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The Commoner.
VOLUME 'il, NUMBER 44
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William A. Oldfield of Arkansas
Savoyard, in Nashville, (Tenn.) Banner
This young man is possessed of schools in his boyhood he was gradu-
uncommon parliamentary talents.
With lino capacity for public speak
ing ho combines sterling common
sense, coaseloss industry, fixed prin
ciples and absolute candor,
averago woman would call
ated from Arkansas college at Bates-
ville, an institution equal to any in
the southwest. Then he studied law
and was called to the bar. He was
The state's attorney two terms and a
him 1 volunteer in the Spanish war, enllst-
handsomo. The average man neod ing as a private and mustered out
only look into thoso fine, steady,
wide-opon eyes to know him honest,
and thoso of us who have heard or
read his speeches in the national
legislature can vouch for his ability.
I know of no more promising man in
congress. He is only thirty-seven
years of ago, and this is only his
second congress, but he is a marked
man, and if Arkansas shall continue
to bestow on him her confidence he
will add luster to her name in prolific
abundance. All ho lacks is experi
ence and ho is big enough for several
terms in the senate.
Oldfield comes from the cotton and
corn region of White river.. I believe
that fine apple belt of the Ozarks
extends into his district. It is a
magnificent agricultural section and
there is found a splendid citizenship
a' gentry that is a yeomanry, and
a yeomanry that is a gentry the
pride and the glory of the old south,
that proved itself the finest sol
diery in the world on a hundred
gory fields. This Arkansas congress
man was born in 1874 in Izard coun
ly, and after attending the common
a commissioned officer. In 1908 he
was returned to congress from the
Second district, and two years later
he was re-elected.
The old fellows are gradually get
ting off the stage as is natural and
inevitable. Underwood, the minori
ty leader, was not born until Lin
coln had been president more than
a year. Ollio James, Ben Johnson,
Owsley Stanley, Swagar Shorley,
Finis Garrett, Claude Kitchln, Mor
ris Sheppard, Albert S. Burleson,
Robert L. Henry, William R. Smith,
Thomas U. Sisson, Robert S. Brous
sard, Edwin Y. Webb, Thomas W.
Hardwick and Benjamin G. Humph
reys are all young men all south
erners and Henry Clayton and
Carter Glass would have been easy
to tear under the wing only a short
while ago. Among these Oldfield is
of "the elite of the front rank."
Above all ho is a democrat of the
straigtiteot sect and can give you a
reason for the faith that he holds.
At the recent session, June 16, Mr.
Oldfield made a speech on the wool
1
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The subject matter of these speeches covers a wido rango. of topics,
from the fundamental and vital problems of national and world 11 'o to
the highest ideals of human endeavor. A handy means of rcferenco to
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schedule that commanded the atten
tion and extorted the admiration of
the entire house. No man could
have been delivered of that effort of
the subject after laborious research
into the history of the tariff and an
intelligent contemplation of the phi
losophy of it. The speech teems with
citations of democratic authorities on
the subject and, as was natural to
one unbiased by selfish considera
tions, Mr. Oldfield arrived to the
conclusion that relieving raw ma
terials from tariff duties is the begin
ning of sound democratic tariff re
I had never heard of Oldfield until
he made this speech, but when nu
merous democratic members called
my attention to it I got it and read
it, and then hunted up the man and
found him one of the most promis
ing .figures in public life. There is
no poppycock in the speech, no
scraping of the sky, no setting of
a chunk of fire to the Potomac river,
a body of water that thousands of
brilliant orators of congress have
found stubbornly recalcitrant and ill
manneredly non-combustible.
It was a plain speech, in terse
English without a flounce or fur
below, one that the ordinary citizen
can read, digest and assimilate. I
wish every cotton planter in the
south had heard Oldfield on the tariff
and I hope thousands of them will
read him. And right now when so
many southerners of the Bailey-Martin-Simmons
type are striving to
make a bed for protection to lie on
down south it is in order to read
President Jefferson Davis' book in
which he shows how sorely the tariff
oppressed the south for the aggran
dizement of the manufacturing com
munities of the north. He was
speaking of ante-bellum times, when
protection was moderate and com
paratively decent. Since the war the
tariff has cost the cotton planters
billions that might have been in
vested in railroads and other inter
nal improvements. And there are
southern statesmen whose efforts
are to perpetuate the enormity.
Since delivering his speech on the
wool bill Mr. Oldfield has written
and caused to be printed a catechism
on the tariff that is calculated to
make the subject clear to the weak
est understanding. It ought to be
put in the Congressional Record for
gratuitous distribution, and I doubt
not it will be, for to my mind it Is
conclusive of the subject. Here is a
quotation:
After citing Roger Q. Mills, Wil
liam L. "Wilson, William R. Morrison,
oonn u-. uarusie, Benton McMillin,
Clifton R. Breckenridge, Roswell P.
Flower, Isham G. Harris, Z. B.
Vance, Daniel W. Voorhees, James
B. Beck, Richard Coke, John H.
Reagan, Grover Cleveland and Wil
liam J. Bryan as democrats who fa
vored free raw materials, he gave
the following republicans as favor
ing duties on raw materials: John
Sherman, Thomas B. Reed, Julius C.
Burrows. Sereno E. Payne, President
Taft, John Dalzoll, Albert J. Hop
kins, James S. Sherman, Reed Smoot,
Henry Cabot Lodge, Joseph G. Can
non, Nelson W. Aldrlch, Boles Pen
rose, Simon Guggenheim, Isaac
Stephenson and William Lorimer.
men no propounds this question:
'Can you give any particular in
stance of any of the distinguished
republicans you have just named ex
pressing opposition to free-raw-materials?"
Answer: "Yes. John
Sherman, ,in his book entitled, 'Forty
Years in the House, Senate and Cabi
net,' says: "The dogma of some
manufacturers that raw materials
should be admitted free of duty is
far more dangerous to the policy of
protection than the opposition of
free trade, etc.; a denial of protec
tion on coal, iron, wood, or other
raw material will lead to the denial
of protection to machinery, to tex
tiles, to pottery and other indus
tries.' "
Exactly. There is the whole case
expressed by the clearest head for
economics the republican party produced.
Keep your eye on Oldfield.
one of the elect.
He is
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FURS
BRYAN VS. UNDERWOOD
Newport (Ark.) Herald: Some
of the newspapers having- a circula
tion among democrats in the agricul
tural parts of the country, and sup
ported by those who believe in and
trust Bryan's disinterested and pa
triotic leadership, seem to desire to
take up the cudgel in behalf of
Underwood and are inclined to harp
at Bryan's position on the iron and
steel tariff reduction proposition.
While fostering in full the denuncia
tion of Bryan by Underwood on the
floor of the house as a falsifier
naming the Nebraskan an uglier
word and with apparent approval,
why did they not also publish Under
wood's failure to carry out the plan
of the really rock-ribbed democrats
who believe in tariff for revenue
only? Why did not these papers
publish the proceedings of the demo
cratic caucus of July 25? On that
day, on the resolution, Speaker
Clark himself introduced, calling on
the committee on ways and means, of
which Underwood is chairman, to
report bills revising, the iron and
steel schedule and measures revising
all the other schedules.
Underwood and his followers com
pletely downed Clark and adopted a
resolution that they would not pass
any more bills revising the tariff
after the cotton bill was acted upon.
Underwood has declared that all his
money was tied up in the steel busi
ness. At the organization of the
house Bryan opposed Underwood be
ing put forward as has been said,
because of his connection with steel,
and it proves now that private in
terests often control in the discharge
of a public duty. Would any ono
advocate the right of a judge to sit
In judgment in his own case, of a
juror to return a verdict when he
himself was being tried? We think
not. Why can not these papers be
simply fair to Bryan' and give the
whole facts and show the reason and
origin of Bryan's just criticism of
public servants? So, they want the
"interests" to be let alone, they wish
to see Bryan eliminated-; they have
always opposed him and now are.
They call him a dictator, a failure
and a "butter-in." But when have we
seen any reason given or any at
tempt made to explain why they de
sire to be rid of him, his advice or
influence. They say he has ran for
the presidency three times and has
been defeated. Because of his de
feat for office is that just grounds
for their manifest desire to drive him
from the party councils and the
party's faith? They gladly heralded
the "news" that Bryan was not in
dorsed by the Nebraska state conven
tion but if any one .will read the
resolutions that convention adopted
he will inevitably conclude that it
was the greatest, indorsement Bryan
could possibly desire. The national
platform of 1908. was indorsed and
Bryan wrote it. The resolutions say:
"It was the voice of -Nebraska that
pleaded persistently -and in the face
df great -discouragement, for the
election of senators byithe people,
for the income tax, for the tariff re
vision in the interest of the con
sumers, for the free listing of tn
MOthstommm
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