have been far more corrupt than in any other State in the Union, and they are rapidly growing more corrupt. The people of this State have endured what would not have been endured in New York, Philadelphia or even in Chicago. Our political debauchery arises largely from the fact that our ballot boxes, under the law, lock up the villiany of election thieves, and from the further fact that some of our highest officials refuse to do anything whatever to prevent frauds in our elections. The election of 1910 in Missouri was beyond cavil the most corrupt in the history of the world. It is safe to say that in this election more than 100,000 false votes were recorded, either by reason of fraudulent registration, the colonization of voters, the voting of ghost names or names of dead men, or falsely reading the votes of thousands of honest men. In the purification of the ballot box Woodrow Wilson appears as a profound reformer. He caused an election law to be passed in New Jersey which provides that in large cities there shall be registration. The man who registers is compelled to sign his name, and when he comes to vote he must again sign his name, and the judges compare the two signatures. If forgery of the first name is committed the forger is sent to the penitentiary. Such a law in Missouri would have prevented in 1910 the casting of over 100,000 fraudulent votes. The election law, whose passage Governor Wilson secured in New Jersey, also provides for the choosing of election officers from a list of candidates who have passed a civil service examination. Any man can see what a tremendous instrumentality for honesty this must be in a great city. Surely the satellites of the great trusts and corporations are wilfully misrepresenting the governor of New Jersey when they contend that he is not a profound and practical statesman. Our liberties depend upon the purity of the ballot box. It is being corrupted throughout America, though far more fearfully in Missouri than elsewhere. Beyond peradventure Missourians will not be averse to voting for a man for president who has both the courage and the ability to stand for honest elections. There could be no more important issue just at this time than the sixth one mentioned above, viz., the enforcement of the law. Good men who now behold the laxity of law enforcement and the increase of crime are trembling for the perpetuity of our institutions. They know that a reign of crime always ante-dates the downfall of a free government. Three of our presidents, Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, have been assassinated in a shorter space of time than any three of the tyrant rulers of Rome were assassinated during her darkest days. Since 1885 the population of the United States has increased in round numbers about sixty per cent. During this time murders have increased over five hundred per cent. Our great system of trusts is but a stupendous aggregation of petit larceny on a colossal scale. In such an hour men are crying out everywhere for the enforcement of the law. No man who has studied his history can doubt for a moment that Woodrow Wilson has both the courage and the ability to enforce the criminal laws of the land. Some men are wondering why Mr. Bryan has practically come out so openly in his preference for Woodrow Wilson for the presidency. When we pause and think a moment this is no matter for wonderment. Here are the great principles for which Mr. Bryan has stood for twenty years, and here is a man who can promulgate and defend these principles. I mean no disparagement to any person here, but the fact is that Mr. Wilson has given them as a teacher and a writer upon our system of government such long and profound thought that he is espousing these principles with marvelous clearness and ability. The Democracy of Missouri loves Wm. J. Bryan, and I am sure that every Democrat will pause to consider as to whether Wm. J. Bryan is not right in showing such decided preference for Woodrow Wilson. I am for Woodrow Wilson because he has overcome the most stupendous temptation presented to a public man in half a century. My friends your attention is called in this connection to that marvelous scene depicted in the New Testament where the devil takes the Christ up into an exceeding high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof, and says to Him, "All these I will give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." I am no theologian and I have had no time to consult commentaries or other authorities in my hurried trip through the State. To my mind this great scene is intended to typify the temptation that comes to human ambition. Men have filled the world with crime and bloodshed in the gratification of ambition. Jesus was not only a God, but He was also a man. The devil was appealing to one of the most powerful propensities in the human soul, namely, the thirst for power and glory which we call worldly ambition. The triumph of the Savior was intended as an example for others to follow when the powerful temptation comes to commit sin for the gratification of ambition. Jesus is not the only one to whom this awful temptation has come. It came to Alexander the Great, to Cæsar, to Charlemagne, to Napoleon, and they fell. It came to George Washington when the devil doubtless suggested to him that as the hero of the American Revolution with the army at his back, he proclaim himself a king. But he triumphed and returning his sword to Congress, retired like Cincinnatus to private life. As I contemplate the man I am now advocating in this behalf a remarkable scene rises before me. Three distinguished characters appear in the picture, Colonel Watterson, Colonel Harvey and a moneyless aspirant for the presidency, Woodrow Wilson. The words spoken are given by the first two persons named. Colonel Watterson says, "Governor Wilson, it is money, not patriotism, that counts in politics. You need a great campaign fund in your fight for the presidency." Colonel Harvey assents to this and suggests that a Mr. Ryan, who Wilson knows represents "The Interests," will collect the fund if Wilson will accept it. My friends, I know just what happened at that crucial moment. The devil never yet lost an opportunity. He conducts this moneyless New Jersey governor, who has his ambition and who thinks and contemplates like lightning, into an exceeding high mountain, and shows him all the great trusts, monopolies and special interests and the fifty billions of wealth which they possess, and he says to this governor, "The only act of worship which I require is to accept the gift which these men offer and the minions of these fifty billions of capital shall be at your service." But, thank Heaven, Woodrow Wilson, in humble imitation of the man Christ Jesus, cried out in substance, and, Colonel Watterson says, with "tyrannous" indignation, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." If there is a grander act in modern politics or patriotism, the eagle eye of history has not found it. I espouse the cause of the Governor of New Jersey because the criminal classes are against him. No offense is meant to any good citizen by this statement. It is admitted that there are good men who are against Woodrow Wilson. But beyond cavil the criminal classes are solidly against him. Every crook, thug, thief, grafter, boodler, burglar, highwayman, murderer and assassin is against him. They know he is a courageous man of lofty character who refuses to compromise with crime, and they hate him as the devil hates moral worth. They know he stands for the law and they hate and fear him as they hate and fear the law. Every corrupt political boss who has heard how he routed the bosses in New Jersey is against him. Every professional briber who debauches legislators, city councilmen and jurors, is against him. Every ward-healer who manufactures registration lists, stuffs ballot boxes, votes ghosts and forges election returns, is against him. Every corrupter and poisoner of the youth of the land is against him. Every despoiler of the American home is against him. Every man bent upon the destruction of our Christian civilization is against him. Every defender of governmental favoritism and of trusts and monopolies is against him. Every wicked mixer of watered stocks, the most nefarious device known to human ingenuity, for obtaining money by false pretenses, is against him. My friends, I know the enemies Woodrow Wilson has made and I love him because they hate him. And now, my fellow citizens, I close this impromptu speech as I began, by assuring you of my loyalty to my boyhood State. I believe I can truly say that my defense of her civilization and her noble people has been as intense and has covered as many years as that of any man living or dead. I believe I can say also that my reward has been far smaller in proportion to the labor expended, than that of any other man. This I regard, however, as to my credit rather than to my shame, for I have the consciousness of knowing that at least nine-tenths of my labor has been for my State and the chosen representatives of my party, rather than for myself. I am as loyal to Missouri now as when my sun stood in the early morning of life. In this presidential contest, I am for a Missourian above all others. In the delivery of the speech with which I have already trespassed upon your kindness and patience too long, I have been actuated by an intense desire to prevent Missouri's being delivered into the hands of her enemies in case her own favorite son, whoever he may be, shall go down at Baltimore. Woodrow Wilson's name is cheered in Missouri wherever I mention it. Beyond question he is the second choice of nineteen twentieths of the Democrats of this State, and Taft advocates and Roosevelt advocates throughout the commonwealth, are openly saying they will vote for him in case their favorite is not nominated. Clark men throughout Missouri assure me that ninetyfive per cent of the supporters of the illustrious Speaker of the House of Representatives, are for Woodrow Wilson for second choice, and they commend me for advocating him as such. One thing is certain, if by any sort of political legerdemain the candidate outside of our State, Governor Harmon, now positively known to be the choice of "The Interests," receives the vote of Missouri |