The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-04-05
Career of "Gum Shoe Bill Stone,
Senator From Missouri, and Chairman
|of Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs

names, too. Bryan was then a rising |
star who declared that the democrat
ic party should make nominations and
declare principles which the populists
could accept.
The Farmers alliance of Missouri
had more than $4,000 enrolled mem
hers when, in the autumn Of 1891, 1t
called a convention at Pertle Springs
to meet in secret and determine whe-
Their 1t would take independent action.
The late Senator Cockrell. whose term
would expire in 1898. hurried out
from Washington to exert an infiu-
ence against independent action. The
democratic candidates for governor,
with the exception of Stone, appeared
at Pertle Springs to promise such an
Il railway legislation and other laws
as the conclave might demand as the
price Of defeating independent action.
stone not only did not appear, but
made no communication to the meet
ling. This caused some wonder, but
those who understood the political
relations long existing between Stone
and Phelps reached the conclusion
that Stone was In no position to raise
an issue with the railroads or the
lobby.
Avoids State issues.
/ When the democratic primary cam
/ tL-
warm this theory appeared to have
been the right one. Stone canvassed
every county with the single excep-
ton of the city of st. Louis. which
constituted a county In itself. But at
no place did he strike an anti-railway
or anti corporation note. He dWelt
on the enormities of sectional legisla-
ton and Numbered about tariff ini-
quities, touching lightly on state Is
sues
His opponents for the nomination
were making desperate efforts to ob-
tain the support of the st. Louis dele
cation in the state democratic con-
yention. Stone disdained 1t, and one
night in a speech in Jefferson City he
denounced those who had gone down
to Babylon, that harlot in the politics
of Missouri, that city called st. Louis.
AS for me- he cried, with one of his
most dramatic gestures, ut Is to the
plain people and the common people
of Missouri turn-the people of her
| 20 hn
titude of sweet and clean towns and
cities where men and women can live
In righteousness, the people or her
|, forests and praires the boys at the
forks of the creeks, whom | know and
who know me. ask them to support
| me against the political might of that
| city where Mamomn dwells and Mo-
loch reigns. But win or lose, l shall
/ not fall before st. Louis to beg 1t to
, help me-"
Rurals Rally to Him.
Such a speech, made by candidate
for governor against a city constitut-
! ling a large fraction of the states to-
, ltal population, may serve as an index
of Stones political character The
| rural democracy of Missouri rallied t.
him, and Stone was nominated at the
end of an all night session of the
state convention. In the manipu!a
, tion of delegations, the appointment
$ of committees and the combinations
effected for making Stone the head OF
the ticket the hand of William II
Phelps could be seen. But these mel
| had then almost reached the parting
of the ways. Stone realized that par
| ty sentiment and public opinion hat
been aroused to such a point of oppo
! sition to Phelps that he could no long
] er, with safety to his own prospects
cooperate with him.
Stone brought on the breach earl!
in his term, beginning in 1898. Thu
legislature was in session and Phelp:
was engaged in his old work of trying
| to block all anti-railway legislation
, The Farmers alliance, lulled into re-
, pose after its outburst at Pertlt
Springs, was again rampant. The
IpOpullStS WERE IdSlnS. iHe lout Ha'
struck for change of front, and Gov
ernor Stone threw himself into tn,
, current of events.
/ Break With Phelps.
Like the astute politician that he is
, he had seen the way the wind was
!. blowing Phelps left the executive Of
flee without any illusions, He knew
the meaning of what had happened tt
J him, but for long, from motives oil
: politics, he concealed the rupture He
, still needed the governor The gov
ernor no longer needed him, and his
agents took every opportunity to
make it known that he had left him.
} 1t must be said as a measure of JUS
tice that Stone made clean admin
: istration financially and administra :
lively. But before his term expired
he placed blot on the record of the
democratic party in Missouri, 1t did
not show until half a dozen years lat
er, when, under the impulse of expos
ure of legislative and party secrets
growing out of the Doodle prosecutions