The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-08-30
A TOCA FIGHT
OF OTHER DAYS
How Candidate Beat
Himself Twenty-eight
Years Ago

promising public men, and he was
candidate for election to the Unite
States senate. The legislator
elected senators in those days, an
Sweet and George. Shoup were OF
posing candidates.
Shoup had served one term in tn
senate and had decided not to tr
for reelection. A good many of hi
friends had urged him to do so, bu
he wanted to 60 home and look afte
his private interests and rest from
public life.
Willis Sweet was so keen to sue
coed Shoup that he left no stone I'm
turned to clear the field for himself
and it seemed that nobody else wa
likely to get into the race. Swee
thought perhaps Shoup was not sin
cere in his statements that he wa
going to retire, and was afraid tina
he would get into the race, so Swee
caused an article to be published il
the Salt Lake Herald, saying tina
Shoup was going to retire from pub
lie life, that his service in the sen
ate had not been to his credit, ant
it was a certainty that some Other
man would fill the position.
Sweet was evidently stranger tc
human nature, or his selfishness
dulled his judgment, for no sooner
did Shoup's friends see this article
in print than they began to write and
wire Shoup to get into the race and
vindicate his good name. They
urged him not to submit to this at
tackon him but to go in and show his
detractors that his record was not
only high and clean, but that the
people knew it and wanted a chance
to express their appreciation and
confidence in him.
Now if there was any man in the
state who would not sit by and see
his good name attacked, it was Sena-
tor Shoup. He had means, he had
time, and he was fighter. Within a
week from the time the alleged IN
terview was published, casting re-
Elections upon him, Shoup's friends
were organizing to elect members OF
the legislature who were Shoup men.
Sweets friends were working equally
hard to elect Sweet men. Sweet, in
his eagerness to see a clear field stay
clear for himself, had stirred up the
ha L 70
The following winter marked a
long, hard fight for the senatorship.
For weeks the deadlock continued
between Shoup and Sweet. and
Sweets small fortune rapidly melted
away in the contest. One day when
the deadlock was about evenly
balanced, and it looked as if the next
ballot would decide it, Willis Sweet
met some of the legislators in the
hall of the house, and began COM
planning about the failure of some
of his friends to stand by him as they
should do, and he named ore man,
Senator Gambol of Moscow, who
ought to vote for him and was play
ing the piker. At that moment
Gambol came along, and Sweet, in
an attempt to draw him out, accused
him of giving encouragement to the
opposing side. The man stopped
short, looked at him sharply, and
said: II have been supporting you up
to this time just because promised
to, but now that you accuse me of
betraying your confidence, l believe
I am justified in throwing you down.
Tomorrow l will vote according to
my own wishes and not yours"
Willis Sweet dropped his head in
shame and humiliation, and walked
out of the building. The next day
Shoup was elected, and as soon as
the ballot was finished, a delegation
of excited legislators ran to his
rooms in the Overland building and
threw the doow open, shouting, "Old
man, you win"
Once during the campaign and
once during the senatorial contest,
Sweet multiplied his troubles and
brought defeat nearer by thinking
dishonest thoughts and acting upon
them. Once during the campaign
when talking to Blackfoot audience
he sought to play to the supposed
predominant element by referring to
the Mormon people with an unkind
criticism and shouting, II don't
want their votes.'
Perhaps nobody but Sweet himself
knew how many times during the
struggle he had let his selfishness
get the better of him and put a |
stumbling block in his own way. He
left the state, left his own country
and went abroad, and finally started |
life all over again in Porto Rico. For
more than twenty years he has been
building political fences in the land |
of his adoption, and in that little
country he has risen to positions of
as much prominence as he was seek
inc in tho 1opd re hic h;rfb