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The Commoner.
VOLUME 9, NUMBER 47
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ONE OF THE saddest stories ever written re
lates to the death of one of America's great
statesmen, Congressman David A. De Armond
of the Sixth Missouri district. Fire destroyed
the congressman's home at Butler, Mo., and ho
died while engaged in a fruitless effort to save
the life of his little grandson. An Associated
Press report of the tragedy said: "The heroism
of the congressman was made known late this
afternoon, when, with his arms locked around
the blackened and burned body of the little boy,
the congressman's body was found. He "had
caught up the six-year-old lad, David A. De
Armond, Jr., and rushed through the flames
that filled his room. He fell with his uncon
scious burden and both sank to the floor to quick
death. "What makes the tragedy unusually pa
thetic is the fact that the grandson was the
grandfather's idol. The two were inseparable
and often slept together. Last night the boy
went to his grandfather's house, as usual, and
after a happy evening the two retired. The next
the family heard of them was early today, when,
from behind the 'smoke and flames that envel
oped the house, the boy screamed: 'Oh, grand
pa, get mo out of here quick; I'm burning to
death 'Yes, son; don't be afraid; grandpa'll
take you out,' was the calm reply. Then both
wont down to their death. The remainder of
the family stopping in the house at the time
of the lire Mrs. De Armond, her daughter, Mrs.
Clark, and Miss Nettie Boles were greatly
shaken by their experiences."
THE NAME of David A. De Armond might
well be called a household -word so far as
American democrats are concerned. Referring
(ax,-. - - -if1jijMJa.xoiAjx.oTai tUo-AnaucmtTsa'NpYtjaH says.
"David De Armond was first elected to the house
of representatives from the Sixth congressional
. district of Missouri Jn 1891 and served contln
, uously. He was one of the best known mem
bers, of the lower house at Washington and
had occupied other positions of prominence in
- his state. He wag a democrat, and in addition
to his political prominence was a well known
lawyer: He was born March 18, 1844, in Blair
county, Pennsylvania. His early life was spent
on his father's farm,' receiving his education in
the common schools and at "Williamsport Dick
inson seminary. In his young manhood he
practiced law in Butler, Mo., and in 1884 was
named a presidential elector. Ho held succes
sively the positions of state senator, circuit
judge and Missouri supremo court commissioner.
- His. entry into congress was in 1891, when he
was made a representative in the Fifty-second
congress, and was re-elected to each succeeding
congress, including the Sixty-first."
THE WASHINGTON correspondent for the
Associated Press says: "In Mr. De Armond
the democrats lose one of their leaders on the
floor of the house. A member of that body for
the last nineteen years, and a man of education,
wide experience and fluent speech he had be
come one of th,e principal resources of his party
in all discussions of national questions. He
made a specialty of labor subjects, but was never
at a loss in handling almost any question. Mr.
De Armond haajbeeon the bench before com
ing to congress,, and he naturally gave much
attention to judicial -subjects. He was a mem
. ber of the committee on judiciary and had held
- that post for many years. Previous to the pres-
nt congress, he also was a member of the com
. mittee on rules, but the selection of his col
league, Champ Clark, as a minority leader, ren
dered it necessary to place Mr. Clark on that
committee, which had tho effect of displacing
Mr. De Armond, as two could not be appointed
from the same state. While Mr. De Armond
will be long remembered for his brilliant oratory
and his power of sarcasm and capacity for invec
tive, he also will long be known on account of
his qualities as a party fighter. Inclined to be
pugnacious, he often pleaded subjects as an
aggressor rather than, as a defendant. This
quality of mind was the means of getting him
into a personal altercation two years ago with
John Sharp WUliams, who was then the demo
cratic leader of the house. The difference be
tween them arose over Mr. Williams' designa
tion of a Missouri colleague of Mr. De Armond s
for a place in the organization of the Sixtieth
congress. They came to blows, but both being
lightweights neither was badly hurt. Mr. De
Armond was an aspirant for the leadership of
the house, but tho recognition of Mr. ClaTk
effectually cut him out of that position."
THE OMAHA World-Herald pays, to the late
David A. De Armond, this well deserved
tribute: "The shocking death of Congressman
De Armond', burned to death at night in his own
home, will cause grief everywhere, but nowhere
will the sense of affliction be so keen as among
those who knew and admired Judge De Armond
for what he was, a good man, a true patriot,
and a brave and devoted champion of truth. It
is a serious loss to the country when, with the
forces of greed and the forces of righteousness
about to face each other in an important ses
sion of congress, so able a champion of the right
as David A. De Armond is suddenly swept from
the lists forever. De Armond was a man of
scholarly attainments and statesmanlike quali
ties. For a good many years he was recognized
as one of the strong men of the house and a
democratic leader whose courage never faltered
and whoso devotion knew no swerving nor turn
ing back. He was a democrat without taint or
flaw; truo to the principles of his great party
because he believed In them, and believing in
them, because he had so thoroughly mastered
and grasped their meaning. Though he was not
imposing in appearance and though his voice
was weak, he was a master in debate, thanks
to his wide information, his learning, his keen
tfud fccUYer-mliid and a gift for incisive, heart
felt sarcasm. He will be "missed, oh the fioor
of the house this winter, hot alone by the demo
cratic minority, but by all republican members
who, because of their insurgency, had a kindred
feeling for this plain, old-fashioned Missouri
democrat. He will be missed by his straight
out political opponents, who had a healthy re
spect for his prowess no less than for his simple
integrity. But he will be missed most of all
by his country, which can ill afford to spare from
congress at this juncture a friend of popular
rights so devoted and splendidly equipped as he."
TP. O'CONNOR, In a special article written
for the Chicago Tribune, declares that
the British budget is a revolt from landlordism;
that the English people now see a chance for
breaking the system which oppresses them and
that the budget is opposed by' wealthy men,
liquor dealers and high tariff advocates. Mr.
O'Connor says: "To illustrate the great tide
of passion which surges behind tho budget of
Lloyd-George, I must give a personal impres
sion'. It may be familiar to some of your read
ers. There is no lovlier or more entrancing suc
cession of scenes than those on which the eyo
falls as the traveler, returned from the con
tinent of Europe, rushes in tho train from Dover
to London. For mile after mile you look out
on stretching fields of dazzling emerald green;
immemorial elms colored by the rays of the set
ting sun give you a strange and potent impres
sion of the age, the splendor and tho beauty of
English life and history; the red bricked house
stands out in relief from this gigantic maze of
green; you realize all tho centuries of struggle,
of tranquility, of patient work, of ordered gov
ernment, of progressive civilization which Ho
behind a nation, that can thus reveal to the
world miles upon miles of land cultivated to
the softness, to the prettiness, tho regularity of
a garden. And then suddenly there comes upon
you another thought. You bathe your yes in
the beauty of that wondrous landscape and
sink back in your seat in tho languorous peace
of satisfaction until suddenly you jump up with
a start, and remember that you see everything
in the landscape but the human face and the
human home. For these succeeding miles of
uninterrupted green are mostly a silent solitude.
Th houses come but rarely at long intervals;
the figure of a man or woman or young boy
or young girl which now and then you see
crossing through tho path in the fields rather,
Intensifies the sense of the loneliness of tho
land. And then you realize that England is
not the land, as France is, aB Ireland is be
coming, of hundreds of thousands of small peas
ant homes, but the land where tho few own the
soil and tho many are banished from it. And
then all that bewildering and intoxicating beauty
of the English landscape presents itself to you
under a different aspect. Perhaps the best epi
tome and figure of your sensations is a lovely
English rose with a crawling worm inside its
beautiful and delicate petals. That bit of Eng
land sums up the land question. Today, as
within a few years of th Norman conquest in
th eleventh century, the land is in the hands
of a few great families. What was not given
to the English nobleman by the Norman con
queror was conferred on him by Henry VII when
the lands of th old monasteries were confiscat
ed. Everything in English life and English
legislation has been contrived to perpetuate that
state of things, the law of primogeniture beg
garing all the rest of th family by giving tho
land entirely to th eldest son; the social dis
tinction which the possession of the land brings;
th control of one great house of the two houses
of the legislature by the men belonging almost
exclusively to these great families. All theso
things combine to keep the land over vast spaces
still in the hands of a few men. And no amount
of reasoning, no facts, however tragic, havo
seemed able up to the present to produce any;
serious chang in this ancient system. The vil
lage is deserted, and lusty country lads who
ought to be singing behind th plow are drudging
in the slum and alley of the congested English
city. But th ancient land system persists; tho
English rose still carries in the bosom of its
petals the cancerous worm of land monopoly."
ACCORDING TO Mr. O'Connor: "The land
lord party, powerfully represented in tho
house of commons, in the press, especially of
London, where it is now almost entirely in their
hands; in exclusive control of the house of lords,
where it counts something like 560 members
against forty liberals, backed up by some rich
liberals who have been frightened; the land
lords, I say, regard the proposals of this budget
as a fatal blow at their prestige, their property;
and their power. The wealthy and powerful
liquor interest rages against the budget as
fiercely, and some of the big taxes on income
and inheritance have exasperated the capitalist
classes. All these threatened and infuriated in
terests now concentrate their hopes on the houso
of lords. A final and also most potent factor
are the protectionist or tariff reformers, as they
are called. They also wish to precipitate an
election; regarding the budget as a deadly blow
at their hopes of framing a protectionist budget
when they get into power. In something like
ten days from this day the issue will be finally
knit. Either the house of lords will then have
accepted or rejected the budget. If their de
cision be rejection you will see. in England an
' epoch more excited, fiercer, more embittered,
more epoch making than for almost a century.
I will discuss next week the probabilities of tho
mighty struggle which has now apparently be
come inevitable between the classes and tho
masses in England."
RAYMOND PATTERSON, for many years
Washington correspondent for the Chicago
Tribune, died recently. Public men of all
parties paid high tribute to Mri Patterson and
the Chicago Tribune itself printed this fine edi
torial: "Yesterday morning there died in Wash
ington the dean, the head of the corps, of Amer
ican political correspondents. But ho was moro
than that. He was a delegate at large at tho
capital for half a dozen states. He was a jour
nalistic ambassador accredited to the govern
ment at Washington not only by the constituency
which followed him and which supported him
through th Tribune, but by an even wider
constituency, which found his opinions reflected
in the columns of hundreds of other newspapers
throughout the country From the time, fifteen
years ago, fallen Raymond first went to Washing
ton in the energy of his young manhood ana
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