Whitmore Lake

The sixteenth annual picnic at Whitmore Lake on Saturday drew together over 5,000 people and showed no diminution in the interest of those who attended. There was possibly a larger attendance of young people than of old, and there were very many from outside the county. The fakirs were as nuraerous as usual but they did not, as a rule, seem to be having a good run of business, nor was there quite the usual variety. The fakir with balls to throw at dolls or other marks was out in great force, but in two tours of the grounds our reporter failed to see any of them doing business. The dust on the roads leading to VVhitmore Lake was intolerable. On the road from Ann Arbor especially, there seemed to be more dust in the air than was on the road-bed, the carriages running on stones at the bottom of the roads. All day long the arrivals of new participants in the festivities were numerous and many started as others reached home, the dances in the hotels at night being numerously patronized. It was not a good political day, although the candidates were numerous and the republican county committee had come out in a body for the purpose of making converts, bringing their candidate for governor and congressman. Yet our people have always somehow declined to mix politics with their picnics, the main purpose of which is to meet old friends. Yet a very large audience assembled to listen to the political speaking. It was a distinguished list of speakers which had been provided, including three of the candidates for governor and a candidate for congressman. And yet the unprejudiced listener, when the oratory was over, must have formed the opinión that the brainiest men of the state were not candidates for office or, at least, were not present at the picnic. The speeches, if the cruth must be said, were mediocre. The audience was one of the best humored ever gathered together and seemingly absolutely impartial. No feeling of party antagonisms was developed. The Salem band drew the crowd together about the speaker's stand and a good band of singers opened the meeting by singing "Arnerica." After a fervent prayer by Rev Mr. Shannon and a solo by Miss Donna Pinckney, "Long Live America," President Henry C. Waldron, of the association made the opening address. He judged from the audience that the farmers had not grown weary of their annual pilgrimage to Whitmore Lake. They had gathered about the stand to witness a political race. He who tills the soil has a laborious life, but honorable nevertheless. In conclusión he said, "You are the wealth producers of the world. I wish that every farmer had an income of $5,000 a year and I trust that these gentlemen here will devise some remedy by which you gentlemen can get more than fitty cents a bushei for wheat and ten cents a pound for wool. If they don't, they had better quit running for their offices." The Salem glee clubrendered the humorous song "All on Account of Eliza," and President Waldron introduced Governor John T. Rich as a two-fisted farmer, and the governor delivered practically the same speech that he made Germán day at Chelsea. Gov. Rich declined to talk politics. He said that notwithstanding what has been said about the hard times, we have one satisfaction at least in that there is no other agricultural population anywhere else in the world that is better off than we are. In journeying over the state he feit increased admiration for the ■state and its people, and nowhere had he found a better or more pros■perous people than those of the agricultural regions. He spoke of the various officers of the state and their duties, and took up the various state institutions. Of the state .educational system he said: Araong the early things which the settlers coming into the wilderness did was to establish an educational system for what they deemed would be a great and growing state. No one Sooking at it today can help but admire the liberality of those men. They founded what has proven a great university, the crowning glory of the educational system of the state. Then they founded the state normal school o: which the people are justly proml. They also established the state agricultural college, one of the first institutions of lts kind. It is not perfect yet but it has succeeded beyond the expectations of many of its warmest friends. He next took up the primary school money fund and then passed to the praise of our insane asylums, reformatories, prisons, etc, and to the various state commissions and boards, strongly comniending their usefulness. Besides the educational institutions he said there are fifteen other state institutions including one being erected for the feeble minded. These institutions contain about r8,ooo nmates. Including ths state capítol about $i 0,000, - 000 of money is invested in ttie buildings aiui it coá'.s $2,000,000 a year to run them. In conclusión, the governor said he had seen no short diuners, evdryone seemed be comfortably clothed and he contrasted the condition of the people of this section with that of the mining región. He wouldn't attempt to say why we didn't get as much for wheat or wool but counseled patience and work and said that these things would remedy themselves after a while. The Lombard quartet club sang a republican campaign song, "Quit You All Like Men," and Mr. Waldron introduced Dr. A. W. Nichols, the populist candidate for governor, as one who had agreed if elected to make wool fifty cents a pound and wheat $2 a bushel. Mr. Nichols proved a witty and entertaining if erratic speaker. He said he would talk religión and took as his texts, Deuteronomy XXIII, 19; Matthew XXIII, 15; James V, 1, and Nehemiah Chapter V, but he found it difficult work to stick to his texts. He said our forefathers started a real Christian church of human freedom 118 years ago and plainly declared all men free and equal. Fifty-nine out of sixty million of our people have still an abiding faith in that declaratton and were greatly opposed to the system which aggregated the wealth in. few hands. He roasted the press as the servants of monopoly and afknowledged its power, saying that if he could only get the old party press to shut up shop until after election, there wouldn't be enough republicansor democrats left to hold a caucus. The republican party was made up of old pro-slavery democrats. Money was as essential to prosperity as our life blood. The financial bleeding in this nation began in 1867 and has reduced the price of your farms, one-half if not twothirds. In 1867, your son when tired of remaining at home, could go away ar.d find him an elegant farm. He can't do it now. All the land has been given away, not to some poor unfortunate men, but to the richest men in the land and when they couldn't find enough of those at home they took it over to England and gave it away to Lord Brassey and such men. There are two dangerous classes of men in this country, the tramp and the monopolist and the monopolist was the most dangerous man of the two. He fixes the price of everything you eat and wear and then he fixes the price of your senators and representatives and he fixes them low. If elected, Mr. Nichols promised to scare the old parties so they would Ínflate the currency. He spoke strongly for a graded income tax. With it he would build good roads of crushed stone. Vanderbilt was so rich that his horse stables were paved with marble and covered with brussels carpets. He would have the roads so good that there would be no mud, no dust, and the farmers' home would be jus't as good as the lawyer's or doctor's'and a good deal better. H. D. Pierce, of Dexter, sang "Coxey Keep Off the Grass.". Alfred M. Todd, the prohibition candidate for governor, was the next speaker. He read the prohibition platform after making several attempts to start it. He took some minutes to teil how hard it was to find the platforms of the other parties, and said they were silent on the temperance question. He read from several reformers their opinions as to the fact that temperance was an issue. The Wilsey glee club sang the Temperance Cali, and Pres. Waldron introduced Hon. C. P. Black, of Lansing. as the representative of Mr. Fisher, and said that if any democrat was to be governor of Michigan he would like to see Spencer O. Fisher that man. Mr. Black first replied to the prohibition candidate by stating that there was nothing about virtue in the prohibition platform, but he did not on that account charge that party with not believing in virtue. He next took up Dr. Nichols, and said that when you take a stone out of a superstructure you should be ready with a new one to put in its place. Robert Ingersoll was always attempting to tear down the Christian religión, but he never had anything to offer in its place. He did not believe in calamity howlers. We have a great deal of wealth in this country, and happiness, but there ; are many bad conditions which ' ought to be righted. There has : been too much given up to : oly in the past twenty-five years. If i any wealth has been added in the past twenty-five years through ! lation, the republicans are entitled to the credit. Until a year ago last March, they passed all the laws that have been passed and repealed all that have been repealed. During that time they repealed the income tax. They passed a bilí to demonetize and degrade silver. Remember we are in favor of a graduated income tax. He spoke of the repeal of the McKinley law, and said the country was like a man laid on the amputation board with a limb to be taken off. You would not expect him to rise in a minute and walk. But business is starting up and will soon grow better. The whole tariff question is a selfish question and creates a false kind of statesmanship. Men clamor for a tariff to help themselves against the general good of the people. The kind of statesman ship he liked was that of Spencer O. Fisher, one of the greatest lumbermen of the state, who declared for free lumber. He was a man who had the manliness to sink his own private interests for the general good of the country. After speaking a few minutes on the present tariff bilí, Mr. Black concluded by saying that the people were above all parties, and our destiny rests upon the shoulders of our yeomanry. President VValdron called upon County Clerk Brown to furnish a democratie campaign song, and Mr. Brown responded by saying, "We have concluded to sing our song for you on the sixth day of next November." A glee club then sang "When the Ships Come Over the Sea," Gen. Geo. Spaulding, of Monroe, the republican candidate for congress, was the next speaker. He said he carne to learn and not to talk, because the class had been made up; but despite this the general made as long a speech as any one. He began by denouncing President Cleveland as being afraid to veto the tariff bilí , spoke of his big neck and his veto of pension bilis, and then declared himself in favor of free silver coinage. He said it made no difference to him whither he went to congress or not. He happened to be a banker. He happened to be a miller, and he hap pened to be a farmer. He was now running the bank to try and run the farm. He was not a monometalist or an extreme silver man. If you had silver plate and wanted money it should be so you could take it to the mint and have it coined. The repeal of the Sherman law hurt us. Why is wheat fifty cents a bushei ? Because England is a free trade country and extends to her colonies large amounts of money to open harbors and waterways. They built the Suez canal at great expense, to open up markets for her colonies. The East Indian takes $10,000 worth of wheat to England and exchanges it for $20,000 dollars in silver rupees, while we only get $10,000. The general then went into the old heresies of the republican party, such as the foreigner pays the tax, the home market cry, and protection to the laboring man. The association elected the following officers for the ensuing year: President, Henry P. Waldron, of Salem. Secretary, Hon. William BaH, of Hamburg. Treasurer, 'A. B. Phe'ps, of Dexter; Directors - W. B. Thompson, Salem; S. T. Gridley, Ypsilanti; W. E. Stocking, Ann Arbor; Geo. McDougal, Superior; N. E. Carpenter, Ypsilanti; E. A. Nordman, Dexter; George A. Peters, Scio; William H. Glenn, Chelsea; H. D. Platt, Ypsilanti; Peter Cook, Urania; H. B. Thaycr, Salem; S. Gage, Chelsea; L. D. Lovewell, South Lyon; E. T. Walker, Salem; E. E. Leiand, Emery; C. M. Starks, Webster; J. B. Vanatta, Salem; George S.Wheeler, Salem: William Ball, Hamburg; and Philip Duffy, Northfield.