Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1908 — ALL THE VOTES FOR CRUMPACKER [ARTICLE]

ALL THE VOTES FOR CRUMPACKER

No Other Candidate for Congress At Tenth District Convention At Michigan City.

The 10th district republican convention was held at Michigan City Mon- . day and was a very tame affair. Delegates were on hand from ail over the district, some of them expecting that there might be a little contest for j the nomination, for the omnipresent Nelson J. Bozarth, of Valparaiso, had 1 announced himself as a candidate and there had been some underground ’ rumbling of opposition to the con- ' tinued Crumpacker reign. And there were, it is understood, • several delegates at the convention who expressed a desire to vote Sop® some other man, but there was no other candidate except Bozarth, whom the delegates looked upon as somewhat of a joke, and about the only occurrence at the convention that enlivened things was the pursuasion of Bozarth to withdraw and to makejthe Crumpacker nominating speech. This was accomplished by some of the delegates telling him that they would secure him the nomination at the republican state convention for attorn- • ey general. And Bozarth swallowed the hoax and wrote out a resolution' for ■ the convention to endorse him for attorney-general, but when the resolutions were read the one endorsing Bozarth was not read.

Of course, there were many warm friends of Congressman Crumpacker at the convention and they far exceeded the number of those opposed to him and, in fact, the grounds of the opposition that is said to have asserted itself were generally founded upon failures to receive post-offices and for the most part his record in congress was not criticised.

One of the Rensselaer delegates who heard quite a little opposition exthey founded it, except that some people were still laboring under the impression that he dictated thf selection of the national delegates. And that is a very funny accusation to continue, for there was nothing .in ?h*t convention but a demand that the elected delegates vote for an admlnistratio'i candidate for president, after they were through with Fairbanks.

We do not aim to discredit the opposition to Congressman Crumpacker, for it has been growing from one cause and another and has taken a more tangible form within' recent months than ever before, and there is quite sure to be some formidable candidate against him for the nomination two years hence. And Mr. Crumpacker will be found to be prepared for it; if the writer is not mistaken, and if he is again a candidate as he probably will be, he will make any republican in the district hustle to defeat him. And he will come before his constituents with as clean a record of statesmanship as ever an Indiana congressman had. He will not point to his flowery speeches, and he will not be able to recall having startled the world with any evolution of the system of government, but he could bring the roll books of congress covering his seven terms and show an almost unbroken attendance and he could lay down the acts of congress covering the entire time and tell any one of his constltutents what the laws meant, which way he voted and why, and he could explain as probably no other member of congress of similar tenure of office could, the operation of each law and its strong and weak points. The writer has seen Congressman Crumpacker repeatedly In the House of Representatives and has observed that his opinion always carried much weight with them. There may be opposition to him and that Is all right, but it should be fair and should make bls opponent measure up to a high mark of possibility.