Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1910 — ABOUT TWELVE HUNDRED HEARD SENATOR DOLLIVER. [ARTICLE]

ABOUT TWELVE HUNDRED HEARD SENATOR DOLLIVER.

lowan Mildly Insurgent and Optimistic Delivers One of Ablest Speeches Ever Heard in County. Senator Dolliver don’t think that the United States has gone to the perdition bow wows, and he don’t think that because there have been exposures of graft and corruption that everything is wrong. He looks to the future with optimistic views and considers the exposures of the present an assurance that the people are standing together as they have never stood together before for righteous government, the exposure of everything that is wrong and the greatest precaution in the selection of men of true worth for positions of trust. In a masterful speech that lasted almost two hours at Fountain Park Thursday afternoon he held an audience of obout 1,200 in wrapt attention. Senator Dolliver did not make an out and out Insurgent speech and yet, carefully considered, it might be considered insurgent throughout, for in every respect.it met up with his hopes Of purification in public and private life and the quickening of the national conscience in all matters of right and justice.

Senator Dolliver introduced hip remarks by saying: “I am not here to introduce contention either theological or political, but to talk to you about some things of which I have been thinking about a good deal and about which you doubtless have been hearing and reading about a great deal, and I want to be frank enough to say that I do not care whether you agree with me or not. There 4s abroad in this land a sort of depression of mind and heart, as people look at the difficulties that surround us as we try to find our way out ot the wilderness and they think there l is a treason against general welfare greater than the forces that work for the common good, but they are wrong and I do not believe that any person has lost faith and that considers everything unclean and dishonest can render any real service to his day and generation. They are mistaken about the matter and the evil things they think they see are the best evidence that there was never a reriod when there was more cause for encouragement and good cheer than there is today. I {have been thinking that Alexis de Tocqueville, the French statesman and publicist, who visited America for several months and spent most of his time at the dinner table, is probably responsible for the unfavorable comparison that some people of this period make between conditions how" and in 1835. Tocqueville returned to France and wrote a book that claimed that the United States had an absolutely honest government, with officials throughout that had naught but the public welfare at heart, absolutely honest and returning faithful service as a patriotic duty at small salaries. I want to show to you today that Tocqueville was deceived and that his work is a deception to all who read it, for, having some doubt as to the credulity of his work, I have made some investigations on my own behalf that leads me to believe that the government is purer today than it ever was before and that the people propose to make it better yet. I went to the office of the secretary of the treasury and asked permission to consult some of the public documents of that period about which Tocqueville wrote proclaiming a period of moral perfection. At that time the land office was managed by the secretary of the treasury or through that office and I had not spent two hours there when I found Just what I wanted, positive proof of the worst sort of corruption in 1835. A special commission had been appointed to look up all defalcations in the land office and this commission had reported in this document, which I am going to read, in relation to one of the receivers for the land office. The report says: ‘The books of the receiver indicate a defalcation of >264,000, while the receiver seems to admit a shortage of $253,960. This man seems to have been led astray by the example of his predecessor and he seems really penitent. A certain looseness in the code of morality of the time doubtless con-

tributed to his downfall and another receiver would probably follow in the footsteps of the two. Instead of reccommending that he be removed, we recommend that he be retained as he now has his hands full and will not be disposed to steal any more.’ “ Senator Dolliver thought that Tocqueville had overlooked a good many things of this kind that existed in 1835 and stated that a comparison bv any student would show that the evils now were much less than they were during that period. The abolition of the army canteen, thc.l>assage T of_th ( ejen}p_lQyeis’ liability law, the passage of the pure food law were all discussed as showing a gradual rise in moral conditions. He stated that recent legislation had been passed that a few years ago no member of congress dared to mention, byt that now, with the assurance that the people of the country without regard to politics are for the right; against the wrong, a thing that at one time seemed doubtfdl. He spoke of the removal of the saloons from the two wings of the United States capitol and stated that when he first entered the hquse of representatives twenty-five years ago he saw members of congress reeling drunk on the floor of the house, but that such scenes do hot occur now.

He lauded Senator Beveridge for bis effort in behalf of the passage of a law to protect the children of the land and to take them out of the sweat shops and place them in the schools. He said that this matter should be the uppermost in the mind of every citizen and it was now regarded as the most important thing confronting congress. Senator Beveridge was the man to introduce it in the senate of the United States and he should have the support of the people in seeing his effort through. Senator Dolliver said, “It is time to act together, think together, vote together without fear, without shame and without reproach. This is not a period as a correspondent wrote me, of ‘active private interests and somnolent people,’ but, while the interests are active, the people are awake and they are going to stay awake until the special legislation against the people is a thing of the past. We are not always able to escape the shrewdness of private interests, but we must be thinkers and must vote for men who have not. "deceived us.” He related how his father in his early days placed a $2,000 mortgage on his 400-acre Virginia farm inorder to send his sons to college at Morgantown, and how the panic of 187? resulted in a condition that made payment impossible and a hard hearted banker foreclosed and took the security farm, a thing which he says is impossible jin this day, because if the security is adequate there are plenty of good men that will come to the assistance of a good man in financial distress.

“I have always aimed to show that there is no occasion for alarm, for instead of going backward we are going forward toward a period of purer government and the exposures and punishment is a proof of a demand for purity that previously did not exist. This is a period of mutual confidence, mutual helpfulness, that has been born into society and is marching on to victory. You and I can aid it and it is our duty to do it. Don't be depressed for you can only be of service when you have confidence that the right will prevail. Peroration the senator summed up his argument with bright hopes and buoyant language and closed with an eloquence that brought the audience to long applause. It was a great speech and should have been heard by many more people.

The roads are now in fine shape, the park is a pleasant place and any day can be agreeably spent there. Miss Lamkin’s work with the children is very satisfactory and enjoyed by the old as well as the little folks. The Sunday program is a good one and the park will probably have a great audience on that day.

The Monticello band played fine music Thursday, giving a concert before the speech. The following from Rensselaer heard the address: J. P. Hammond, William Washburn, J. E. Duvall, G. E. Murray, B. S. Fendig, G. H. Healey, George Pumphrey, Mrs. Grace Pumphrey and son, Mrs. C. W. Hanley and sons Cope and Emil, Miss Blanche Babcock, Geo 'W. Hopkins, Fred Phillips, J. H. S. Ellis, A J. Bellows and wife, Ed Rapdie and wife, George W. Bond and wife, Frank Morrow, V. J. Crisler, and J. D. Allman.