Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1912 — HAIL COLONEL AS NEXT PRESIDENT [ARTICLE]

HAIL COLONEL AS NEXT PRESIDENT

Roosevelt Almost Overwhelmed as He Reaches Chicago. MAKES SPEECH FROM AUTO Declares He Is Glad to Return to City Because It Is to Attend Birth, Not Death of ’ Party.

(Chicago, Aug. 6.—Theodore Roosevelt was given a greater demonstration on his arrival in Chicago than was ever before accorded him In this city. Long before the Twentieth Century limited pulled hfs car into the LaSalle street station the streets and the depot were crowded by thousands of enthusiasts. , When the colonel stepped from the car a wave of cheering, with cries of “Our next president,” surged through the railroad station to Van Buren street and thence toward the Congress hotel, to which Colonel Roosevelt was driven.

Wears Gray Sombrero. Frack H. Funk, Progressive nominee for governor of Illinois, seized the colonel by one arm as he alighted from the car; the 1 colonel’s secretary, Frank Harper, took his place at the other side, and a flying squadron of Chicago police opened a passage through the gathering which had bioken through the line formed by the railroad guards. As Colonel Roosevelt progressed he waved a gray sombrero to the various crowds which became the centers of new outbursts of applause. Along the route to the hotel the applause was continuous. In front of the Congress hotel, where another great crowd had assembled, Colonel Roosevelt made the first speech of the present visit Standing in his automobile he said: Comes to Birth, Not Death. “I am very pleased to be with you in Chicago again, and this time at the birth of a party, and not at the death of one. I am convinced that the people will not stand for the convention of seven weeks ago, especially as It was against the interests of the people. By November the men nominated at that convention will not be a factor in the race.

“The days of the corrupt political boss and the crooked financier who stands behind the boss and the newspaper owned by the boss and financier are over. “The channels of information have been choked by the opponent of popular government in the effort to prevent the people from finding out what we stand for. I Intend to see that the facts are known, and that the people find out what this movement really is, and decide for themselves what their government shall be.” Colonel’s Rooms Changed. Once In the hotel, Colonel Roosevelt’s rooms, had to be changed on account of the crowd of visitors. He was finally settled in suite 1,248 and a cordon of police and undersecretaries was stationed to keep away the insistent people. Mrs. Roosevelt accompanied her husband to Chicago, as she did at the June convention of the Republican party.