else
holding Liggett shares. After this
was done all talk of custer ceased
The part played by Stone in this
transaction was in no way creditable.
As friend and counsel Of Wetmore he
aided him in every possible way. Per-
haps his manner of appealing to the
Missouri electorate was most clearly
shown in speech made at Dexter
while the deal was on. The unterri-
fed Missouri democracy had to be
aroused to the enormity of the things
contemplated by tobacco magnates In
the east. In the speech at Dexter,
Stone, after explaining what the plu-
tocrats were trying to do with Col.
Wetmore and how the law of Mis-
souri, was being invoked against them,
advised his hearers to chew the Star
brand of plug tobacco, the one which
Col. Wetmore makes and which the
trust is trying to monopolize. loud
cheers.)"
Is Exposed Again.
Between the time of his retirement
from the Office of governor and his
election to the senate, Stones connec-
ton with the Missouri Health Society
was discovered. In his professional
capacity as practicing lawyer in St
Louis he had said publicly that he did
not want and would not take corpora
ton practice. That this attitude was
only pose was revealed at last
through the same exposure which be-
gan with Folks ST. Louis Doodle pros
ecutions, made Folk governor, and
, reached into many offices of the state
Some years before Missouri hat
adopted a law prohibiting the sale Of
! any baking powder containing alum
as an ingredient. When the revela
tons finally came they showed tina
! a baking powder company in the cas-
: lad been held up and shaken dow
, for the money to put this statute
? through and at each subsequent SEES
2 sion for more money to keep it in thu
= books. While efforts We're being mad,
I to repeal the law, Stone appeared il
5 jefferson City before a Legislative,
committee and urged against the re
peal. He appeared there as the lega
1 representative of the Missouri Healtl
, Society, an organization of which no
: body had ever heard, but the rea
character of which nobody suspecte,
until 1T was discovered that the so
: ciety contained only three members
!, all employees in Stones private office
This exposure did not end Stone
, public career in Missouri, becaus
e Missouri democracy is a heredtar
5 prejudice, and no man knows bette
! and few as well as Stone the grail
. and the line of that prejudice. Rails
: ing his arms and his voice in impas
> stoned appeal in 1908 to the Sons o
2 Sainted Sires to be true to the tradi
tons of their fathers, he worked
: forgetfulness of everything else. Ii
? his second campaign in 1914, he pose,
as the vice regent of President Wilson
in Missouri, holding out the appeal t
the mass to support Wilson's policie
) III supporting him, and to the offic
. seekers whose name is legion, tn
! broad hint that they could hope 70
, nothing without his Endorsement. TIL
office seekers are probably due for
, bitter disappointment.
The political character of Stone wa!
! never better illustrated than by viii
} lam II. Phelps, who said, after tn,
pair became avowed enemies:
1--WE both suck eggs. but Stone hide.
his Shells"
an cKEEMA OWED