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Champ Clark's Washington Letter.
Hon Chan Clark, member of Congress for the Ninth Missouri district,
was born in Kentucky In 1850, and for twenty-two years held the record for
being the youngest college president In the United States. In his varied ca
reer he worked as a farm hand, clerked in a country store, edited a country
weekly and practiced law. He was permanent chairman of the National
Democratic Convention at St. Louis In 1904. He is now serving his sixth
term as a member of Congress.
The Democrats in congress are be
ginning to sit up and take notice. Al
ready Hon. Robert L. Henry, of Texas,
has notified all concerned that he will
not be a candidate for re-election as
chairman of the Democratic house
caucus, though the election in the reg
ular course of events will not occur
till next December. He has made a
most excellent presiding officer, grace
ful, courteous, firm, fair and prompt.
Had he desired the position for an
other term the chances are that he
would have met with no opposition
whatever. He is recognized as one of
tke ablest lawyers and one of the best
Democrats in congress.
On dit that he will be succeeded by
his bosom crony, Hon. Henry D. Clay
ton, of Alabama, also one of the ablest
lawyers and one of the best Demo
crats in congress. No doubt he will
7'nake a tiptop chairman of the caucus,
/ meh more important position than
1 t people suppose. At the next ses
-1 i there will in all human probabil-
B be much of political work and talk.
i me people may hold up their hands
< . holy horror at this statement, but
« is true nevertheless, and the politics
\ ill be both general and personal.
J That’s more, both parties will play
h he fascinating game for all it is
g mrth; hence the chairmanship of the
** caucus will be of prime importance.
An incompetent chairman can do
£jmuch to muddle things, whereas a
’incompetent one can accomplish much
in the way of harmony and wise ac
tion. As brother Clayton has had
large experience in both law and poli
tics, as well as in legislation, he ought
to make an ideal chairman.
The friendship between these two
splendid young Democrats is one of
the closest in the annals of congress,
rivaling that of David and Jonathan
or that of Damon and Pythias. It may
well be doubted whether the three
Washburn brothers who sat in the
same congress for Maine, Illinois and
Wisconsin were really fonder of each
other than Bob Henry and Henry
Clayton. They are both on the judi
ciary committee, one of the most im
portant in the house. They fight in
pairs and are inseparable companions.
To uso an old simile, “they are as
thick with each other as the Siamese
twins.” To use another expression
which some folks will understand,
“they are a good pair to draw to.”
They are not only well equipped men
tally, but are well set up physically,
being tall, strapping, big men of com
manding presence. Both have served
continuously in the house since the be
ginning of the fifty-fifth congress, and
both have been elected to the sixtieth,
so that while still in their prime they
are what Col. Charles Fremont Coch
ran, of St. Joseph, Mo., was wont to
denominate “old and experienced
members.”
Denatured Alcohol.
Alcohol has been making men drunk
so long that most people think that
that is its only function, when, as a
matter of fact, it can be made one of
the greatest industrial instruments
known among men. For purposes of
lighting, heating and driving machin
ery it has no competitor except elec-
and there is no way to repro
duce the coal consumed in generating
electricity, while there is no end prac
tically to the quantity of alcohol that
can be made and used industrially.
This is the only civilized country un
der the sun which has not for years
been using alcohol for the purposes
above mentioned. We have waked up
at last on the subject, and, overriding
the opposition of the wood alcohol and
coal oil trusts, congress at the last
session passed a law which will enable
the American people to catch up with
the procession. By a trip to Europe
for purposes of investigation Judge John
W. Yerkes, internal revenue commis
sioner, and Hon. Ebenezer Hill, repre
sentative from Connecticut, one of the
most industrious men living, discovered
several ways in which the original bill
could be improved, and they have em
bodied their ideas in a new bill which
will probably pass the house before
this letter is in print, because they
made their views so plain to the com
mittee on ways and means that there
will be no opposition to it on the floor
of the house, every feature of the new
bill making it easier for farmers to
make denatured alcohol.
The ordinary alcohol of commerce
must in this country be denatured for
two reasons —first, because the gov
ernment raises a quarter billion dol
lars per annum by the internal reve
nue tax on alcohol, not one dollar of
which the government officials think
can be spared; second, because de
natured alcohol cannot be used as a
beverage, being deadly poison, and
congress was unwilling to increase
drunkenness by making it easier to
procure intoxicants.
An amusing feature of the situation
is this: When at the last session the
bill was considered, the representa
tives of the wood alcohol trust made
long, learned and tear compelling ar
guments—that is, they would ( have
been tear compelling if anybody
had believed them —to show that the
denatured alcohol bill would utterly
destroy the wood alcohol industry.
Nobody with two ideas above a Hot
tentot believed any such stuff, because
wood alcohol is simply a by-product of
charcoal burning, so they were laugh
ed out of court, so to speak.
Here’s the sequel: Instead of de
stroying the wood alcohol industry,
new furnaces have been started in
which to burn charcoal, thereby mak
ing more wood alcohol and more ace
tate of lime, the two by-products of
charcoal making. Not only that, but
denatured alcohol having been on the
market since the first of the year at
about 33 cents per gallon the wood
alcohol trust reduced the price of
wood alcohol from 75 and 70 cents per
gallon to 45 and 40, which facts prove
beyond all question that their opposi
tion to the original denatured alcohol
bill at the last session was a bluff—
merely that and nothing more.
It will be remembered that when
Jim McKenzie, of Kentucky, had qui
nine placed on the free list, thereby
earning the sobriquet of "Quinine
Jim,” it was opposed on the ground
that it would put American manufac
turers of quinine out of business. In
stead of that, however, there is ten
times as much quinine manufactured
in America now as when there was an
' filfe WEEKLY TfeFFkfeSOWtAk.
exorbitant t on it, and all of it is
furnished 4 ' consumer at about
one-tenth or*-. . price at which It sold
before McKenzie got in his work.
Folks suffering from chills will pro
nounce “Quinine Jim” blessed. Per
haps the consumers of denatured alco
hol may sometimes think kindly of us
who have made it possible for them
to have an abundance of cheaper and
better light and fuel and who pulled
the fangs of the wood alcohol trust
and beat the Standard Oil in at least
one fight. Even if they forget us we
will all our days bear with us the
pleasing consciousness of having
fought a good fight.
Mr. Lamar’s Bill.
Representative William Bailey La
mar, of Florida, has ideas touching the
public weal which he is by no means
mealy mouthed about expressing. He
was attorney general of his state a
long time, and his experience in that
office caused him to study much con
cerning the proper treatment of public
service corporations, and he has re
peatedly stated his views on that sub
ject in most trenchant English on the
floor of the house. The conduct of Mr.
Justice Swayne of the Florida district
court caused Gen. Lamar to introduce
articles of impeachment against
Swayne into the house, and he was
tried upon them in the senate and ac
quitted, though many senators voted
for conviction. Lamar’s speeches in
the house against Swayne were as vig
orous as any heard within those his
toric walls for years.
Recently he has introduced a joint
resolution providing for the election
of federal judges and postmasters by
the people—that is, the country is to
be divided into nine districts to elect
nine justices of the supreme court
who before going on the bench was a
Some high and mighty corporation
ridden metropolitan papers refer to it
as Lamar’s “freak resolution,” which
will probably cause thousands of what
Lincoln called “the plain people” and
what Bryan denominates “the common
people” to favor the resolution. Those
who pester their heads about such
things will remember that one of
Thomas Jefferson’s criticisms of the
federal constitution was on the life
tenure of federal judges, a criticism
which experience proves to have been
grounded in wisdom. So that in his
resolution touching federal judges
Gen. Lamar finds himself in the excel
lent company of the great fonder of
Democracy. So far as the election of
postmasters goes, there is no earthly
reason against it except habit and
love of power.
In passing it may be apropos to
state that Gen. Lamar is a close kins
man to the late Justice Lamar, of the
supreme court of the United States,
who before going on the bench was a
representative and senator in congress
and secretary of the interior. He was
universally conceded to be one of the
ablest and most brilliant men of his
time —scholar, orator, philosopher.
With his fine figure, youthful face
and abundant hair, prematurely white,
Gen. Lamar is one of the most at
tractive figures in the house, no doubt
destined to a long and eminent ca
reer on the national stage.
Being a resolute man, he will press
his resolution for all it is worth. He
may fail to secure its passage, but
the chances are that he will expose
many abuses pertaining to our judi
ciary and postal systems.
A Courageous Arkansan.
It is said that all the world loves a
lover. It might also be truly said that
everybody admires a man of courage.
Such a one is Joseph Taylor Robinson,
representative from Arkansas. He is
a handsome, bright young man, only
thirty-five years old. He has a fine
future unless all signs fail. He does
not speak often, but when he takes
the floor he challenges the attention of
both house and galleries by the earn
estness and evident sincerity of his
remarks. When the bill to prevent
corporations from contributing to cam
paign funds was being discussed, he
made a splendid speech, from which I
make the following extracts, which I
am sure will interest my readers:
“I would like to see this bill amend
ed, if it were possible, so as to become
retroactive and provide that both po
litical parties should make an account
ing to the people of the United States
for the money which has been divert
ed and misappropriated during the
last national campaign. I would like
to see my friends of the other side of
this chamber come squarely up to the
rack and say to the people of the
United States that during the last
presidential campaign they took sev
eral hundred thousand dollars from
the widows and orphans of this coun
try whose ancestors had contributed
in the way of premiums to insurance
companies and misused them in ille
gitimate political expenditure and
that they are now willing to come up
to the altar of repentance and not only
do right in the future, but do right
by paying back what has been taken
from them wrongfully in the past.
"Mr. Speaker, it is an undisputed
fact today that some of the great cor
porations of this country, in order to
corrupt the electorates of this repub
lic, took from their treasuries in the
last national campaign many thou
sands of dollars. It is a fact that the
money had been contributed by men
who had desired to provide a means
of support and maintenance to their
widows and orphans when their strong
arms had been paralyzed by the power
of death. It is a fact, Mr. Speaker,
that evidence has disclosed indisputa
bly to the satisfaction of this body
that the money was improperly re
ceived and improperly expended, and
now today, in our desire to do right,
let us do the proper thing. Let the
secretaries and the chairmen of our
national committees make an account
ing that will show where we got the
money, from whom we received it and
how we expended it.
"Mr. Williams —‘Mr. Speaker, will
the gentleman from Arkansas permit
of an interruption?’
"Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas —‘Cheer-
fully.’
"Mr. Williams —‘Does the gentleman
from Arkansas not believe that with
his great power, Influence and popular
ity throughout this country one word
from the president of the United
States to the Republican national ex
ecutive committee would cause them
to refund to the widows and orphans
the money of which the trustees of in
surance companies robbed them dur
ing the last campaign?’
"Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas—‘Mr.
Speaker, I had hoped when I was in
terrupted by the reception of the mes
sage by the house that the message
was from the president of the United
States explaining all about this mat?
ter. In answer to the question of the
gentleman from Mississippi I will say
that it is a significant fact that the
chairman of the last national Repub
lican committee, who received these
funds, has been promoted in office,
but no accounting and no restitution
has yet been made or been asked for.
I think, Mr. Speaker, that It is also a
significant fact that, while the preei-