Miles Poindexter Takes On the Party Bosses

Congressman Miles Poindexter, of the Third district of Washington, at a meeting of the Progressive Republican League in the Chamber of Commerce assembly room, Spokane, Saturday afternoon, announced his candidacy for the United States senate. He will be a candidate at the next senatorial primaries to succeed Senator Samuel H. Piles, of Seattle.

Twenty-eight members of the Progressive Republican League, formed in Spokane Oct. 20, met in the assembly room. Each is an editor or proprietor of a newspaper in Eastern Washington and each pledged his paper's support to the work of the league. Articles of faith of the league were presented as drafted by Rufus Wilson, of the Maiden Herald, secretary of the league. They were unanimously adopted.

Following the adoption of the articles of faith and the declaration that Judge Poindexter was the choice of the league for United States senator, Judge Poindexter was introduced.

He expressed himself as gratified at the steps taken by the league and then formally announced his candidacy for the senate. Continuing, he outlined his policy as follows:

"I will make a close personal canvass of the state. There is no doubt in my mind that the Republicans of the state are independent and progressive. The issue of this senatorial campaign will be whether the state will be represented in the senate by a progressive senator or by an Aldrich reactionary senator. My opinion is that the tests and standards of Republicanism are to be fixed by the voters of the Republican party and by party conventions.

"I deny the right of Speaker Cannon or Senator Aldrich to dictate the policies of the party or to fix the standards of Republicanism. The trouble with congress at present is too much Cannon and too much Aldrich. The West is big enough to get along without a boss from Rhode Island or from Danville, Ill. The Republican party by its national convention and by its vote at the polls declared in favor of the downward revision of the tariff. Senator Aldrich denied this on the floor of the senate and proposed a revision upward. I prefer to be guided by the national convention and the vote at the polls rather than by the sealed orders of Mr. Aldrich.

"The Republican party by its convention and by its votes declared in favor of Mr. Roosevelt and his policies and his way of doing things. Senator Aldrich and Speaker Cannon declared against Mr. Roosevelt and against his way of doing things. I prefer to accept the judgment of the convention and of the people at the polls rather than the judgment of the 'interests' and the 'system,' who speak through Mr. Aldrich and Mr. Cannon.

"It would not hurt the United States senate if it were permeated with a little less tender solicitude for the great moneyed interests and a little more care for the great people. It is undoubtedly true that in the leading committees of the senate and of the house, and in the oligarchy which controls them, the trusts, the monopolies, the seekers of government privilege have a voice and an influence which the public has not. The people are silent there, and they should be represented by those who are chosen supposedly for that purpose. But by means of the primary election law the people are at last beginning to have a voice, and a new and freer and more representative element has appeared and is increasing in the senate. There is no doubt that in a short time the investigation of public opinion will drive the bosses out of power, and that the needs of the people will predominate over the greed of the interests.

"I deny that Aldrichism or Cannonism is any part of Republican principles. No national convention has ever so declared and no national convention ever will so declare, although that has now become a national issue. Neither Mr. Aldrich nor Mr. Cannon is any part of the constitution or of the statutes, and I deny that opposition to them constitutes a state of rebellion or insurrection. Mr. Cannon stuck his trousers into his boots and presented himself and his policies to the last Republican convention, but the Republican convention turned them down, and all that could be heard of Mr. Cannon or his policies was a dull thud. It was an insurgent convention. But Mr. Cannon went back to Washington, and with the aid of reactionary Democrats and of Republican congressmen who had pledged themselves during the campaign to vote against him was re-elected speaker and re-established his policies in the legislative branch of the government.

"I am not in favor of radical measures, but, on the contrary, am opposed to a radical reactionary policy which has changed the house of representatives into a system of packed committees and arbitrary special orders. I state it as a fact of personal observation that Senator Aldrich was enabled to carry his tariff schedules through the senate not by force of any reason which he presented, but because opposition to the wishes of Senator Aldrich in the senate was considered irregular and bad party form.

"And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said: 'Behold I have dreamed a dream more; and behold the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.' Before the people's measures can receive fair consideration in congress, bossism must be destroyed and the minds of men unfettered from the gang and the machine. Before action the decks must be cleared for action.

"I am in favor of carefully guarding and preserving from monopoly the public forests, coal and water, of a progressive and liberal improvement of waterway improvement, of more extensive government irrigation with a more careful regard for the needs and interests of those most directly affected, namely, the water users. It is undoubtedly true also that in the administration of the forest laws attention should be paid to the rights and interests of bona fide settlers in and about the reserves. I am in favor of more comprehensive laws for the control of railroads, the great common carriers of the country, and that stringent provisions should be enacted to prevent favoritism and discrimination between shippers and between localities."