Mexico weekly ledger., 1918-03-14
CLARK TELLS
OF EARLY CAMPAIGNS
THEY WERE WARN CAMPAIGNS
Teils ~ His Heht IN the Nortua Cam-
psiEa-Tcsis e Ras Nith Ioha
W. 1ackA q MoatromeFY
City

Srssser Champ Clark. IN ths March
number q Hcarst's Magazine. writing
q some q bis campaigns in this dis
triet has the following 10 say;
Outside Of Crawford County. in the
o1Arks. each u as had thirty-one
delegates The way that happened
was this; The custom in eonstitu.-
ING a convention was that each eoun-
~ was entitled 20 one delegate for
every $50 Democrats votes eas in
the last Presidential election. or a
major fraction thereof. Nobody
dreamed Of any other basis until all
the counties except Crawford had Sc
lcetcd delegates or were certain for
one or the other Of US. Il must be
remembered that the counties voted
under the unit rule, On the basis Of
the last Presidential vote, l had thir-
ty-nve delegates and Colonel Norton
had thirty-two. outside OF Crawford.
But suddenly the Congressional Com
mittee which was friendly to him cOn-
vened, issued the call for the eonven-
ton fixing the basis for delegates on
| the Off-year vote Of 1880. by which l
lost four delegates and Colonel Nor
ton one-a net loss Of three TO me,
with the result that outside of Craw-
ford there would be a tie-thus in eff
feet comforting on Crawford, a new
and remote county in the district, the
honor and power Of selecting a Rep
resentative in Congress. My friends
denounced the action of the commit
tee in language not fit to be MENTION
ed to ears polite; they got up protests
~numerously signed; they did all that
mortal man could do short of physical
violence. but without avail. The Con-
gressional Committee was deaf, dumb
and blind as to their protestations, OBJ
jurgations and maledictions. The
committee stood by its guns without
flinching or wavering. There was
nothing to do about it except to grin
In 1894 when the tables were turned
and the Congressional Committee,
then friendly to me, performed the
same strong-srm stunt by basing dele
gates on the Congressional vote Of
1892 instead of the Presidential vote
of that year, thereby placing my re-
nomination beyond peradventure, SO
that / had no opposition in the onven
ton, Colonel John W. Jacks, editor of
the Montgomery Standard, now my
good friend, but then decidedly other
wise, sadly and tersely remarked in his
paper: at would be a blame good
thing il the Congressional Commit
tee could be abolished altogether"
If the Colonel's vocabulary had not
been restricted by his high standing in
the church, no doubt his statement
would have been ever more vigorous
and somewhat s%ulphurous, and to tell
the plain, u~nvarnished truth, ] would
not have criticised him had he sworn
after the manner of a Jack Tar or the
"army in Flanders"
The action of the Congressional
Committee having narrowed the con-
test to Crawford County, Colonel Nor
ton and /, both utter strangers to her
people, proceeded to that county and
entered upon the last lap of our Con-
gressional Marathon. 1t was a fight
for blood. No quarter was asked, ex-
pected or given. We worked, talked
and wrote necessarily. We made
stump speeches, two daily, sometimes
three. We solicited votes personally.
We Travelled in passenger cars, or
freight trains and hand cars, in bug.
gies, on horseback, and occasionally
on foot. We had friends and agents
by the dozen traversing the district as
!, old man Harper Of Kentucky proudly
boasted he ran his horses, "from eend
, to eend." We never let up for rain
: hail, snow, flood, storms, mud, dust
/ cold, or heat. On March 20 I weighed
210. In November / tipped the scales
at 1856. l had worked and sweatet
off twenty-five pounds.
When / asked the editor of the Re.
public if some Of his reporters did moi
! disagree with the paper politically, he
said:
Eyes, precisely, and if you will in.
quire you will find that half the re.
: porters on this paper are Republican
Then, after you have absorbed that in
formation, go over to the Globe-Dem
e ocrat office, the Republican office
G and you will discover that half Of the
I writing force on that sheet are Demo.
Gratis. 1t may add to your amaze
ment that Joe Mccullough, the bril-.
!, liant editor in chief Of the Globe
Democrat, is a moss backed Democrat
c and votes the Democratic ticket
: straight" By that time ] was as
r limp as a dish rag. l felt very hum.
( BILE; but collected my wits sufficiently
e to invite him downstairs for refresh.
ments, both liquid and solid. He &C.
a cepted. Over the coffee and cigars ]
. said: "The Republic correspondent al
Montgomery City, John ". Jacks, ant
e l are not on speaking terms. HI
skins me in his paper and | skin hin
in my speeches. He will put me in bat
n in his account Of that double-headet
s convention and l want you TO see tina
d | get a chance for my white alley
then gave him my version of thu
campaign and the convention as best
l could. By that time he had become
d very friendly and sympathetic. Wher
| had finished my story, he said
+ "What car / do to help your" l re
s piled: 81 want you to sit up til
!. Jacks letter arrives and see to it thai