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JUNE 22, 1008
The Commoner.
7
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A Great Week in Kentuckey
THE PRIMARY PLEDGE
"Home Coming" in Kentucky was a great
occasion. During the week appropriate cere
monies were participated in at Louisville by
thousands o Kentuckians now living- in other
states as well as by thousands of the "homo
folks." On the opening day Henry Watterson,
editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, deliv
ered the following address of welcome:
"Once a Kentuckian, always a Kentuckian.
From the cradle to the grave, the arms of the
mother-land, stretched forth in mother-love tho
bosom of the mother-land, immortal as tho ages,
yet mortal in maternal affection, warmed by tho
rich, red blood of Virginia the voice of tho
mother-land, reaching the farthest corners of tho
earth in tones of heavenly music summon the
errant to the roof-tree's shade and bid the wan
derer home. And what wanderer was over loath
to come? "Whether upon-the heights of fortune
und fame, or down amid the shadows of the
valley of death and despair, the true Kentuckian,
seeing the shining eyes and hearing the mother
call, sends back the answering refrain:
" Whore'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee.'
Behold, in this great, exultant multitude, "the
proof!
"Kentucky! Old Kentucky! The very name
has had a charm, has wrought a spell, has made
a music, all its own; has woven on its Sylvan
loom a glory quite apart from the glory of Vir
ginia, Kentucky's mother, and the glory of Ten
nessee, Kentucky's sister. It has bloomed in all
hearts where manhood and womanhood hold the
right of way. The drama of the ages told in
pulse beats finds here an interlude which fiction
vainly emulates and history may not o'erleap.
Not as the Greek, seeking Promethean fire, and
the oracles of Delphos, nor as the Roman filled
with the joy of living and the lust of conquest;
not as the Viking, springing to the call of wind
and wave, nor as the Latin, neither as the Briton
and the Teuton, eager for mastership on land and
sea, the Kentuckian, whom we, in filial homage,
salute progenitor.' He was as none of these. Big
in bone and strong of voice the full-grown man
prefigured by the psalmist never the ocean mir
rored his fancies nor Bnow-clad peaks that reach
the skies inspired; but the mystery of strange
lands, the savagery of nature and the song of
the greenwood tree.
"The star that' shone above him and led
him on was love of liberty, the beacon of his
dreams, the light of the fireside. He cut a clear
ing in the wildwood and called it home. He read
not romance, he made it; nor poetry, he lived it;
his the forest epic, the Iliad of- the cane-brake,
the Odyssey of the frontier, the unconscious
prose-poem of the rifle and the camp, the block
house and the plow, the holy Bible, and the old
field school!
"Happy the man who sat in childhood upon a
well loved grandsire's knee, awed by the telling
of the wondrous tale; how even as the Dardanae
followed Aeneas, the Virginians followed Boone.
The route from Troy to, Tiber not wearier nor
flanked by greater hazard than that betwixt the
shores of the Chesapeake and the falls of the
Ohio; the mountains standing gorgon-like, across
the pathless way, as if defending each defile,
to hold inviolate some dread, forbidden secret.
THE OREGON ELECTION
Although -some republican leaders Insist that
the Oregon election was "a dog fall," the press
generally seems to regard the results as dis-'
tinctly favorable to the democracy. Pointing out
that some republicans contend that the election
of the democratic candidate for governor was
because of "his acceptance of Rooseveltian doc
trines," the Boston Herald says that this is "a
good augury" for the election of a democrat to
the White House in 1908. The Herald adds: "So
look out for paradoxes in politics in the next
presidential campaign.'-
Other editorial comments follow:
Indianapolis Star (Rep.): The republicans
of Oregon are reaping a bitter harvest from
the seeds of corruption that successive genera
tions of boodling bosses have planted in its civic
life.
Philadelphia Record (Ind.); It was notablo
that even the extraordinary popularity of Roose
relt did not avail to prevent a dwindling of re
publican majorities.
Scranton, (Pa.) Truth (Rep.): .Ordinarily
the state is republican, but the .conviction of Sen-
The wierd wastes of wilderness beyond; tho ford
less stream; the yawning chasm; the gleam of
the tomahawk and tho hiss of the serpent; yet
over onward, spite of the haunting voice of tho
element, stripped for tho death struggle with
man, spite of tho silence and the solitude, of re
luctant nature, like some fawn-eyed maiden, re
sisting his rude intrusion; ever onward; before
him the promised land of tho hunter's vision
in his soul the grace bf God, the fear of hell
and the love of Virginia!
God blesB Virginia! Heaven smile upon her
as she prepares to celebrate with fitting rite
three centuries of majestic achievement, the star
crown upon her brow, the distaff in her hand;
nor spot, nor blur to dim the radiance of her
shield!
"They came, the Virginians, In their home
spun quest of homes; tholr warrant, their rifles',
their payment the blood of heroes; nor yet for
getting a proverb tho ChineBo have that 'It needs
a hundred men to make a fortress, but only a
woman can make a home' for they were quick
to go back for their women; their wives and
their sweethearts; our grandmothers, who stood
by their side, beautiful and dauntless, to load their
fowling-pieces, to dress their wounds, to cheer
them on to battle, singing their simple requiems
over the dead at Boonesborough, and bringing
water from the spring at Bryan's Station, heart
broken only when the news came back from the
River Basin.
"I am hero to welcome you in the name of
all of the people of this lovely city, in the name
of all of the people.-of this renowned common
wealth, to welcome you as kith and kin; but you
will not expect me, I am sure, to add thereto
more than the merest outline of the history of
Kentucky, as it is -known to each and every one
of you, from the time when the pathfinders, under
the lead of Harrod and Henderson, of Boone and
Kenton, blazed their way through the forest, and
the heroes, led by Logan and Shelby, by Scott
and Clark, rescued the land from the savage, to
the hour which smiles upon us here this day;
a history resplendent with illustrious names
and deeds;- separating itself into three epochs
and many episodes and adventures, in woodcraft
and war-craft and state-craft; the period of the
Clays, the Breckinridges, and the Crittendens,
with its sublime struggle to preserve the union
of the states as it had come down to them from
the revolution, with always the Marshalls and
Wycliffes, the Boyles and the Rowans, the John
sons and the Browns, the Adairs, the Deshas and
the McDowells, somewhere at the fore 'Old
Ben Hardin' having a niche all to himself none
of them greater than he; the period of thd war
of sections, when even the Clays, the Crittendens
and the Breckinridges were divided, when for
a season the skies were hung in sable and all
was dark as night, the very sacrifices that had
gone before seemed to have been in vain, the
'dark and bloody ground' of barbaric fancy come
into actual being through the passions and mis
takes of Christian men; and finally, the period
after the war of sections, when the precept,
'once a Kentuckian, always a Kentuckian,' was
met by the, answering voice, 'blood Is thicker than
water,' and the Goodloes, the Ballards and the
(Continued on Page 14)
ator Mitchell and the two congressmen for com
plicity In land grant frauds was a severe handi
cap to the republican ticket.
Indianapolis News (Rep.): While .the elec
tion in Oregon does not indicate a revolution, It
does show democratic gains.
Florida Times-Union (Dem.): The voters of
Oregon evidently considered something besides
party lines.
Louisville (Ky.) Herald ,(Rep.) : Abroad and
active still is the independent voter. The Ore
gon election for governor and congressmen shows
his presence and power.
Birmingham (Ala.) Age-Herald (Demr): A
continuance of gainB will render the state safely
democratic in 1908. Public sentiment in national
matters is certainly in a shifting condition when
the democrats can re-elect a governor in a state
that gave Roosevelt 42,934 plurality.
Boston Advertiser (Rep.): It is true that
Oregon has been carried by the democratic can
didate for governor, even while the republican
congressmen have been elected just after the
public had been told repeatedly from Washing
ton that congress and the president were not in
general agreement.
As this copy of Tho Commoner may be read
by somo one not familiar with the dotails of tho
primary plodgo plan, it is necessary to say that
according to tho terms of this plan ovory donio
crat Is asked to plcdgo himself to attend all of
the primaries of his party to bo hold between
now and the next democratic national convention,
unless unavoidably prevented, and to secure a
clear, honest and straight-forward declaration of
the-party's position on every question upon, which,
tho voters of the party dosiro to, speak. .Thoso
desiring to bo enrolled can either write to Tho
Commonor approving the object of tho organlza
tion and asking to have their names entered on
the roll, or they can fill out and mail tho blank
pledge, which Is printed on page 12. ,
Eli Turner, Rcdkoy, Ind. Enclosed ploasa
find primary pledge with IJ5 signatures,
Jacob Myers, Grovor Hill, Ohio Herewith, I
.hand you five signatures to tho'Drimary pledge.
R. M. Brann, Anson, Tex. You will And en
closed primary pledge with 15 signatures.
Edmond Sapp, Newburg, .West Va. Eni
closed find following names signed to the pri
mary pledge. Please send each ; of them a copy
of Tho Commoner. I am still a .teffersonian dem
ocrat and intend to remain so. Please send me
another blank pledge.
Alexander S. White, Sidney, O. -Mr. Thomas
Brlggs who is and always has rbeon a very en
thusiastic Bryan man has secured the signatures
already of every democrat hero. There are not
many things I would not do to further thd
Interests of my country, but I think I could not
get any more signers here
J. M. Cain, Buffalo, W. Va. I will sond you
tho primary pledge with a few signers. If I had
Uie time, I could secure from fifty to one hun
dred good democrats, but I am preparing for
an examination and have not the time. I wiBh
you would send me three copies of The Com
moner explaining this organization.
M
SPECIAL OFFER-
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