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The Commoner.
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The Five Passions of Ollie James
It is hard to concoivo that a man with tho
namo of Ollie should have any passions worth
mentioning. But it Is also hard to realize that
any ono of that name can be six feet six inches
in height and weigh 275 pounds. Ono could
understand it if the namo were turned round.
James (or Jim) Ollio could well bo big and
bouncing and go into politics; but Ollie James!
Woll, it simply shows how lavish Kentucky Is
In raising big men when even an Ollie is made
on such a generous scale. Even Kentucldans,
however, couldn't quite reconcile themselves to
that name as tho youngster who bore it began
to expand in all directions. So down in his home
town of Marion they long ago began to call him
"Whltoy" James and they keep it up to this day.
"Ollie," says a writer in the Saturday Evening
Post, "a tender diminutive rhyming with Cholly
and Molly, and you expect to see a slender and
bandboxy person, perfumed and pompadoured.
You expect to seo that, but do you? You do not;
take it from me, you do not. What you do see is
a large and robust Kentucky citizen, half a foot
over six feet, with shoulders a yard across,
weighing two hundred and seventy-five pounds,
with a big head on a big neck, with arms that
look as if they could out-squeeze a cotton com
press and with legs that weigh, apiece more
than any Cholly over cholled, concluding in
pedestals amply constructed to bear their bur
den. Tis he Ollie; the pride and joy of the
Blue Grass, the mighty mountain of Marion, the
peerless peak of tho Pennyrilo."
Ho is not only big but he seems even bigger
than ho is. Another writer Insists that he is
seven feet high and six feet wide. "To say that
he is as big as tho side of a house does not
describe him at all," we are told; 'Jhe is as big
as the side of a sky-scraper."
"He is not fat, he is just broad and big. He
has the face of a prize-fighter and a voice that,
when ho lets it out to the last notoh, sounds
like the battle of Bunker Hill. He is probably
the best stump-speaker in the democratic party.
As an orator he Is a cross between Bryan as he
was when he delivered the Cross of Gold speech,
and Robert G. Ingersoll as ho was when he de
livered the Plumed Knight, speech. That is, he
has Ingersoll's way of bringing out a felicitous
phrase coupled with Bryan's tricks of manner of
voice not the Bryan of today, but the Bryan of
1896."
A. big man like that has to have big paBslons
of some kind to keep him going. Otherwise he
Just lolls around in the house and makes a
nuisance of himself. Ollie James is credited with
five passions by his numerous biographers. One
Is for baseball. He no longer runs bases, and he
never did run them very well. All he did was to
take three steps and then slide, and there he
was. But even that he has long since cut out.
Now he roots, and he does it with his arms and
legs as well as his megaphone voice. He is said
on good authority to be the noisiest rooter in
Marion, if not in Washington.
His second passion developed about the same
time as the first. It is a passion for sorghum
molasses and smoked hams. He once carried
a tin-pail of tho molasses all the way from his
home in Kentucky to Washington to present it
to Mrs. Champ Clark, and we don't know how
many Kentucky haras ho has sent to friends in
Washington. His father who is still living
Attends personally to the smoking of these hams
find uses, it is said, sassafras wood instead of
hickory, thus giving the meat a peculiar aro
matic flavor.
The third of "Ollie's" passions is for a horse
race. As he is a Kentuckian, you would, of
course, have guessed that. He not only loves
a horse-race, but he loves to bet on it, "Loves
to," wo say; whether ho does actually bet, de
ponent saith not.
Passion number four is an affection for the
Methodist church. A Kentucky correspondent
for the Nashville American even places this pas
sion of the senator's ahead of all others. He
says of James: "It's at a prayer-meeting in the
Methodist church on Wednesday night that he
Is supremely happy. In truth, I think ho would
rather participate in a lively protracted meeting
than engage in a rough and tumble stumping
political campaign, though It must bo admitted
that 'Whltoy loveB politics next to his God. But
ho believes in the religion of the old-school
Methodism and lines up for it on every occasion.
He married a Methodist preacher's daughter,
Miss Ruth Thomas, and took her as his bride to
Washington when he first went there as con
gressman. Passion number five is, of course, a love for
politics or rather love for the democratic party.
He is a partisan or he is nothing. Ho is as
"regular" as Champ Clark, and it was because
of the latter's regularity that James was such
a stout advocate of his nomination for presi
dent. He is also a Bryan man, and when the
latter made his violent assault upon the Clark
forces at Baltimore, Ollie James, presiding over
the convention, presented a pitiful, perspiring
spectacle of divided affection.
He began his political career as a school
boy by perusing the pages of the Congressional
Record, learning some of the speeches by heart
and thundering them forth at audiences in the
schoolroom when his turn came to declaim. Ho
continued his political education, when sweet
sixteen, by acting as a page in the state legis
lature, studying law in between times. When
he was thirty-two, having developed into a good
lawyer and a good stump-speaker, he announced
his candidacy for congress. He won by an enor
mous vote, and kept on going to congress until,
last year, he expressed a desire to become a
senator. Considered from the house gallery,
says Alfred Honry Lewis, writing in the Cos
mopolitan, Mr. James is an impozing spectacle:
"Well built, shoulders squared, good eyes,
good nose, good mouth, a jaw that tells of iron
resolution, the impression he creates is alto
gether in his favor. Smooth of face, thought
fully full forehead, there is that in the atmos
phere of Mr. James which never fails to enlist
one's notice. You may not know who he is,
but you know he is somebody. Even his pro
found baldness might be said to assist. For as to
that matter of hair, Mr. James must be listed
among the utterly bald. His scalp has been, in
deed, most grimly weeded. There is a thin
sown fringe even with the ears which still holds
the field like some forlorn hope of the capillary.
But that is tho hirsute most and best that can be
said for Mr. James." Current Literature.
PASS IT ALONG
In one of his admirable speeches in the house
of representatives, Representative Sulzer said:
"The next president of the United States must
be a democrat!
"The next congress must be democratic in both
branches!
"The campaigns of 1910 and 1911 are history.
"The national campaign of 1912 is now under
way.
"In the last two campaigns the democratic
forces were organized and united. Everywhere
democratic clubs were organized by the young
men of the country, and these clubs, acting
through tho various state leagues or federa
tions of democratic clubs, and with the regular
party organizations, conducted active, aggres
sive and systematic campaigns; did very effec
tive work, with gratifying results. In some
states there was a change of fully 50 per cent
in the vote, due to the influence of these organi
zations; while In other states the result of the
election in some instances was attributed largely
to their efforts. These organizations are potent
factors and powerful influences for democratic
success. This Is the age of the young man, and
the results of these two campaigns prove con
clusively what can be accomplished through
organization and unity of effort.
"It should be constantly borne in mind that
while the distribution of literature and enthus
iastic democratic meetings, addressed by able
and earnest speakers, are valuable contributions
to a successful campaign, by far the most im
portant work is the reaching of the Individual
voter who will not attend public meetings and
is not likely to read our campaign literature
Other things being equal, the party which makes
the most thorough canvass of voters by capable
workers will certainly win, and the contribu
tion which the clubs of the league can make to
the efficiency of this work, while it may be weak
in ostentation, is of the greatest value.
"The campaign committee, therefore, urgent
ly recommends that the committee pf each indi
vidual club, having each a canvass of voters
should bo composed of experienced, energetic
workers, who are "willing and able to give time
to tho canvass, and we further urge that what-
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 39
ever work may be undertaken by each club
direct effort shall bo made to reach voters in
their homes.
"The recommendations of the committee am
therefore as follows:
"First Organization of appropriate campaign
committees.
"Second Special attention to new voters and
to the poll or registration of voters.
"Third The reaching of as many indepen
dent voters as possible, and the placing in their
hands of carefully selected campaign literature
as a supplement of earnest personal appeal."
These are good suggestions. Pass them along.
GOOD WORK
F. A. Coyle Enclosed find draft to pay for
tho enclosed club of 14 subscribers to Tho Com.
moner, each for thrco months.
B. M. Hoffcr, Springvillo, Iowa I enclose
herewith list of 111 subscribers to whom please
fiend The Commoner during the campaign. Find
enclosed my check to pay for same.
Judson E. Richardson, Evart, Mich. En
closed T hand you check in payment for the
enclosed 1G2 campaign subscriptions to The
Commoner. Unfortunately my unavoidable
absence has delayed me in securing these sub
scriptions for The Commoner; but I will get
others without delay.
J.' D. Burdick, .M. D., Ft. Gibson, Okla. -Replying
to your favor of recent date I would
state that I have been making up a club of sub
scribers to The Commoner and enclose you here
with a draft to pay for tho accompanying 100
subscribers. I have been invited by tho chair
man of our county committee to take tho mat
ter up with tho democrats in Muskogee. I shall
try to show them that this plan of campaigning
is the easiest, logical and most feasible; that it
appeals direct to the intelligence of the people
tho only rational way and renders tho old
stereotyped regime of flamboyant parades and
hounding tho brush to get tho people out to hear
tho uspeakin" obsolete.
J. H. Cushenbcrry, Secretary and Treasurer,
Democratic Headquarters, Girard, Kan. I en
closo check for $100 to apply on campaign sub
scriptions. Wo are going to secure ono thous
and Commoner subscribers in this county and
are sending you under separate cover about 700
the list will follow in a few days.
J. T. McGraw, W. Va. Enclosed find check
for $15.00 for which send 100 copies of Tho
Commoner each week to Jos. Wehrle, Jr., presi
dent McGraw Marching Club, Charleston, W.
Va. I want to send The Commoner to clubs
closely identified with Mr. Bryan in the great
fight he has made for the past sixteen years.
J. McClellan, Chairman County Committee,
liansing, Mich. I enclose herewith list of 109
campaign subscribers for The Commoner, sub
scriptions to run until after election.
Wm. Van Stcenbcrgcr, la. Herewith And
money order to pay for tho enclosed club of 37
campaign subscribers to Tho Commoner.
J. P. Cain, Dickinson, N. D. Tho following
is a list of 100 campaign subscribers to The
Commoner with check to cover the same en
closed. Col. A. E. Brackett, Bremen, O. Starting
from my home Friday while waiting to take the
train I secured ono subscriber for Tho Com
moner and then on different trains and while
waiting for trains, I have secured the enclosed
list of 35 campaign subscribers to The Com
moner. W. M. Englohart, Encampment, Wyo. I
enclose herewith draft for the enclosed club of 40
subscribers, names and addresses herewith.
Tho political situation in this locality seems
to be growing toward Roosevelt he is drawing
his support practically all from tho Taft ranks.
E. R. Week, Spokane, Wash. Herewith An"
draft to pay for tho enclosed club of 200 cam
paign subscribers to The Commoner.
If elected again will Mr. Roosevelt resume
prosecution for libel of that Indianapolis news
paper thatwas rash enough to tell a few truths
about that Panama deal?
We gather from the evidence that Air. Roose
velt didn't care a hooter who contributed just
so he wasn't informed as to the identity of the
contributor.
Considering the fact that Mr.' Roosevelt never
held an elective office except those received at
tho hands of the Wall street "bosses" it would
seem proper for him to turn state's evidence and
become the star witness against them but he is
not the man to select for prosecuting attorney.
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