Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1920-06-02
NOTICE TO VOTERS.

| kept me here all the time during
| this campaign so that / have not
been able to see so very many of the
| voters and as there are couple OF
matters that / would like to call
your attention to ! shall take this
means of bringing them before you
and trust that the little that have
to say will be found worthy of con-
sideration.
In the first place there may be
some that think that l am asking
for a whole lot when / now ask for
another term, and although ! hope
they are in hopeless minority to
them / will answer as follows. If yor
stop to consider the facts ! believe
you will come to the conclusion that
/ am not asking for so Very much
after all. AS YOU all know, we, in
this county generally keep our
county officials in the Court house
first number of years as deputies
and then a number of years as
principals. Now then, you all know
that / have never been a deputy and
have therefore been here only half
as long as the rest Of them. For this
reason / do not believe that ! am
asking for anything unreasonable
and / think you will agree with me
because / do not believe that you
think yourselves that il is fair to me
to give me so much shorter time
here. We have officials here who had
teen here for four years and even
six years when l first started here
and they are still here. Even though
l am given another term / shall be
well content.
Furthermore as you remember I
time and was not even a candidate
at the Primaries, but was put in
later at the convention to fill a
vacancy. This then will be only the
third time that l am asking for the
nomination and will be only the
third time that my name will have
appeared upon the Primary Election
Ballot. This time i most earnestly
ask for the nomination and trust
that you will see fit to give it to me.
Then word in explanation as to
why both my deputy and myself are
running for the same Office. / know
1T looks queer to an outsider and will
therefore explain as best I can. Poll
tics began this spring earlier than
Usual. In fact altogether too early.
AS early as the latter part of Febru-
airy or. first part of March ! was ap-
preached by few and was told that
they would be willing to favor me
With another term, bat as l never
did believe in anybody running for a
public Office unless there seemed to
he a pretty strong sentiment in favor
OF his doing so / at first paid very
little attention to the matter, but
the sentiment seemed to grow strong
er and by the middle, of March I had
received so many assurances from
different parts of the county that I
made up my mind that l was going
TO be a candidate again But because
lay deputy also was figuring on run
ming | did not Immediately take out
nv papers because as you can readily
understand it would have been so
much nicer if he had decided to
wait until next time before / took
out my papers. hope you can ap-
rreciate the situation was in. On
the one hand | had all kinds of as
nation and on the other hand there
vas my deputy bound to run also.
was between two srCs so to sneak.
About the 10th of March my papers
we're taken out by some of my
friends and Mr.. Todd took his out
the same day. and they were both
circulated. Even thor rather than
cause any friction in the Office | went
to work and took my papers back.
Now then, Just because l did that
;he story somehow has been circu-
l"ted TINT | was under obligation to
Mr. Todd not TO run If he decided to
run. That story is of course without
foundation and / know you viii be-
lieve me when l say so. so will not
mention IL again. 1t was of course
poor politics on my part to do what
! did but then as you all know l.
am no politician. What / did | did
only out o. consideration for my
deputy 1t was of course quite
sacrifice to me to do il too, as this
POSITION means whole lot to me
Then after this | was continually be-
ing urged to take out my papers
again, and as my deputy also was
approached by good republicans. both
from town here, and from out of
town and given to understand that
the people seemed to want to give
me another term and asked to wait
until next time and that he would
have their support, then ! surely
expected him to do what would have
made everything nice for both of us,
so when my papers were asked for
again ] saw no reason why ! should
not let them be. signed up and
thus II happens that Mr.. Todd and
myself are running for the same
office. Those of you who ere acaaint-
ed with the facts before, know that
what / have said is the truth and
the others ] know. will believe it.
Now If you think am to blame Won
will OF course have to vote accord
ingly, only / must say that II
seems like pretty tough luck il am
going to lose any votes just because
was considerable enough to do what
! did do. l know myself. l was free
to run so my conscience shall not
bother me at all, and / believe you
are fair minded enough so that you
will not go against me on that ac-
count.
As far as my record here Is con-
cerned, l have nothing TO say. My
record is omen to all and I am not