Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1908 — TOUCHED MY SOREST SPOT [ARTICLE]

TOUCHED MY SOREST SPOT

I WWW When Robertson Accused this Editor of Holding a “Fat” Goverment Position. a The-editor of. the Republican came, in for an awful drubbing last week at the hands of the erratic Willie Robertson, who runs or runs at the Fowler Republican. Willie accuses us of being , a Crumpacker pup and of doing everything that the 10th district congressman wants done that is in the possibility of an infantile canine. He bases -his assault on the recent remarks that his paper made about the Rensselaer convention, in which we both withheld the congressman in anything he did or has been, accused of doing in connection with the selection of delegates to the national convention that were pledged to support an administration candidate.

As we have said before, and the truth of the statement can not be gainsaid, there was only one thing at issue at the Rensselaer convention, and that was whether the delegates chosen were for an administration man after the Fairbanks bubble had been busted or not. The delegates wanted an administration delegate and they were in a postion fa control the situation. George Ade early announced that he was sincerely an administration man, and later said that he desired to voice at the convention the will of his district and would do it if he had gumption enough to ascertain what that was and that he thought he had. Will Wood was a part of the state machine that in the most underhanded way sought to get the delegateship in order to defeat the Taft movement in Indiana. It is well known that the purpose of the Fairbanks campaign is to either win or to pass the ardent Fairbanks delegates over to some one else that is acknowledged to be entirely antl-admlnistrAtion. Will Wood was a part of this arrangement and possibly quite sincerely a part Of it. At least he was honest in it, for he refused, to bear the will of his constituents to the convention, but it looked when the convention , was over that he regretted that he had been so honest, for he alleged cprrupt methods on the part of Congressman Crumpacker, when that gentleman had no idea of what was going on, and when Mr. Wood did know that had he been willing to say to those whom he wished to elect him that he ifauld serve them as a messenger be could have been elected.

The papers opposed to Mr. Crumpacker are thoroly Justified in criticising him on any matter where he Is wrong, but there was no room for attack so far as the Rensselaer convention was concerned. It bounds amusing te hear any person talk about holding of a fat job in Washington thru the influnce of a member of congress, for there are no jobs below those of assistant secretaryships that are 4°t covered by civil service regulations, and the writer to secure his appointment was required to make an. eligible grade by examination and then await an appointment, which came only-after every competitor Id the United States with a higher grade had been appointed. We were under no obligations to s(r. Crpmpacker further than that he informed us of the correct proceeding to secure the examination papers and what might be expected after the examination was taken. As to the fat job, I arrived at the conclusion soon after I arrived in Washington that the Usher of a country newspaper, with all the dlffculUes of financiering such a ship was in clover compared to the government employee/ and the words of Champ Clark, of Missouri, when he prefaced an article in the Saturday Evening Post “Abandon hope all ye who enter here,” were so impressed upon me that as J glanced about I saw only a small per cent who had not abandoned hope and who simply clung on to what they had

with leach-like grip and afraid of the world and its cruel ways, and sought only to retain what they had, and that was to hasp their jobs. It exemplied the old saying, “Office holders seldom die and never resign.’’ Personally I determined that while the spark of ambition was still alive I WM going to pet back to tie people, or as Eugene Ware said when he quit the pension deparment, ‘‘back to nature's heart.” fio when a person says fat Job and the like as regards my employment in Washington, I feel like raising a bowl. I am bound by no obligation to JudgeCnimpacker, and I am in ■ position to .criticise him as freely as any newspaper in the district, but It is disgraceful to employ the tactics of either Robertson or Stonehll) to do it Judge Crumpacker has represented this district for more than 12 years and aside from post-office disappointed constituents he has made few enemies. Let us not howl down a man for small offences; let us rather bd detent even if, as in Robertson’s case it is unnatural and awkward, and give every one a square deal.