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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

HEROES OF INSURGENCY

Robert Marion LaFollette

HEROES OF
INSURGENCY
By THOMAS DREIER

BOSTON
HUMAN LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1910
By Human Life Publishing Company

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S. A.

FOREWORD
IN offering this book to the public the
publishers have made no attempt to
cover the field of Insurgency or Progres
sive Republicanism, for we do not fail
to appreciate that the movement is one
which has enthusiastic leaders and ad
herents in practically every state in the
Union. In fact, as this book goes to
press, reports are coming in from all
sections of the country indicating the
success of the cause in states little sus
pected of insurgency, and every day
brings to our attention some new cham
pion who is fighting for popular rights.
The one aim of the publishers has
been to present short, gripping life stories
of the leaders of insurgency in the recent
iii

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
sessions of Congress. These eight men
whose stories are told in the following
pages were the most conspicuous in the
legislative battles of the last session.
In their work they have been abundantly
aided by many others in Congress whose
parts were somewhat less conspicuous,
and they have been ably assisted by many
who have been fighting for the cause on
state issues rather than national ones.
That these men have had much to do
with forming the public opinion of to-day
is true, but it is equally true that with
out the moral and voting support of the
people back of them they of themselves
could have accomplished nothing. These
men saw a need and hastened to supply
it. That they have succeeded is proved
by their careers from then up to now.
Some of these heroes have been fight
ing for years for true representative
iv

FOREWORD
government. They have suffered pov
erty, have been misunderstood, have
been called enemies of the established
order. But always they have fought for
the right as they understood it. That
their vision was broad has been proved
by results. They have been justified in
their belief that the American citizen
loves squareness and honesty. That
they have held firmly to this belief, in
spite of the years of inappreciation, com
pels one to think the more of them.
The study of these brief biographies
gives reasons why these men may be
called " Heroes of Insurgency." Noth
ing that can be said here will add
strength to the plain stories of their
lives. The book is given out with the
hope that these men may be helped to
materialize more of their dreams which
make for truer democracy, and that

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
others may be encouraged td engage in
the fight that is no more than started.
To the young men of America is the
book especially dedicated. In the his
tories of these men they will find the
true secret of political as well as any
other kind of success to be real manhood,
.unswerving honesty, and patient devotion
to an ideal. George Russell Stratton.

yi

CONTENTS PAGE
Robert M. LaFollette  ii
Albert Baird Cummins  35
George William Norris  53
Joseph Little Bristow  67
Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver ... 85
Albert J. Beveridge  103
Victor Murdock  123
Miles Poindexter  139

ILLUSTRATIONS
Robert M. LaFollette  Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Albert Baird Cummins  36
George William Norris  54
Joseph Little Bristow  68
Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver  86
Albert J. Beveridge  104
Victor Murdock  1 24
Miles Poindexter  140

ROBERT M. LAFOLLETTE

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
^I^HE most spectacular, dramatic, and
-¦" Napoleonic of the leaders of insur
gency is Senator Robert Marion LaFol
lette, the dynamic fighter against political
corruption, whose work in Wisconsin at
tracted and held the attention of the
nation. For thirty years his fighting blood has
been coursing through his veins under the
urge of his desire to make popular gov
ernment materialize into something more
substantial than a name.
He was born in Primrose, an insignif
icant little town in Wisconsin, on June
14, 1855. The wolves of poverty continu-
13

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
ously camped before the LaFollette door.
His father died when Robert was a young
ster, and the care of the family was his
first great task. He fought against pov
erty as he later fought against the polit
ical machine — winning his way forward
because of the gifts bestowed upon him
by his French-Huguenot and Scotch-Irish
ancestors. In the face of great obstacles he worked
his way through Wisconsin University,
distinguished himself and his college by
the use of his oratorical gifts, impressed
himself upon his fellows as a man of
tremendous energy, of unswerving deter
mination, of concentration that held him
to his tasks until completed, and time after
time demonstrated his mastership in a
fight where knowledge and fire were
needed. He graduated in 1879, taking the LL.D.
14

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
degree two years later. All this time he
was paying his own way and helping in
the support of his family. It is said that
he studied night and day at one period
and took his law examinations in sixteen
weeks — a feat that has seldom been
equaled. He was admitted to the bar in 1880.
That was his real start as a public ser
vant. He proved himself a brilliant trial
lawyer. His fire, his knowledge, his abil
ity — the innate bigness of the man —
manifested themselves, and his popularity
and his business slowly but steadily
increased. LaFollette never had the ability to hide
himself. He could no more conceal his
real worth than he could turn aside a law
of nature. Indeed, it would have been
nothing less than the breaking of a natu
ral law had he been able to remain in ob-
15

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
scurity. As cream inevitably rises to the
top of the milk, R. M. LaFollette, attor
ney, rose and attracted the attention of
the community.
"He would make a fine district attor
ney," said some.
The political bosses, hearing clearly the
whisper, merely smiled. They were the
ones who chose officials, and they knew
that this poor youth, equipped as he was
with honesty and brilliancy, when only
brilliancy as a machine cog was required,
would not do.
But the opposition of the bosses was
just the spur young LaFollette needed.
All the French-Huguenot and Scotch-
Irish blood began to boil. It was and is
a terrible combination — that fighting
blood of his. It made him radiate even
more than usual, and more attention was
called to him. Knowing something of the
i6

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
political corruption in his state, and more
of the corruption of the machine politi
cians in his own county, LaFollette hun
gered for the fray.
He was without money; the machine
was backed by railroads, banks, electric
roads, liquor interests, bawdy houses, and
they owned, body and soul, those instru
ments commonly called molders of public
opinion — the newspapers. He was with
out an organization; the machine was
without a flaw — it was all that money
and great brains purchasable by power
and pelf could make. The machine
reached deep into the political and busi
ness depths and also far upward. It
seemed idiotic, asinine, foolhardy for this
lone youngster to attempt to oppose it.
The wise ones came to him and pointed.
out the gravestones that marked the polit
ical graves of those who had failed to bow
17

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
supinely to the superior power of the
machine. But all that had as little effect on La
Follette as the summer zephyrs have upon
the granite of the eternal hills. The more
opposition there was the better he liked
it. Like Luther, he would go on if all the
shingles on all the housetops were machine
devils organized to bring about his defeat.
The machine, however, did not take him
seriously. The boss gave a few orders
and forgot the incident. Confidence
reigned in the machine camp. Victories
had come into that camp for many years.
But LaFollette did not forget. He, as
he has ever done since, spent his time
working. His knowledge of the great
reform movements of history stood him
in good stead. He knew that all strength
comes from the people — either by active
or passive consent. So he went direct to
i8

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
the people. He talked to the people in
schoolhouses, in their homes, on the road
ways, on their farms, in their stores and
factories and offices — always he went
direct. He was district attorney of Dane
County, Wisconsin, from 1880 until 1884.
Then came talk of Congress. That was
a big task under machine opposition.
Five counties made the district. Upon
one only could LaFollette count. But he
pursued the same tactics that had won
him his district attorneyship. He went to
the people. He riddled the record of the
machine with verbal grapeshot. His
earnestness, his honesty, his ability which
had been demonstrated in his county field,
his clean record, his dramatic defiance of
arrogant bossism, his direct appeal to the
people for justice — all these things won
him vote after vote, and, when the con-
19

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
test was over, LaFollette sat perched upon
the prostrate composite personality of
bossism. He remained a member of Con
gress from the Third Wisconsin District
from 1885 until 1891. As a member of the
Ways and Means Committee, he took a
prominent part in framing the McKinley
Bill. His greatest work, however, was
his study of the machinery of the na
tional government, which was of such
material value to him in his later state
campaigns and in his present work in the
Senate. The next thing that happened was a
Democratic victory. This came in 1890,
and LaFollette found himself, with the
rest of the Republicans, out in the dreary
cold. His little work in Congress in pre
venting the robbery of the Indians on the
Menominee reservation by the lumber
barons, his ability as shown in his work
20

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
on the McKinley Bill, his eloquence —
nothing availed. It was a Democratic
landslide that swept the Republicans out
of power for three years.
Having fought and whipped the ma
chine in the district attorneyship matter,
and having three times defeated it in the
congressional affair, LaFollette was look
ing for a bigger victory. He aspired to
the governorship.
For twenty years the railroads had held
the state in their powerful and corrupting
grip. It was once a popular belief that
the state capitol building had been built
facing the Northwestern depot just to
remind the legislators of the true source
of power.
It was in 1896 that he offered himself
as a candidate. Before the convention he
had a clear majority of votes. But the
machine opened its mint, and enough votes
21

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
were " influenced " to defeat the doughty
fighter. In 1898 he had a still larger
majority, but again the trusty agents of
the machine spent their time during the
night to the best interests of their mas
ters. A third time came LaFollette. He
would not down. Always he had been edu
cating the people of the state. They had
awakened in response to his fervent plead
ings. He had all but one hundred and
sixty of eleven hundred delegates pledged
to support him. Market-place tactics could
not overcome this lead. The machine sur
rendered with hypocritical smiles.
LaFollette, in his innocence, believed
the promises of the machine men that
they would help him test his proposed
reforms. But he discovered that his posi
tion of Governor enabled him to accom
plish practically nothing without a friendly
Legislature. He discovered also that while
22

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
the machine men were smiling at him and
gladdening him with offers of assistance,
the trusty agents were packing the Legis
lature with machine legislators. That
Legislature defeated all his reforms. Two
years later, after almost heart-breaking
work, he secured a friendly Legislature
and the power of the machine was broken.
Under LaFoUette's leadership taxes
were equalized, the railroads were com
pelled to pay in more than seven hundred
thousand dollars more each year, a state
wide primary election law was secured
which forever put an end to convention-
hall purchasing of votes, the railroad
commission was organized, and the people
began to get justice in the matter of rail
way rates and railway service, privilege
lost its dictatorial power, and Wisconsin
became known as the state wherein the
people ruled. 23

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
How bitter was the feeling between the
Stalwarts (the machine party) and the
Half -Breeds (the reform party) only
those who were in the state at the time
can realize. Families were split in twain,
as had been done in the Civil War, chil
dren were forbidden to play with children
whose parents were in the opposite camp,
country editors lampooned one another and
fought fist fights to show their zeal, a
league of newspapers was secured by the
moneyed powers, and the reform element
had to fight them by means of the pam-.
phlet and the dodger. Brother was against
brother, father against son, and even the
women shared in the flow of love and
hatred that surged through the length and
breadth of the state. LaFollette to some
was a hero to be worshiped. To others
he was as a fiend bent on destroying the
institutions made sacred by age and use.
24

ROBERT M. LaFollette
Every effort was made to pick flaws
in the man's personal life. Nothing could
be said against him. He had married
Miss Belle Case, of Baraboo, in Decem
ber, 1881, and his family life was ideal.
His motives were questioned, his ambition
was held out as a crime, his enemies called
him a dictator bent on destroying true
representative government by building up
a personal machine, everything was done
with money and influence to drive the
people from him, but without success.
The man was wearing himself out doing
his work, was without wealth, was forced
to go upon the lecture platform in order
to pay his expenses — there was nothing
corrupt in him.
He resigned the governorship in order
to become Senator in January, 1905, al
though he hesitated long before taking
that step. He felt that his work in Wis-
25

heroes of insurgency
consin was unfinished. There was much
he felt should be done. But the Senate
seemed to offer an opportunity which
would enable him to serve the greater
number. It was only natural that his
ambition should carry him upward. Had
he been a smaller man, the governorship
would have satisfied him. But nothing
satisfies LaFollette. He is forever seeing
things better than they are. His power
lies in his constructive optimism. He is
called an agitator bent on destruction.
Nothing is more untrue. That he does
destroy is not to be denied, but those who
understand the man and his work know
that he sees clearly that which ought to
be. When he razes a tenement, he has
contracts let for a skyscraper of steel.
LaFoUette's welcome to the Senate was
in a way similar to that which would be
given an Orangeman at an Irish picnic
26

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
on St. Patrick's Day. To the defenders
of corruption his advent was like the
appearance of a red rag in a cow pasture.
They determined to sew him up. To
their way of thinking he was dangerous.
And he was and is. His record, from
the time he was a poor attorney in Madi
son down to to-day, shows him to have
been dangerous to all foes of representa
tive government. Laws are not made upon
the floor, but in committee. To bury a
Senator all that is necessary is to place
him upon unimportant committees.
The wise defenders of privilege thought
this had been done to Senator LaFollette
when he was placed upon the Committee
on Potomac Flats — a committee that has
nothing on earth to do, and which, the
powers permitting, will report on Dooms
day. So far the men of privilege showed
wisdom. But it was not until later that
27

HEROES OF insurgency
they realized their sinfulness. Their
judgment told them that the Committee
on Indian Affairs was too unimportant
to be considered, so Senator LaFollette
was placed on that also.
Some one had blundered. Some one had
forgotten that in his congressional days
he had been a defender of the Indians,
and that he it was who had placed the
tie on the track which derailed the plan
of the Lumber Trust to steal millions
from the Menominee tribe.
Came a day when LaFollette discovered
that the Coal Trust was after the Indian
coal lands and that the Oil Trust was
after the oil lands. Then the privilege
persons awakened. They had to awaken.
With LaFollette shooting grape and can
ister into the plan to rob the Indians there
was no sleeping for the unjust. The In
dian steal was killed. After that, instead
28

ROBERT M. LaFollette
of trying to give him so little to do as to
allow him time for what they considered
mischief, they gave him enough work to
keep him and a room full of secretaries
busy. With his lynx eyes boring into every
plan presented, LaFollette made life un
easy for the malefactors. They tried to
launch floods of newspaper ridicule upon
him., They tried their most vitriolic ora
tory upon him. They visited him and
his family with social ostracism. They
dogged him with spies. But all they dis
covered was that the man ate but little
more than bread and milk — on account
of a stomach ruined in those strenuous
student days of poverty time — and that
his honesty was even suspicion-proof.
Senator LaFollette introduced a bill pro
viding for the physical valuation of rail
roads. This asked that the railroads give
29

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
the exact value of their properties. Such
a report would enable the people to know
just how much of the freight and pas
senger income represented just profit and
how much dividends upon watered stock.
Senator Aldrich, by clever jockeying on
the floor and in committee, managed to
defeat the LaFollette plan. But his
amendments proposed as betterments to
the Hepburn Interstate Commerce Bill
have long since been advocated by Theo
dore Roosevelt and other popular cham
pions, and much is expected from the next
Congress. Senator LaFollette is a small man with
the head of a giant. His face is worn
and wrinkled. He shows the strain under
which he has worked. He has about him
in repose an air of weariness. But in ac
tion he has the same old fire. His voice
is always hoarse from much talking, yet
30

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
there is to be found in it a note of kind
ness and gentleness that draws one to the
man. As a lecturer he is always in de
mand. He chooses his own subjects. He
has his message to deliver. He desires
to help do for the nation what he helped
so much to do in Wisconsin. His weekly
newspaper carries his message where his
voice cannot be heard — a newspaper
which draws thousands of dollars from
his lecture receipts every year. .
LaFollette the person and LaFollette
as newspaper readers know him are two
distinct individuals. Personally he is
quiet, unassuming, somewhat careless in
dress, soft-voiced, kindly. He lacks
humor, it is true, but in his life has been
little to encourage that great quality. In
spite of his disillusioning experiences with
politicians, he still believes in those who
come bearing gifts. At times he is as
31

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
unsuspicious as a child. He is a good
listener, breaking into a conversation with
questions only when he feels that some
one has some information useful to him.
Then he probes, a long inquisitorial finger
working corkscrew-like as he used to do
in his district attorney days. Fatigue is
something of which he knows nothing
when campaigning. He is made of piano
wires. He has delivered forty speeches
in twenty-four hours. In one forty-eight-
day campaign he averaged eight and a
half hours of actual speaking daily. In
the Senate he once spoke for eighteen
hours to head off vicious legislation.
His wife is, like the wife of Bryan, a
true helpmeet. She is a trained lawyer
and a writer. They have two sons and
two daughters. They live on a beautiful
farm on the shores of Lake Mendota, a
few miles from Madison, Wisconsin.
32

ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE
Than LaFollette there is no greater
fighter against political corruption in the
country. He is a political pathfinder. At
the last Republican national convention
his delegates bent on supporting him for
the presidency were unwelcomed. That
is his fate. Twenty years ago he was a
wild-eyed, destructive, dangerous agita
tor, according to the idea of the crowd
of that time. Since then the country has
come up to him. He, however, is forever
pressing forward. Whether greater vic
tories come to him or whether he goes
down in defeat, he will at least have the
joy that comes from having invested him
self in that work which has made this
nation a better home for the Average
Man.

33

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS

Albert Baird Cummins

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
WHILE their Northern cousins were
screwing up their courage to take
the step, the patriots down in Mecklen
burg, in the Carolinas, issued the first
Declaration of Independence. It matters
not that the history books give credit to
the North. The facts tell us that the
South was first in flinging the gauntlet in
the face of England's king. And, to
justify these statements in this book, let
us here say that among the signers of
this Mecklenburg declaration appeared
the name of the grandfather of the
mother of Albert Baird Cummins, In
surgent. It is therefore eminently right
and proper that his name should be .close
37

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
to the top of the list of those who to-day
are fighting for a government that will
be more representative of the majority of
the people.
By right of training and business
friendships this man should be working
shoulder to shoulder with those regulars
whose service to corporations is greater
than their service to their constituents.
For years he was a corporation attorney.
His business associates were, for the
most part, corporation men. During all
his years he has been known as a good
business man — one who possessed the
ability to make money for himself and
others. While he once knew poverty,
and has never known what it is to get
much without hard work, he has not suf
fered from the grinding poverty that was
the lot of so many of his insurgent con
freres. Toward the last he had every-
38

!ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
thing to gain by remaining friendly 'to
the corporations and everything to lose
by working against them. That he chose
the latter shows what manner of man
he is.
Let us, then, in order to reach his in
surgent days, travel somewhat rapidly
the biographical road from the time he
was born in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania,
February 15, 1850, down to date. For
mental sustenance he attended the com
mon schools of his native village until
he was fourteen, then tried Green Acad
emy for three years, and, at seventeen,
entered Waynesburg College for two
years more. In September, 1869, he
"made westing," and we find him in
Iowa, dividing his time between Cornell
College, a recorder's office at Elkader,
carpenter work in the spring of 1870, an
pxpress office in McGregor to the spring
39

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
of 1 87 1, jumping eastward to Fort
Wayne, Indiana, where he was deputy
surveyor. Here lie remained two months.
In those days he was gifted with plenty
of self-assurance, the ability to bluff his
way through with little capital in the way
of knowledge, and was not afraid to dem
onstrate his capacity for work. So, al
though he knew nothing of construction
work, he reached for and annexed a
position as division engineer on the old
Cincinnati, Richmond, & Fort Wayne
Railroad. Here he made good use of his
knowledge of surveying and, by the time-
honored method of securing education by
doing, learned how to build bridges, lay
tracks, manage wild gangs of workers,
and perform satisfactorily all other work
that fell to his department. We may say
he performed his tasks satisfactorily, for,
so the records show, he was promoted to
40

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
the post of assistant chief engineer before
the end of the year. On January i, 1872,
he became assistant chief engineer of
the North Central Michigan, and about
Christmas time of that same year was
called to Denver to take a similar post on
the Denver & Rio Grande.
During these engineering years there
had been ever present in him a desire to
study law. Although success was coming
rapidly toward him in his engineering
work, and big money as a railroad con
structor was in plain sight, Cummins held
to his idea of becoming a lawyer. We
need not be surprised, therefore, to learn
that he, on reaching Chicago when Den
ver bound, slipped into an opening which
he found in the great law offices of
McClellan & Hodges. Of course the
salary attached was infinitely lower than
that of an engineer, but Cummins was
'41

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
more in love with the law than with
immediate wealth. With McClellan &
Hodges he remained two years, being
admitted to the bar when twenty-three
years old, in 1874, That same year he
was married to Miss Ida L. Gallery, of
Eaton Rapids, Michigan. Until 1878 he
made his home in Chicago, practicing as
attorney. Iowa was then sending but calls for
strong men in all departments of the
world's work. Cummins heard. He left
his Chicago practice, and with his brother,
J. C. Cummins, opened a law office in Des
Moines. This partnership continued un
til November, 1881, when he was invited
by Judge Wright to become a member of
the leading law firm of the city. Judge
Wright was one of the big men of his
time. His law business was successful.
Its nature may be learned from the fact
42

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
that later his son, Thomas, retired from
the firm to become the representative of
the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific in
Chicago. Cummins was, to use a street
phrase, " in right."
For years the Western farmers had
been at the mercy of the great barb-wire
trust. Independent companies had tried
to start up for the purpose of relieving
the farmer, but by lawsuits and other
means the trust had killed them off one
by one. In spite of his affiliations with
the powerful, Cummins undertook, in
1 88 1, a fight that lasted for five years
and ended in the decisive defeat of the
Washburn-Moen Company, the wire com
pany that had for years charged the
farmers all the traffic would bear. This
fight made Cummins a character with a
West-wide reputation. He won the name
of a friend of the people. Not only did
43

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
his fight win him popularity, but his abil
ity, as demonstrated in the barb-wire
fight, won his firm business that other
wise would never have come to them. His
standing among the members of his pro
fession we learn by discovering that he
was for years the president of the Polk
County Bar Association.
The political germ was in the air in
those days just as it is to-day. Cummins
naturally interested himself in political
work. Naturally, as a leading lawyer, he
was consulted. But he asked for noth
ing for himself until 1887, when, with
many of his party leaders against him,
he was elected to the Assembly. The
prohibition wave was then sweeping
across the Middle West, and to it Cum
mins opposed his strength. Instead of
prohibition he demanded local option and
higher licenses. To take this stand in
44

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
those days called for backbone of the
unbending kind.
In the Legislature Cummins climbed
forward because of his work in revising
the laws governing railroads. His work
was so fair to both railroads and state
that people wondered how it was possible
for a railroad attorney to do as he did.
An Iowa newspaper editor, in showing
how suspicious many were of the Cum
mins honesty, tells how a party of manu
facturers and merchants called upon him
to support a bill providing for more equi
table charges on short hauls. He promised
to support it. A few days later the same
committee called and asked him to with
draw his support. " Why have you
changed ? " he asked. " That man, Cum
mins," they answered, " a railroad attor
ney, is the bill's father, and there must be
something hidden in it that is bad for
45

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
us." But the bill was passed, and those
people learned that the bill was square
and aboveboard and for the best interests
of all concerned.
With the Democrats in power in 1892,
the Republican State Committee called
Cummins to preside at the state conven
tion. The speech he made at the opening
of the convention swept the delegates off
their feet and later proved one of the
most powerful pieces of campaign liter
ature. Following that, he was alternate-
at-large to the national convention at
Minneapolis, and, later that same year,
another convention chose him elector-at-
large. In 1896 he was sent to" St. Louis
as a delegate, and was there chosen a
member of the national committee and
held that post for four years. Previous
to this, in 1894, he had been a candidate
for United States Senator but was de-
46

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
feated. Later, when Senator Gear died
and a successor had to be appointed,
Cummins thought that the appointment
would come to him, but Jonathan Pren
tiss Dolliver was chosen instead. Then,
to make up for slights given him by the
political ring, he went direct to the people
and became Governor in 1902; and so
well did he serve them, he was sent back
three times by an overwhelming vote of
the people of his state. In November,
1908, he was elected to the United States
Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the
death of Senator W. B. Allison. In Jan
uary, 1909, he was re-elected for the term
beginning March 4. His Senate term
will end in 191 5.
We have now cleared away all the bio
graphical underbrush and may look at the
man himself for a moment. He is one
inch under six feet in height, has broad
47

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
shoulders, a deep chest, stands erect, is
crowned with iron-gray hair, has eyes
that look out humorously and kindly,
dresses as a successful man should dress,
and cannot escape the charge of being
handsome. Like Ben Adhem, it may be
written of him that he loves his fellow
men. He and Mrs. Cummins are great
entertainers and enjoy mixing with other
social beings. Socially, as well as for the
good of the entire state^ he made an ideal
govemor. Lest what has been written thus far
may lead the casual reader to believe
Senator Cummins a corporation attorney
first, last, and all the time, let it be here
stated that than the railroads Senator
Cummins enjoys no bitterer enemies.
And here is the initial reason. In his
Assembly days he proved himself no easy
man to handle for tooling purposes. In
48

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
his political work after his Assembly days
he failed to become more tractable. When
he aspired to the Senate, railroad influ
ences defeated him. When he sought the
governorship, railroad money again op
posed him. But all this time the opposi
tion was the opposition of influences that
did not come out strongly in the open
against him.
The fire was kindled during guberna
torial days that smoked out the animals
that in the past had chosen to hide in the
hole under the political machine. With
the kindly assistance of J. W. Blythe, at
torney and representative of the Great
Northern and The Chicago, Burlington,
& Quincy railroads, what is known as
"The Molsberry BiU" had been nursed
through the Assembly and Senate. On
the Governor's table it lay for signature.
To the Governor came politicians, busi-
49

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
ness men, manufacturers, railroad repre
sentatives. They called for the signature.
The Grovernor refused. The bill was in
tended to " New Jerseyize " the state. It
placed no limit on the debts a railroad
might contract. Cummins, seeing the bill
through eyes made keen by years of legal
prying, met the railroad men on their own
ground and answered argument for argu
ment. It was bad for the state, therefore
it must be vetoed. And it was vetoed.
Had he signed that bill the state would
not have blamed him much. It had been
passed by the legislative representatives
of the people. It had the support of the
biggest business men and manufacturers.
The bosom friends of the Governor, his
political helpers, the men upon whom he
had depended for his legal business — all
these demanded that he sign it. Yet this
man^ knowing the bill to be bad for the
SO

ALBERT BAIRD CUMMINS
state and the country, dared to stand out
against all this pressure. That act, per
haps more than any other act in his life,
showed him in his true colors and did
more than all his talking to send him back
to the Governor's chair for three terms.
As a governor Cummins proved himself
a master. During his formative years he
had been carpenter, school-teacher, clerk,
express messenger, surveyor, railroad
builder. He therefore had been in touch
with men in all departments of work. He
knew the point of view of the common
folks. On top of this he had the training
that comes to the successful attorney. He
had met and talked with and studied big
men. He knew their point of view. With
this knowledge stored away in his mind
he was fit to render just judgments. That
he did render just judgments is shown by
his entire public career. 51

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
As a Republican he is not for free trade,
but he is not in favor of the tariff that
has been manufactured for the benefit of
special interests. He believes in the elec
tion of United States Senators by direct
primary. He believes in the federal con
trol of corporations. And, what is of
greatest interest in these times, he is
against the Aldrich-Cannon rule of the
national government. The record shows
him to be among the most pronounced
insurgent leaders in the Senate.
Personally Senator Cummins is a lik
able, friend-making, friend-holding indi
vidual. In the face of his record no
words will add to his praise as a friend
of popular government. He has suc
ceeded in business and has succeeded in
life because he has, as Lincoln advised,
done right as he understood it.

52

GEORGE WILLIAM NORRIS

George William Norris

GEORGE WILLIAM NORRIS
T^ IGHT at the start of any biographical
¦^^ sketch of George William Norris it
is well to say that he is, above all other
things, a normal man. Neither in his life
nor in himself is there anything that wor
shipers of the Napoleonic would dub dra
matic. His style of skittering through the
political sky is not meteoric. There are in
him the calmness, the regularity, the abso
lute certainty of the moon. Unlike La
Follette, he cannot point to heart-breaking
poverty in youth nor to the bitter opposi
tion of machine politicians of the vulture
breed. From the time he was a farm lad in
Sandusky County, Ohio, up to and includ
ing the time he was elected to Congress
from the Fifth Nebraska District in 1903,
55

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
he has been as regular in his political be
liefs as regularity itself. He has not been
a voice in the political wilderness proclaim
ing a new era.
However, in order that we may not sus
pect this man of being without an individ
uality of his own, let us here condense his
biographical data into a paragraph and
then take up those facts with which we are
concerned and discover for ourselves what
manner of man he really is. We find, if
we care to go back, that he was born on a
farm in Sandusky County, Ohio, July ii,
1 86 1, thus managing to evade any tempta
tion to enlist in that great unpleasantness
known as the Civil War. His father, like
most farmers, was not unduly burdened
with wealth, and George worked out for
farmers during the farm-working season,
attending school for but a few. months
each winter. 56

GEORGE WILLIAM NORRIS
The short winter schooling, however,
awakened his desire for some other career
than that offered by the farm. He deter
mined to move forward. Upon finishing
the country school and his self-selected
studies at home, he became a country
school-teacher in order to earn money for
a higher education. Within a couple of
years he had saved enough out of his
scanty earnings to enter Baldwin Univer
sity at Berea, Ohio. Later he shifted to
the Northern Indiana Normal School be
cause of the opportunities that institution
offered young men without golden spoons
whjch might be pawned. By scrimping,
saving, and pinching he managed to work
his way through the ordinary academic
course, and followed that by borrowing
enough money to carry him through the
law school. He was admitted to the bar
in 1883. With characteristic carefulness
57

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
he did not plunge directly into the uncer
tainties of the legal profession. He taught
school for another year in order to earn
money for a law library and a few dollars
extra to tide him over the waiting period
which was to be expected at the beginning
of his law work.
The call of the West came to him about
this time, and we find him, in 1885, trek
king across the country to Nebraska. His
original intention was to settle down to the
slow and steady practice of law. But in
the Nebraska of those days there was little
opportunity for lawyers who failed to woo
the goddess of politics. Norris, in his
office at Beaver City, saw the light, and,
almost before the paint on his shingle was
dry, became prosecuting attorney for Fur
nas County. This position, coupled with
other business that came in its trail, en
abled him to marry Miss Pluma Lashley
58

GEORGE WTLLLOI NORRIS
in 1890, and, with a home as an anchor
age, he settled down with the air of one
whose moving days were over.
Ten years after leaving Ohio — in 1895,
to be exact — we find him, during the Pop
ulist turmoil, taking his place as district
judge after beating his opponent by a bare
majority of six votes in a district made up
of seven counties. He was re-elected dis
trict judge in 1901, and resigned in 1904
to make the race for Congress.
Norris has always been a regular Re
publican. When he first went to Congress,
he held the ordinary provincial idea of the
importance of his position. But it did not
take him more than one term to discover
that there was something not so square in
Washington as it should be according to
Nebraska ideals. That a Congressman,
especially a new one, is of but little more
value than a figure on a chessboard, when
59

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
viewed through Washington glasses, was
something of a disillusioning surprise to
Norris. When he returned home, he said
to Lon Cone, his political helper, " There
is something wrong with the system. I
don't know what it is, and I don't know
that I can do anything to correct it, but
some sort of house-cleaning is needed
down there." That was the first sign he
had shown of irregularity.
During the campaign of 1908 the reg
ulars and the insurgents were beginning
to bestir themselves over the matter of
Cannonism. Norris stated very definitely
where he stood. " I am against Cannon,"
he announced in his speeches, " but I
should vote for him for Speaker in pref
erence to any Democrat. To elect a Dem
ocrat for the place would tie up all legis
lation and render the work of Congress
futile and ineffective. I am a Republican.
60

GEORGE WILLIAM NORRIS
My quarrel is not with the party, but with
the men who are using it to advance their
own selfish ends."
That speech showed him to be a Repub
lican with backbone enough to stand up
and announce that there were men within
the party — men in responsible positions
— who were unworthy of trust. He
showed that he realized that changes
would have to be made, but he believed
that the changes could be made by the
party members themselves. The Demo
crats, of course, scattered a tremendous
slush fund over the district in an effort to
defeat him. Even Mr. Bryan thought him
of enough importance to come in and per
sonally assist in the attempt to end his
congressional career. In spite of all this
opposition, Norris ran seven hundred
and sixty-nine votes ahead of Mr. Taft
and emerged with a small but safe ma-
6i

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
jority. Mr. Bryan carried the district
for himself.
Thus it was that George W. Norris was
on hand to lead the onslaught upon the
House of Cannon last March. In the news
dispatches of those strenuous fighting
days Norris found his name heralded as
leader. All this came as a surprise, just
as it surprised those folks who had always
known him as a quiet, friendly, peaceful
sort of person. He had only done what
he thought was the right thing to do. He
felt that Cannon should be opposed, there
fore he went in and opposed him. He was
not looking for personal glory. As a reg
ular sort of man, he wanted to do that
which would insure the success of his
party. If to clean the party it was
necessary to administer chastisement to
folks of the Cannon school, well, much
as he hated the turmoil, Norris was
62

GEORGE WILLIAM NORRIS
ready to do his part in the administer
ing business.
Financially Norris is also fit to take his
place as an average man. In his early
Nebraska days he had settled at Beaver
City because that place promised to make
good the promises of his boomers. The
promise was not kept, and Norris moved
to McCook, which is in Redwillow County.
There he lives in a small, unpretentious
home, with a green lawn about it and pro
tected from the sun by shade trees of early
inhabitant age. He owns this home, a
couple of vacant lots, three thousand dol
lars' worth of stock in a Masonic Temple
that has never paid any dividends and
which will never pay more than five per
cent, a hotel at Beaver City that earns
enough to pay the taxes, and that ends it.
McCook is rather proud of the family
of Congressman Norris. The present
63

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
Mrs. Norris was the chum of the first
Mrs. Norris, who died in 1901, leaving
three daughters. Hazel, aged 16, Marion,
aged 13, and Gertrude, aged 9. The
Norrises are typical small townfolks.
Like a country bank cashier. Congress
man Norris spends his loafing hours at
home, taking his mental exercise while
mowing the lawn and relieving himself
mentally by resting with the characters
Dickens touched into life. Political op
ponents have never been able to discover
any taints in the Norris career. Morally
and financially he has been regular. He
has always been a sort of square deal
person. He has no hesitancy about tell
ing the truth.
During the hard times of the early nine
ties, when Eastern loan companies, unable
to realize on investments, were foreclos
ing mortgages on Nebraska homesteads,
64

GEORGE WILLIAM NORRIS
it was Norris who helped many a man
save his home. At that time he was dis
trict judge. A degree of confirmation by
the court was a necessary formality in
obtaining possession of the land. Before
granting any decrees, Norris always per
sonally investigated. If the man was
honestly trying to pay but was unable to
do so on account of the times, Norris re
fused to help the companies dispossess
him. This action of his, done at a time
when it was not even prospective political
capital, helped hold many a vote at a later
day. In this story is nothing dramatic, noth
ing unusual, nothing exceptional. The
Norris life has flowed along in a smooth
current. His trials have been no greater
than those that come to thousands of
average men. His life has been that of
the average man. For that reason he is
65

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
fit for the work he is doing — he is a fit
representative of average men. He pos
sesses great ability of the steady, plod
ding, persistent sort. He is not spectacu
lar, but he is sure. He is dependable,
reliable. And, as his constituents have
discovered, the best ability is reliability.

66

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW

Joseph Little Bristow

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
"Vy ORN in a log cabin in Wolfe County,
-¦-' Kentucky, during one of those times
that tried men's souls, Joseph Little Bri's^
tow stands before the public stamped with
the influences of heredity. His father,
the son of a Methodist minister, was a
school-teacher until the Union called to
him to substitute the musket for the birch.
It was on July 22, 1861, that Joseph was
given to the world. The influences of the
ante-bellum period played upon the mother
and materialized in the son. Both parents
being rigid religionists, holding to justice
as they did to life, their training of their
child made for righteousness as they un
derstood it. They never learned to com
promise with injustice and wrongdoing.
69

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
Raised in poverty during those painful
formative years of the new country's
growth, young Bristow became inoculated
with the fighting germs that have so often
stirred him into that activity so detrimen
tal to the peace and happiness of public
evilists. After the war, the work of the school
master substituted for the service of a
Methodist minister, Bristow's father
earned the meager income necessary to
meet the almost insignificant living ex
penses of their simple family life. Pov
erty was an ever-present visitor in the
Bristow home, ease was a thing unknown.
Yet to these people, sustained as they were
by an ever-burning religious faith, pov
erty was not looked upon as a galling bur
den. They worked as well as they knew
how with the materials at hand, develop
ing strength of character with endurance
70

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
of body each day as they went along.
Knowing something of the parents, it is
easy for one to understand the early train
ing Joseph Bristow received.
Pioneer folks find the way to marriage
an easy one, so we need not be surprised
to find young Joseph, the down just dark
ening his cheeks, plunging into matrimony
on November ii, 1879, his trip being
shared by Margaret A. Hendrix, of Flem
ing County, Kentucky. Like so many
others whose names later became stars in
the firmament of insurgency, Bristow
heard the call of the West and found his
way to Elk County, Kansas, that same
marriage year. A farm furnished a pre
carious living for a space, but the life of
the farmer was not to the liking of one
whose forebears found delight in educat
ing men.
At twenty-one, then, Bristow moved to
71

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
Baldwin, Kansas, for the reason that
Baker University honored that village
with its presence. Expenses were met by
the time-honored expedient of taking stu
dent boarders. Mrs. Bristow shared her
husband's ambition to one day become, like
his father and grandfather, a Methodist
minister. She was willing to undertake
the work of helping her husband secure
his education, even though she must have
known that the minister's life, as well as
the life of the minister's wife, is ever one
of sacrifice and self-abnegation. The
country owes much to the brave little
woman who shared the educational pio
neer days of the future public servant.
At college it is not always what the cur
riculum offers that proves of greatest
value. Education is best secured by doing
things. In college Bristow was a doer.
Fraternities and athletics were of less im-
72

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
portance in those heathenish days than
they have become in our more enlightened
times. Instead of the social joys of fra
ternities which are organized to exclude,
and of college athletics so much magnified
by the modern student, Bristow and his
fellows found their surplus energy outlet
in engineering the destinies of two literary
societies. One was called the Athenian,
and its hated rival was the Biblical. No
prize will be given those who guess that
Bristow belonged to the latter.
One needs to know but little about col
leges to understand that the successful col
lege politician is about as wily a person as
the gentlemen who dominate the govern
ing business in our big cities. In those
college days Bristow was the leader in
political affairs. More than once did the
noble Athenians bite the political dust at
the Bristow command. He speedily be-
73

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
came an organizer of men. His grasp of
detail and his power of welding this detail
into an harmonious whole placed him at
the top. In the mimic school world Bris
tow fought battles that taught him lessons
that have since stood him and his country
in good stead.
In 1884 he organized a Blaine and Lo
gan club, and rounded up under his ban
ner fifty-one of the fifty-two voters in the
school. To accomplish this, after all the
school fights he had engineered, was no
slight task. To his teachers Bristow was
known as a student who dug the heart out
of every subject he studied, yet they also
were forced to shake their heads sadly on
all election days over the absence of their
strenuous pupil. To keep Bristow in
school on election day called for teachers
capable of performing one of the labors of
Hercules. 74

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
In addition to boarding fellow students,
Bristow earned money by serving as a
persuasive book agent, farm helper, man-
of-all-work, and editor of the local news
paper. Upon his graduation in 1886, his
dream of serving in the ministry having
been changed for the desire to serve in
politics, he was elected clerk of the Dis
trict Court of Douglas County. To se
cure votes he borrowed money and hired
a horse to carry him to every voter in the
district. So little money did he have that
it is said he was forced to take his choice
between buying an overcoat or a diction
ary. If he had not chosen the latter —
But why speculate ?
During his clerkship days he was chosen
president of the Young Men's Republican
Club of Lawrence. In 1888 he was re
elected to his court office. All the time his
eyes had been open to things political. He
75

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
stumped the state for Harrison during
the presidential campaign, and annexed
the reputation necessary to secure him a
position as secretary of the Republican
State Committee. He next became pri
vate secretary to Governor Morrill, follow
ing that with an attempt to connect with
election to Congress. After a strenuous
campaign he was defeated by a small ma
jority. During the days that the political
sun failed to shine upon him he became
a newspaper man. For instance, from
1890 to 1895, he owned and edited " The
Salina Daily Republican," left that for
" The Ottawa Herald," dropped the pen
for politics, and did not again take it up
until February i, 1903, when he bought
"The Salina Republican- Journal."
The energy and skill of the man won
the attention of President McKinley dur
ing the great campaign of 1896, and, in
76

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
spite of the strong protests of the machine
politicians in Kansas and Washington,
Bristow was offered and accepted the
position of Fourth Assistant Postmaster-
General. Bristow knew then that this
office promised him little honor, small pay,
and much hard work. But he also knew
that it would teach him, as few other posi
tions would, the political condition of the
country in general and of the workings
of the government at Washington in
particular. As assistant to the Postmaster-General
he dealt with the removal and appointment
of thousands of little postmasters through
out the country, the postal secret service,
and thousands of little jobs that would
kill any man not in love with the work of
mastering details. It was while doing his
daily detail work that he discovered the
irregularities in the management of the
17

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
postal service, particularly in Cuba. For
a decade a systematic robbery of the gov
ernment had been carried on by postal
employees and officials. The loot had been
shared with men high up in the ranks of
the Republican party. To attempt to pun
ish these men was to invite political sui
cide. They were entrenched behind polit
ical power and unlimited wealth. The
great newspapers were at their command.
Bristow knew this. But never yet had a
Bristow compromised with corruption.
He was not in love with the work of fer
reting out criminals, but if duty sent him
to that task he was determined to do what
justice to the service demanded done.
The country knows what he did with
the backing of President McKinley in the
matter of the Cuban postal frauds. He
worked with fifty trained investigators
for nearly a year duririg the Roosevelt
78

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
regime investigating the post-offices in the
United States. One thousand offices were
investigated, some of the records being
studied for ten years rearward. Bristow
read two hundred thousand typewritten
pages of reports, analyzed them, collated
the facts, and then edited the result into a
report of only ten thousand words. Of
this report President Roosevelt said, " Mr.
Bristow's report is a record of as impor
tant bit of investigating work as has been
done under the government."
It would have been a great work had
Bristow done it with the assistance of all
the government employees. But when it
is known that the report was made with
the corruptionists of great wealth and
great power arrayed against him, this
work becomes monumental. Every effort
was made to call Bristow from his task.
Frantic officials, rotten with corruption,
79

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
fled to their protectors higher up for help.
Political machinery, newspapers, detec
tives — all forces were used. But Bris
tow held firm. He went forward with the
precision and force of a hydraulic drill.
He was backed by a President who loved
a fight for the square deal. He made his
report in the face of the objections of
leaders of the party he had served all his
life. Promises of rich political gifts failed
to swerve him from the truth.
Because President Roosevelt needed a
special commissioner to investigate the
problems connected with the Panama
Railroad, Bristow resigned in January,
1905. His report was made in August of
the same year, and practically all his
recommendations were accepted by Con
gress. He again visited Panama to per
form duties under Secretary of War Taft
and was praised for his accuracy and in-
80

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
telligence. In 1908 he made another re
port for Secretary Taft, leaving his news
paper in other hands in order to render the
government this special service.
With the machine against him, and all
the Republican corruptionists all over the
country doing what they could to defeat
him, Bristow climbed into the Senate by
defeating Senator Long. Only the direct
primaries saved him. Had the old conven
tion system obtained, he would have been
snowed under by the freezing wealth of
the corporations. By going direct to the
people — who remembered his work in the
postal scandals — he won the votes needed
to destroy many an important cog in the
machine of his state. He told his fellow
citizens that railway rates should be based
on the cost of service to the railroads and
not upon the value of the service to the
public, and that all the railroads of the
81

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
nation should be under the control of a
national bureau with power to make thor
ough investigations of the physical value
of the railroad property, the cost of opera
tion, etc., and upon its findings base just
rates. Bristow is personally fearless. It is re
lated that, with a handful of companions,
he rushed into a mob, rescued a negro,
swung him into a doorway, took the noose
from his neck, and then caused the mob to
disperse. To the evilists he is cold, piti
less, and insatiable. He seems to be jus
tice incarnate. In performance of his
duty he recognizes neither friend nor foe.
He possesses no genius for friendship,
yet those friends he has are grappled to
him by hoops of steel. He does not win
a sunshiny personal popularity, but he
does win votes because the people know he
is honest and absolutely sincere. Children
82

JOSEPH LITTLE BRISTOW
like him. Than that there is no greater
compliment. His personal life is open to
the closest investigation. Had he pos
sessed a closet skeleton, the sleuths of the
enemies stirred up in postal scandal days
M^ould have discovered and uncovered it.
Working almost alone, he has won and
held the friendship of McKinley, Roose
velt, and Taft. A man who can do this
must be something of a man. He suc
ceeds because of his genius for work. In
his newspaper days he was at his office at
four o'clock in the morning and stayed
there all day. For recreation he calls for
more work.
In personal appearance he is tall, un
gainly, gaunt, has a stoop in the shoulders
from much work at the desk, swings along
with an awkward stride, never appears
without a frock coat, — a liking probably
inherited from ministerial ancestors, —
83

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
has hazel eyes, a large mouth, and a tu
multuous sort of voice. He is in no sense
an orator. The polish of the platform
star is not his. Yet he holds his hearers
because of his deep sincerity, his imposing
array of facts so carefully marshaled and
so cleverly handled, his knowledge of gov
ernment manifested in his editorials and
his speeches and gleaned from reading
heavy books far into the night, and a per
sonality that can be the possession of no
man who is not living a life that is and
ever has been " on the square."

84

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER

Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver

JONATHAN PRENTISS
DOLLIVER
/^ NLY by adoption is Senator Dolliver
^^ a Westerner. And yet there be wise
folks who will say that Iowa is this big
man's home because the spirit of the man
is lowan and would fit nowhere else.
That he was born in West Virginia is
most true. To be more exact we may say
that he was born near Ringwood in Pres
ton County on February 6, 1858, and, if
the bread-winning occupation of the father
be of interest, we may say that he was a
minister who, while without wealth, was
able to send his sturdy son to the village
schools and provide him with that food
which is essential to a youngster bent on
87

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
becoming a man with a sound body, fit
to house a mind of more than average
worth. It may have been in response to that
law which compels cream to find its way
to the top of the milk that the Dolliver
youth left what was then the somewhat
indolent and sleepy South and penetrated
into what seemed the distant West. True
it is that this West was east of the Mis
sissippi River, but that the journey was
somewhat of the nature of an adventure
to the eager-eyed Southerner is something
we may well believe. However, before
we do more than make this mention of
the migratory tendency bf the youth, let
us hark back to the boyhood days and in
a somewhat more leisurely manner jour
ney upward to these more strenuous in
surgent days.
Like many another man who has accom-
88

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER
plished deeds worth while, Senator Dolli
ver is forced to pay tribute to the influ
ence of his mother. It is said that one
of the essentials of the far-seeing young
ster on fame bent is to select most care
fully the maternal parent. Doubtless in
the Dolliver case the gods were kind.
Whatever the cause may be, we find the
mother Dolliver a woman of exceptional
strength of character. For her son she
was, as most mothers are, optimistically
ambitious. She imagined a great career
for him, but, being practical in her dream
ing, she went a step farther than the im
agining and provided more materially for
the realization of her dream.
Besides endowing her son with those
physical attributes that in Senate days
sent him over the more silken Senators
of regular political faith, she strength
ened his mind by those true teachings
89

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
that spring, seemingly without observing
the ordinary laws of growth, from the
innermost being of the mother mind. Not
only did she give him that training which
later made for what may be called great
ness, but she gave him at birth a heritage
that environment and training could never
supply. And then, after the village schools
had yielded up their mental harvest for
the enrichment of the Dolliver brain
granary, this mother cut corners in her
housekeeping arrangements in order to
save the money needed for advancing her
son still farther up the steps leading to
the temple of knowledge.
From the Ringwood school we find
young Dolliver going to the state univer
sity at Morgantown. In those days this
university was but little more than a semi
nary. It was, however, the best offering
that presented itself that would match
90

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER
with the purse of the minister's son. Cer
tain it is that the boy here made much
of his opportunities. Undamned with
much money that would have led him
from the paths over which the professors
ever seek to guide the stumbling steps of
the student, young Dolliver had little to
do but study. Besides, he knew that at
home his mother was making sacrifices
and that it therefore behooved him to ac
quire as much knowledge as the institu
tion would permit in the shortest possible
time. So well did he work that we find
him graduating at the callow age of sev
enteen. Then came the Western journey.
To lift the burden from the maternal
shoulders, as well as to help himself up
ward toward those heights which he, after
his mother's pointing, already saw clearly,
Dolliver left the mountains and migrated
to the plains. We find him teaching school
91

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
at Victor Center, Illinois. At this place it
had for years been the custom of the big
boys to amuse themselves and the smaller
pupils by engaging in that ancient rite
known as " licking the teacher." History
tells us that the custom was reversed in
this Victor Center school immediately upon
the advent of one Jonathan Prentiss Dol
liver. It is also a matter of record that
never before did the pupils make such
progress along learning's path, and also
that the teacher never found it necessary
to appeal from the much used frontier
law that might makes right. He was able
to take care of himself even before he
had slipped out of his teens.
Two years after these physical and
mental triumphs we discover our South
erner carrying away the legal knowledge
needed for the practice of law. During
those school times he had been preparing
92

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER
himself for his profession. The law had
been chosen. Thus it was that in 1878
Fort Dodge, Iowa, reached out and
claimed him for her own, arranging mat
ters so that he climbed right speedily into
local prominence.
Away back in those youthful village
school times it was admitted by all know
ing persons that young Dolliver could talk.
It is related, although the story has not
been properly verified, that the boy came
across a copy of the Congressional
Record and was carried away by the ora
torical offerings therein contained. Firom
the same source one learns that young
Dolliver made up his mind to one day fill
congressional chambers with the vibra
tions of his own voice. Be this true or
untrue, it is certain that one may not
trace the Dolliver biography far to the
rear without finding much evidence which
93

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
compels one to believe that a well-defined
path was followed.
The law business in Fort Dodge, as has
been related, grew and prospered. Young
Dolliver was a perfect tornado of lan
guage. His voice was ready to be heard
with or without provocation. He was
not cursed with too much modesty and
waited not for some loiterer to upturn
the bushel under which his light was
hidden. He took care of his own illumi
nations, letting his light so shine as to
attract the attention of those desirable
folks who hold in their hands the gifts
of offices. It happens that the law and
politics are so closely allied that one can
scarcely engage in the first without at
least flirting with the second.
It was during those heated times around
1884 when Mr. Blaine hunted the White
House that Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver
94

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER
first stood forth bidding for the gaze of
many men. He made speeches from every
unoccupied stump in the surrounding ter
ritory, and would have stood high with
the administration of Mr. Blaine had not
that gentleman been defeated by a foolish
alliteration of "Rum, Romanism, and
Rebellion." Mr. Blaine had heard Mr.
Dolliver speak and said that in a later
day Mr. Dolliver would be heard from.
Mr. Blaine has been proven a good
prophet. After the Blaine defeat there came a
wait of half a dozen years for the young
lawyer. This was not bad. It gave him
opportunity to fill his mind with those
enriching facts which have in our own
day been used with such telling effect.
In 1890, when he was elected to the
House, he was so well fitted to represent
his constituents that he remained a repre-
95

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
sentative until 1901. It is likely that he
would still be a House member had he not
in 1900 received the senatorial chair left
vacant by the death of Senator J. H.
Gear. This appointment, if we are to
be exact, came on August 23. He was
elected in his own right in 1902 and again
in 1907. His term will, therefore, end in
1913- He entered the House close upon the
heels of the McKinley Bill and that ex
travagant Congress which earned for
itself the title of "The Billion Dollar
Congress," and which had the political
effect of changing the congressional com
plexion from Republican to Democratic.
This placed Mr. Dolliver with the minor
ity and enabled him to learn the Washing
ton game without being forced to play it
to his own cost. After four years of
Democratic rule the Republicans once
96

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER
more came into power and Mr. Dolliver
began to see light ahead.
One great quality this big Westerner
possesses which has stood him well in
times gone by, — he knows how to wait.
Although bulking big in both brain and
brawn, Mr. Dolliver made no great at
tempt to wrest the control of things out
of the hands of the oldsters who had been
in Washington for twenty years or more.
He waited for the right time — for the
time when his offering was needed. He
looked after the interests of his constit
uents so well that he was sent back five
successive times — surely often enough
to prove that in his own district he was
recognized as a man of worth. Had he
been a mere machine man, it is likely
that he would have been knifed by some
powerful lieutenant before so many years
had slipped by. His strength was proven
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HEROES OF INSURGENCY
in the House days. One cannot say that
what he did was dramatic, but his record
shows that he was steady, dependable, re
liable, sure.
As a plain man of the people he re
ceived his appointment to the Senate.
Back of him stood no railroad, and no
trust contributed Croesus-like funds to his
helpers. He did not take his election and
his orders from special interests. He
claimed and won the suffrage of his
people by his display of the uncommon
quality of common sense which appeals
to the broad-minded Westerners. His
rise was steady and sure. He was known
as a regular — as one who did not go
too far ahead of his party.
It was not until the late insurgent
unpleasantness that the regular Senator
Dolliver became a rampant raging insur
gent. And even then he was, in the eyes
98

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER
of his people, a regular. To them his
insurgency was regular Republicanism.
The old party men of the Cannon and
Aldrich type were the enemies of what
is regular.
To vote " No " to the Aldrich Bill took
nerve for all of that. Only a few Repub
licans dared do it. Only those who were
the real representatives could do it. Those
who were shackled to special interests
dared do nothing but obey the commands
that came from the Aldrich-Cannon camp.
Dolliver was not one of these.
Senator Dolliver is one of the truly
great men of Iowa. He is big in body
and big in brain. With the wide prairie
vision he sees all things. He is not a
local man in the narrow sense, as so many
of our New England representatives are
likely to be, but works for the best in
terests of the whole country. Like the
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HEROES OF INSURGENCY
rest of his brothers in the insurgent ranks,
he is without wealth. His home in Fort
Dodge is unpretentious but comfortable.
He was married to Miss Louise Pearsons
on November 20, 1895, and is the father
of three children. He is a lecturer of
proven power, a helper of yoting men, a
lawyer of much ability, and always has
the power to see the funny side of things.
From the standpoint of steadiness he is,
perhaps, the best leader in the insurgent
ranks. He does not irritate. He has the
power to make and hold friends. Even
his opponents do not hate him with that
undying hatred inspired by some of his
colleagues. In the Senate his great bulk,
his great voice, and his great mind fit him
to take a place far ahead of those silken
representatives of Plutocratic Interests
who must remain chained to their corpo
ration kennels. Senator Dolliver may
aoo

JONATHAN PRENTISS DOLLIVER
roam abroad and acquire for himself the
help that is forevei- being offered to
those whose only desire is to serve the
majority. Senator Dolliver is a servant
of the many.

aoi:

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE

Albert J. Beveridge

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
T^THEN Albert J. Beveridge, as the
' ' head of his own personally con
structed and personally conducted politi
cal machine, secured for himself the
election to the United States Senate, a
newspaper reporter sent into the state
to see for himself what was really hap
pening found that the Beveridge adher
ents were not mere enthusiasts, but were
as fanatical in their loyalty as those
followers of Mahomet who, at the mere
command of their leader, flung themselves
into the ditches before Constantinople so
that their fellows might march over their
bodies to victory.
It is always somewhat dangerous to
indulge in the joy of weaving a long sen-
105

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
tence, but when the sentence is started
with the name of Senator Beveridge and
ends with victory, it matters little how
many literary bypaths one must travel to
reach the period.
As one when given the segment of a
circle may complete the circle, so one may,
by being given a segment of the youthful
biography of a man, construct a fairly
perfect circle of the man's life.
Beveridge, like most of those insurging
gentlemen who have achieved their suc
cess as champions of popular government,
found himself as a youth equipped with a
plentiful stock of poverty. His father
had tried to support his family on a poor
sort of a farm on the border of Adams
and Highland counties in Ohio. There,
on October 6, 1862, Albert J. was born.
The father and brothers fought on the
Union side in the Civil War, after which
106

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
unpleasantness a new home was found in
Illinois. It matters little whether a young man
be equipped or unequipped with material
wealth, but it matters much what wealth is
stored in his mind and body. If judged by
the standards set by Dun and Bradstreet,
Beveridge was worse than bankrupt. His
poverty was like that encountered by Bris
tow in his youth. It was that stinging
kind that whipped him like a lash and
drove him out to work. It filled his soul
with such terrors that he flung himself
feverishly into labor that would purchase
comforts. And yet this poverty was a
good thing. The law of compensation will
persist in working. There is no greater
developer of character than doing the
work involved in earning a living. Not
only is this proven by Beveridge, but a
study of the biographies of others .who
107

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
have climbed high from great depths will
disclose this same fact. The youth who is
flung into the stream and left to sink or
swim will, if there be the ghost of man
hood in him, swim in safety to the nearest
shore. Beveridge was tossed into the
stream of life by the clawing hands of
Poverty. At twelve he was a farm laborer and
followed the plow. Work in a railroad
crew claimed him two years later. We
find him in a lumber camp at fifteen, driv
ing team and using his glorious young
strength in handling heaA^ walnut logs.
A year later he showed his genius for
managing men as foreman of the camp
— a mere boy bossing men old enough to
be his father. And always we find him
studying — preparing himself for some
thing better.
Manual labor claimed him all summer
io8

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
and late into the fall. Then, with a wee
bit of money saved up, he went to school.
He worked his way through high school
in this way, his great physical strength
developed by manual labor fitting him for
the ravenous way in which he studied to
satisfy his mental hunger. Working with
his hands and thinking while he worked
had cleared his mind. His brain was like
a sun-parched desert in a rain-storm. He
drank in knowledge and retained it.
Without money, except for fifty dollars
which a kind old man in his home town
loaned him, he entered De Pauw Univer
sity at Greencastle, Indiana. David Gra
ham Phillips, the author, was a fellow
student. Phillips says that in those days
Beveridge was different from the rest of
the fellows. He was odd. He was a
rather short, heavy-set youngster, his
well-developed muscles playing beneath a
109

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
baggy suit. His face was somewhat pal
lid, but keen and alert. His gray-blue
eyes looked out from under a big mop of
long, fair hair. His voice was penetrat
ing, one that could be heard above the
roar of a stream and logs that crashed
into one another. It was a voice that com
pelled one to listen. It irritated one until
one became accustomed to it.
Seeing Beveridge, or meeting him for
the first time, one would be inclined to dis
like him, not because there was about him
something that aroused dislike, but be
cause he was odd and not easily classified.
After one knew him one could not help
liking and admiring him.
In college he was known as the greatest
worker and the wisest loafer in the place.
The schedule of study he had arranged
for himself would have killed any ordi
nary man. He limited himself to four
no

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
hours of sleep a night, taking more sleep
as many a student would take some ordi
nary form of college recreation.
But this does not mean that Beveridge
was a " grind " ; that is, he was not one
of those stoop-shouldered, bespectacled,.
narrow-chested fellows who win scholas
tic honors and then get a job in a corner
grocery or die of consumption. Beveridge
had just as much fun as the rest of his
fellows. The difference consisted in this :
after the prank was past Beveridge would
settle down to his work, while the others
would gather together and talk about the
fun they had had.
He was a good executive, a good organ
izer. He owned but one thing in those
days, and that one thing he invested so as
to earn for himself the largest returns.
Time was his one capital. He wasted no
minutes. When he worked, he worked;
III

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
when he played, he played. He never
dawdled. It used to be a cause of wonder
to his mates when he disposed of his
school work and then stepped in and ran
the politics of his fraternity and the liter
ary society to which he belonged. Mr.
Phillips says that often he has seen Bev
eridge going off into the woods in the
morning to practice speaking before the
rest of the students were astir.
It is httle wonder that he won about all
the college oratorical prizes. He worked!
for them harder than any one else. While
he had native ability, he had something in
addition which others did not possess. He
had perseverance, patience, and stick-to-
it-iveness. It was good business for him
to win prizes. He needed the money to
pay his expenses. In his junior year he
brought to De Pauw the state oratorical
prize, defeating speakers from all the big
1X2

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
colleges in Indiana. The coveted inter
state oratorical prize became his in his
senior year. He had to compete with the
best orators of the great colleges of the
Middle West and Northwest. The news
of his victory set his fellows aflame with
enthusiasm. At the depot to meet him on
his return he found the president and fac
ulty, the band, his cheering fellow stu
dents, and an equally enthusiastic crowd
of townspeople. One who was present
says that " Bev " tried to ride in that spe
cial carriage by the side of the president
without showing his self-consciousness,
but that every one forgave him his fail
ure to hide his feeling of importance.
During his first vacation he went out to
earn money as a book agent. He was so
successful that the company gave him
charge of training a special students sales
force the following year. The book was
113

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
a history of religions and was called
" Error's Chains." For months before
school closed this force of persuasive
gentlemen rattled around Greencastle
practicing for the summer campaign. It
is reported that no college crew sold more
books or made more money than the one
led by Beveridge that second summer.
Every sitting-room table was thereafter
qualified to pass any kind of an examina
tion in the history of religions.
After graduation the publishers tried
their best to make Beveridge a permanent
member of their force. But he refused
their offer, even though he needed the
money as he needed few other things. His
health was broken by the years of study
ing and the strain of earning a living. To
get back his health was his first task. This
he accomplished by going West and be
coming a cowboy. When he returned!
114

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
East, he entered the law office of McDon
ald & Butler of Indianapolis as clerk. Old
Senator McDonald was interested in the
youngster and believed in him. A year
later the old man called him in and told
him he was appointed managing clerk.
" But I have n't the necessary experi
ence," exclaimed Beveridge.
"That's all right, Albert," answered
the old attorney ; " if we are willing to
take a chance, you should be."
This really made the youngster a junior
partner and threw him actively into the
practice of his profession. His legal op
ponents were big men. But Beveridge
himself, in spite of his youth, was poten
tially a big man. The power of his intel
lect and the force of his personality were
felt. It was right in the midst of a big
trial that the date set for his marriage fell.
So well liked was the youth that the judge
115

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
gladly closed the court so that the mar
riage might go on as planned. Thus, on
November 24, 1887, two years after his
graduation from De Pauw, he was
married to Miss Katherine Langsdale, a
classmate. Mrs. Beveridge died June 18,
1900. Seven years later in Berlin, Ger
many, on August 7, Senator Beveridge
was married to Miss Katherine Eddy of
Chicago. His first great legal victory was in what
is known as the Pennsylvania cases. The
Pennsylvania Railroad contended that the
state of Indiana had no right to tax prop
erty not owned in the state. Beveridge
fought this case through and won a
signal victory for Indiana by placing
one hundred and fifty million dollars'
worth of railroad property on its tax
rolls. Although interested chiefly in civil
cases, Beveridge would sometimes break
116

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
his rule and do work in the criminal
court. It was during the great Blaine cam
paign in 1884 that Beveridge made his
first political speeches. Thus he became
identified with politics a year before his
graduation from college. From that time
on he never lost his interest in the govern
ment, although he made no attempt to
secure political office for himself. He
studied the political situation and found
that the machine in his state was about as
corrupt a thing as could be discovered in
the country. He then set out to break the
machine power. To do this he organized
his own machine,, forming it out of the
young men. Here he displayed his genius
for organization. These young voters he
welded together so that nothing could pull
them apart. Year after year they grew in
strength. Year after year they made their
117

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
power felt. Finally, in 1899, they placed
their leader in a chair in the United States
Senate, giving him his first and only office.
According to the all-wise Mr. Dooley,
Beveridge's first Senate speech was " wan
you cud waltz to." It won him the nick
name of " the boy orator." Coming from
the youngest member, it aroused the old
sters to attempt to kill him off, to smother
him, to snub him, to put him in what they
in their godlike wisdom thought was his
place. But nothing could stop Beveridge.
He remained the same buoyant, fresh, and
bubbling speaker. When he arose to talk,
the ladies crowded into the galleries. He
was a hero to the women. But many of
the older men disliked him. Senator Pet-
tus, with more than eighty years behind
him, once arose and delivered a speech
which was such a farcical imitation of a
regulation Beveridge offering that the
118

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
Senate was convulsed with laughter. But
that laughter affected Beveridge about as
much as a gentle shower would affect a
duck. He could not be squelched.
Yet only those who did not know the
man disliked him. Newspaper men who
came to the capital prepared to dislike him
went away with a feeling of admiration
and personal liking. They recognized the
real man in him. His seriousness, his
mannerisms, his Samuel Smiles preach
ments — all these were forgotten in the
sunshine of his man-like presence. And
then he was a man of intellect. Those
who engaged him in debate with the hope
of easily trampling upon him found too
late that he was a master. More than once
has Senator Bailey been driven frantic by
the querulous questioning. To debate suc
cessfully with Beveridge one must know
all about the subject in hand and a little bit
119

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
more. Beveridge, like a battleship in war
time, always has his decks ,cleared for
action. Few men have gone to Washington with
more enthusiasm. It was his enthusiasm,
his fire, his serious and insistent activity,
that the old fellows could not understand.
Besides, he was guilty of the crime of
being young. To most folks wisdom is
synonymous with age. Those old politi
cians in Washington could not see that
Beveridge had made up in intensity and
variety what he lacked in years. As a
man may more easily learn golf by study
ing the principles governing every stroke
instead of going out and hitting the ball
all over the lot without using his head, so
Beveridge studied politics and government
scientifically and basically, while others
were trusting to time and experience to
give them their training. That is why he
1 20

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
has remained in the Senate, his position
practically unchallenged, since 1899.
From his pictures one would judge Sen
ator Beveridge to be tall. In height, as a
matter of fact, he measures but five feet
eight inches. His weight is one hundred
and fifty-eight pounds. He still has that
boyish look and has not lost his old bubbly
enthusiasm or his buoyancy. His books
show him to be more than a politician.
His knowledge is not limited to facts about
this country. He has browsed in his
studies over the entire world. During the
Russo-Japanese War a series of articles
in a magazine showed his grasp of the
Eastern situation. His books written to
help young men may be found in nearly all
the libraries of the country.
That he is a man with a heart is proved
by his attitude toward the child-labor
question. He has fought consistently to
121

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
save the children from wage slavery and
give them the play and the education which
he himself lacked in his youth. His speech
on the work of Frances Willard stamps
him as a man who loves and understands
women. His articles on the Bible show
his broadness and the wholesomeness of
him, while his stand on all public questions
is proof of the fact that he understands
what the people want and of his desire to
serve their best interests.
Senator Beveridge became a good man
first, and, as is natural, he could not and
has not failed to be a good Senator. Esti
mating him as an all-around man, he must
be graded close to one hundred per cent.

122

VICTOR MURDOCK

Victor Murdock

VICTOR MURDOCK
TN spite of his shock of red hair, his
-*- reputation as a fighting insurgent, his
two hundred and ten pounds, his broad
shoulders and deep chest, the keenest de
sire of Victor Murdock's life is not to
win a place for himself as a statesman or
politician, but to write one successful play
or a book that will live after he is gone.
He can think of no joy keener than that
which comes to a man who has written a
successful play and stands before a howl
ing, cheering, enthusiastic mob in response
to wild calls for the author. That he has
become known in every state in the union
as a fighter for popular government, and
is looked upon everywhere as an uncom
promising enemy of the machine governed
125

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
by concentrated wealth, is a matter of as
much surprise to him as it is to those who
know of his literary ambition.
When a boy he was not particularly
interested in politics. Unlike Bristow, he
did not choose a political career. Even
in his boyhood days his dream was of lit
erary instead of political conquests. When
he was ten years old> he was trying to
write plays that would relegate Shake
speare to the amateur class. As soon as
he was old enough he helped around his
father's printshop, and at fifteen was earn
ing a salary as a reporter.
During his boyhood he read everything
that he felt would form his style. He did
not have to be driven away from the five-
cent novels, because he was so serious in
his ambition that he refused to contami
nate his literary equipment with reading
that did not measure up to the highest
126

VICTOR MURDOCK
standard. Like many another literary
person, he took himself and his writing
very seriously. His world was a very
small one, in spite of his newspaper work,
and he had visions of going forth and
tossing it about as other youngsters did
a rag ball on the town lot.
Kipling, as Murdock insisted on think
ing, was famous at twenty-three. Chat
terton had earned the title of " that mar
velous boy " when he was little more than
a child. Shelley and Keats had written
their names imperishably when they had
scarcely trembled past their teens. Mur
dock burned to emulate them, to write
something that would stir men's souls
like organ chords.
With the irresponsibility of genius he
was married before he was twenty. Miss
M. P. Allen was the daring maiden who
believed in him and in his dreams. At
127

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
that time he could not be entered at any
county fair as a malefactor of great
wealth. His father, on whose paper he
worked as reporter, paid him only nine
dollars a week. After his marriage he
went to his father and pointed out, in
what he thought was a businesslike man
ner, the necessity for having more money.
" You are paying your bookkeeper
twenty-two dollars a week, while I, a lit
erary man, am forced to support myself
and wife on nine paltry dollars. It is n't
fair." So argued Victor.
His father, however, was of a different
opinion. He was perfectly willing to as
sist Victor as a son, but as a reporter on
his paper he could not figure out that
good business demanded the payment of
more than nine dollars. He kindly and
patiently and painstakingly pointed out to
Victor that the bookkeeper was a man of
128

VICTOR MURDOCK
parts, a necessity, a valuable servant, that
it would be difficult to get another like
him, while reporters could be picked up
by the gross in any village in the country.
Thinking that his literary abilities were
not rated high enough in the Wichita
market, the young couple journeyed to
Chicago, arranged their few belongings
in one room, prayed to the gods that
watch over the destinies of literary per
sons, and then Victor went out and got
a job on a newspaper that paid him twenty-
two dollars a week at the start, not count
ing, of course, such expenses as a reporter
meets with in the performance of his
duties. The imagination of the reader
may be trusted to picture the glee of the
son as he sat himself down to write a
letter to his father.
On the Chicago papers Murdock made
good. He not only held his initial posi-
129

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
tion as long as he wanted it, but climbed
ahead into positions that paid more money
and enabled him to do more important
work. Fate played a merry jest upon him
when he was assigned to political duty.
He had always hated politics, but the duty
of a reporter is to perform all duties as
signed him without question, and Murdock
shouldered political burdens as though it
were a pleasure.
He not only saw the working of local
politics through the eyes of a reporter,
but met and associated with big men in
the world of government. For his paper
he traveled with William McKinley, and
learned to love the man for his innate
goodness and gentleness even before he
attained national prominence. In 1894
his father gladly welcomed him home to
Wichita, and he became managing editor
of "The Wichita Eagle," holding that
130

VICTOR MURDOCK
position until 1903, when he was elected
to the Fifty-eighth Congress to fill a
vacancy. His first splurge into politics as a can
didate was made with as little prepara
tion on his part as his initial plunge into
political reporting. There were eighteen
candidates for the office of Congressman
when the foreman of " The Daily Eagle,"
Murdock's mother, and other intimate
friends and relatives asked him why he
did not try for the place. He refused
to consider it. But the friends would not
take no for an answer. A family confer
ence was called, and all voted in favor of
the Murdock candidacy. In opposition,
standing out alone like the Rock of
Gibraltar, was Murdock's father. " How
any man is fool enough to leave the office
of a paper which speaks daily to thou
sands of readers, in order to become a
113 1

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
picaytinish Congressman, is something I
don't pretend to understand. The editor
of a daily paper is a bigger man any old
day than any Congressman that was ever
foaled." That was the paternal verdict.
Victor, however, went with the major
ity, announced his candidacy, and, to his
own surprise, won the appointment. He
went to Congress without any idea of
posing as a reformer. His attitude was
that of a newspaper man instead of that
of a statesman or politician. He really
was not interested particularly in any
thing but the news value of what he saw.
What he did see interested him. He
saw that Congressmen, for the most part,
are mere puppets, that a ring ruled the
place, that the Speaker was an autocrat,
that no one could speak without begging
for the privilege, and then only after tell
ing in advance what was to be the sub-
132

VICTOR MURDOCK
ject of the speech. Murdock saw all these
things and more. For himself he was not
indignant. Rather was his indignation
that of a newspaper man who is inter
ested more in getting a good story than
in bringing about a reform. The reform
comes second.
Murdock wrote a story that was a
stinger. Before sending it, however, he
showed it to the political leader of his
state, then in the Senate. He was advised
to tear the story up, become a good In
dian, and remain mentally hobbled on
the reservation. Being unused to Wash
ington and relying somewhat upon the
advice of his political superior, the story
found its way into the wastebasket. For
several years he remained a good Indian.
Then, since he had been appointed to the
Postal Committee, he discovered what he
thought was a mere error in bookkeeping.
133

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
He remembered what his father had told
him about the importance of bookkeepers,
and he thought that he might perform a
real service by pointing out the mistake.
Up to 1878 no mail had been carried
on the railroads on Sunday. The rail
roads were paid for hauling the mail by
the weight of the mail carried. This
weight was arrived at by weighing the
mails for six days and then dividing the
total by six so as to get the daily aver
age. The next step was to multiply the
daily weight by the number of days —
counting six to the week — in the mail-
hauling year.
That was all right up to 1878. But
after that mail was hauled on Sunday.
The divisor, however, remained the same.
Murdock pointed out that the divisor
should be seven. No attention was paid
to him. He insisted that a mistake had
134

VICTOR MURDOCK
been made. His insistence forced the
matter into public notice. Then, and not
until then, did he learn that there was no
mistake in bookkeeping, but that for years
government officials had been sharing in
the graft. After a strenuous fight the
divisor was made seven, and Murdock
felt a certain thrill of pride over knowing
that his discovery had saved the govern
ment about five million dollars a year.
That awakened him to the evil in gov
ernment affairs, and so he was prepared
to take his place among the leaders of the
congressional insurgents during the late
congressional session. He voted against
the Aldrich-Payne bill all the time, and
was a sworn enemy of Speaker Cannon
and that kind of congressional domina
tion known as Cannonism.
Murdock was born on March i8, 1871,
in Burlingame, Kansas, and has always
13s

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
lived in the state except during his repor-
torial period in Chicago. His education
was received in the common schools and
at Lewis Academy, Wichita, but the best
training came through his newspaper
work and because of his keen desire to
write something that would live. Mrs.
Murdock has always been his helper and
his pard, while two daughters have come
to brighten their home.
To all but those who hate insurgents,
Victor Murdock is likable, being gifted
with a certain insinuating charm of man
ner that wins confidence. His newspaper
work has trained him to see that which
is hidden from the majority. He knows
much of the crookedness of politics, yet
in spite of this knowledge he is an op
timist through and through. He has a
big mouth through which to send forth
a pleasing oratorical voice, and there is
136

VICTOR MURDOCK
that about him which impresses one with
his solidity and general wholesomeness.
He has fought against Cannonism, not
for personal glory or for a higher office,
but because he believes that it is the only
thing for an honest representative of the
people to do.
If he had his own way, political posi
tions would be forgotten, and he would
settle down to his newspaper work with
a sigh of content, and would work to
materialize that dream of his which calls
for the writing of a successful play that
will call forth the frantic cheers of the
crowd and the wild cry for " The author !
author ! "

137

MILES POINDEXTER

MILES POINDEXTER
OENT to Congress on a well-advertised
^^ anti-Cannon promise. Miles Poindex
ter violated all the sacred rules governing
precedent by becoming a national figure
during his first term. He represented a
district containing thirty thousand square
miles, which embraces the eastern half of
the state of Washington, and his was the
first Western fight in which Cannonism
was the main issue. The only promise
asked by his constituents was that he fight
against the Cannon rule. How well he
obeyed is a matter of national record. He
speedily took his place as a leader in the
counsels of the insurgents, and was an
important and powerful influence in giv-
141

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
ing the Speaker his first rude shove to the
rear. Miles Poindexter was born in Memphis,
Tennessee, three years after the close of
the Civil War. His warrior blood comes
from his father, who proudly wore the
gray in the great conflict. He attended
the Fancy Hill Academy in Virginia, and
later was graduated from Washington
and Lee University, carrying off class
honors. Like the course of empire of which the
poet sings, he took his Western journey.
He was then twenty-three years old.
This, for the information of those hungry
for figures, was in 189 1. He was equipped
to practice law, but if his mental condition
had been as unfinished as his physical ap
pearance, his path would have been down
ward instead of in the opposite and, as
folks contend, the better direction. For
142

MILES POINDEXTER
he was a gawky, ungainly, elongated sort
of individual, whose chief occupation
seemed to be to find a place for his feet
and hands. Pendleton, Oregon, was his
first home. There he demonstrated that,
in spite of his un-Gibsonlike appearance,
he was a veritable Apollo in beauty and
strength of mind.
Like Damon and P3rthias, two ancient
history, or, if you prefer, mythical charac
ters whose business was to impersonate
manly friendship. Miles Poindexter and
Tom Page drifted together. Walla Walla,
which is not far from Pendleton, was the
home of the mother and sisters of Tom
Page, who used to ride over every Sunday
morning for midday gustatory purposes,
as well as for that spiritual and mental
enrichment which is supposed to be found
among the winnings of a son who fre
quents the neighborhood of his mother
143

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
and sisters. One Sunday Poindexter was
persuaded to go along. That is how he
met Elizabeth Gale Page, who brightened
his life by marrying him not so many
months later.
Pendleton had grown too small for the
ambitious young lawyer, and Walla Walla
became his home for six years, while he
stepped up to the prosecuting attorneyship
of the county. After the Walla Walla
period, or, to bound this with time, thirteen
years ago, he moved to Spokane and for
six years was deputy prosecuting attorney.
He was next elected to the superior bench
as joint judge of two counties. Here he
made a splendid record. His decisions
had in them so much of the element of
justice. Back of all of them were years
of careful study and trained judgment.
His knowledge had not come to him out of
the air. He had earned it by sleeping but
144

MILES POINDEXTER
five hours each night and making use of
the other hours of darkness in reading
classics, history, fiction, philosophy — to
him everything was grist for his mental
mill. His knowledge is encyclopaedic.
He resigned his judgeship to enter the
congressional campaign when the congres
sional place was made vacant by the ele
vation of Wesley L. Jones to the United
States Senate. There were a number of
aspirants. Six or seven of them spent
most of their time trying to win the sup
port of Frank Post, attorney for the big
corporations, who was commonly reported
as a man of political power. Poindexter
took the opposite tack. He sent some
of Post's friends around to him to per
suade him to announce himself opposed
to Poindexter. That showed the people
that Poindexter was not looking for the
friendship of the corporations. 145

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
Poindexter's strength consists in his
honesty, straightforwardness, courage of
conviction, equipment of basic knowledge,
convincing sincerity, and his dogged and
persistent policy of doing what seems to
him to be the right thing for the good of
the greater number. In his campaign he
travels on horseback over his district and
talks man to man with the voters. He im
presses them with the fact that he is one
of them — anyhow, it is certain that his
personal power put to rout six of his
opponents. Oratory is not to be found in the equip
ment of this insurgent. But what he lacks
in fieriness and dramatic power he makes
up in clearness, conciseness, logic, and
earnest sincerity. He speaks just as he
thinks. Unlike many another good poli
tician, he has no machine. He realizes
that to construct a strong political ma-
146

MILES POINDEXTER
chine promises and pap must be given to
hangers-on. He goes without a machine
by resting his case with the people them
selves. He is reported to be his own
manager and board of strategy. In his
campaigns he seems to have no secrets.
He evades nothing. Those in doubt can
find out where he stands by asking him.
Like Norris and LaFollette, his home
life is as clear as a crystal. He has no
money to spend in living a gay life, nor,
were he possessed of great wealth, has he
the desire to live otherwise than as he does.
He lives on the outermost edge of Spo
kane, on a little farm. His home is filled
with books. When at home, he milks his
own cow, feeds his own chickens — lives
like any sane man who loves to recreate
himself by living close to the soil.
This man is not a lover of fighting. But
when there is a fight to be fought, and he
147

HEROES OF INSURGENCY
is needed in it, he is there with all the
power of brain and body. He is blessed!
with the far-famed Southern nerve. It
required nerve of the purest kind for the
fight he waged as the first Western insur
gent. It has taken nerve all through the
strenuous congressional days. The other
members of the Washington delegation,
while liking Poindexter personally, were
wholly out of sympathy with him in his
insurging. But Poindexter has asked
neither favors nor quarter and has gone
forward doing his duty as he under
stands it.
He stands with Pinchot on the conser
vation question, and believes that Roose
velt is the man needed to help the people
win their battle against that entrenched
power which Cannon represents in the
House and which Aldrich represents in the
Senate. 148

MILES POINDEXTER
In his senatorial campaign his platform
contained three planks: amendment of
the tariff laws to reduce the cost of living;
support of the Pinchot policy toward con
servation of national resources, and the
enactment of such national legislation as
the " drys " have requested. On the latter
he argues that the smaller centers of popu
lation and the rural districts should be free
to choose whether they will permit the
entry of liquor.
Poindexter is one of the great men of
the Far West. His place, whether he wins
or loses in his fights for office, will ever
be one which accords with the philosophy
of the square deal.

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