St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1919-11-15
But A Hartford Man Shows
Why State Of Connecti-
cut is Proud of Him.
LOUISIANA NOT
ALONE IN THIS
Says President Wilson Did
Well to Honor Him for
Help to Democrats.
(From New Orleans Item)

Ward bossed politicians have been
telling you that John Parker is q
Repub blican. The Republicans al
over the United States recognized
him as their most dangerous enemy
Here's what one of them-The Hart
ford Courant-ill-naturedly wrote
about him just after President Will
son thanked John in 1916 for his
great services to democracy in tina.
election:
Candidate Wilson's letter to Can.
didate Parker, expressing apprecia.
ton of the latter's help to the form.
er i'm the recent campaign, is not ex'
actly model of honesty.
Mr.. Parker had right to do just
as he did, for he was a nOminee
without party organization behind
choice among the candidates for the
presidency as was any other Ameri.
can citizen. MIR. Parker is a Louisi-
ana Democrat, and his choice fell
naturally where the choice Of all
Louisiana Democrats fall upon
President Wilson.
To Mr.. Parker, President Wilson
says: "My admiration has been en-
cited by your course of action, a
course marked by principle, self-re-
sect, generosity, and a high sense of
duty" All of this is because Mr.
Parker spoke and voted for Mr.. VIII
son. 1t is a good example of self
fattery and not a very subtle one at
that. Mr.. Wilson rather openly uses
MIR. Parker as the occasion to throw
fragrant bouquet at himself. ....
Following President Wilson's lead,
some Democratic editors are attempt
ing to make sort of national hero
out of the gentleman from Louisi-
ana, but it is SO much the custom
of all the gentlemen from Louisiana
and i'm Louisiana to vote the Demo-
cratic ticket, no matter whose name
it carries, that hall of fame to in
elude all of them woLIi have to be
so big that it could give distinction
to none. We cannot figure out that
Mr.. Parker did any independent
thinking or independent voting. He
simply followed his inherited in
stmCts.
That's what the Republican Cou-
rant said of him. Not content with
calling him merely foolish Lou
isianian, the professors of Old Guard
ism and black-guardism of the Pa
cific Coast Republicans referred to
him and his folloWeds as rene
gades" and TRAITORS
The language of some of these
Repu blican assailers of John M.
Parker, because he merely exercised
a personal preference for Democracy,
is frankly reminiscent of some Of
the equally slanderous and injurious
things Ward Bossed Democrats were
saying of him in Louisiana fou"
years ago. They are now repeating
their own calumnies, with the apollo
gy that they don't believe them
selves.
Not everybody in Yankeeland,
however, agreed with The Courant.
l.. H. Triescherian, for instance, VINO
lives at Hartford, too, had just red
what The New York World thought
of Parker, when his home papers 5
comment drifted across his eye.
SO he took his pen in hand an |
wrote the following note, after
which he sent The Item all the docu-
ments:
To the Editor of The World: OF
course Louisiana is proud of John M.
Parker, but Louisiana is not alone.
Connecticut, too, is proud OF him.
He came here unknown to our peo-
pie save as a name. He came ID
help the President and the country i'm
the hour of need, of actual peril, and
he came without fear of those in the
seats Of the mighty who threatened
to burn him up lit is their own
phrase) if he attempted to make the
attack.
He told the story of the Chicago
betrayal SO frankly, so fearlessly, anti
so modestly, that he won the hearts
as well as the heads Of Connecticut
people who heard him, and particu-
larly of those thousands Of COnnec-
ticut Progressives who had not heard
before the real story.
That simple, straightforward, fear
less narrative was part of the very
root and fiber of the man himself.
Is it any wonder that Connecticut,
like Louisiana, is proud Of John nj.
Parker? Is it any wonder that many
of us who have learned to know him
best have learned to love him? Yo,i
do well, President Wilson does well,
to honor him,
What other Louisianian did the
Yankee Republican ever have to be-
rate for electing a Democratic presi-
dent?
Isn't that the kind of Democrat
you want at the head Of Louisiana >:
government? Can the Ward Bossed
mosquito feet fool you about 1t.
Published by Friends of Mr.. Parker
-O-
o,r,, :, st;n coorpn in Gown pt on