The Durand Meeting Was A Big Success

THE DURAND MEETING WAS A BIG SUCCESS

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Every Seat in the Opera House Was Filled With an Attentive Listener.

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Mr. Durand Made a Very Favorable Impression and Friday Night's Meeting Was a Vote Winner.

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The most effective political meeting ever held in Ann Arbor was what the Durand rally Friday evening proved to be. Every seat in the opera house was filled and there were many more who wanted to hear. The closest attention was paid the speaerks and the audience, among whom there was a very large number of thinking republicans, seemed to be highly appreciative of Mr. Durand's speech.

A reception was held at the Cook House preceding the meeting and the hotel office was crowded with people who were shaking Mr. Durand's hand. The impression he left here was very favorable indeed.

Prof. T. A. Bogle presided at the meeting and stated that the supreme issue was the overthrow of bossism, the exercise of the power of government in favor of all the people. He spoke of the demands of the people as set forth in the platform and introduced Hon. L. T. Durand as “the man who, unless all signs fail, will have more to do with their enforcement than any man in the state."

Mr. Durand’s diction was fine, his manner earnest, his opinions logical, his grasp of the questions at issue indutible. He spoke first of this city as one in which many years ago he had spent some of the happiest years of his life. He paid a glowing tribute to the University and in the course of his speech to President Angell and Judge Cooley. He came not to speak as a partisan, but simply as a good citizen on behalf of good citizenship He spoke strongly against machine rule and against ripperism. The founders of the government never contemplated that it should be placed in the hands of those claiming political dictatorship. The question of better government appeals to everyone. He spoke of the combine in politics as as great a menace to mankind as the power of that unholy railroad combination which has within its grasp the coal supply of this country. Turn the power of combination loose in politics, let it buy nominations for public office, let it control conventions, let it purchase delegates, let it purchase legislation and it is a power which will wreck the very citadel of our liberties. Integrity is the keystone of the arch of all individual and national progress. The people are honest. What the people demand of public officers is Iess partisanship, greater devotion to public duty and less attention to politicians. They demand that class legislation shall cease, that the purchase of delegates shall stop, that the mailed hand of railroad and other corporations should be kept out of politics.

He spoke strongly for a primary election law so that the citizen could deposit his own silent ballot for the men of his choice, without the aid of conventions or purchasable delegates. Nor did he forget to place himself on record concerning the ripper legislation of the last legislature. His denunciation of this newest form of political piracy, which, while as yet it has made itself felt only in three or four cities of the state, threatens every municipality. If elected to the office of governor, he promised to make it his first business to vigorously safeguard the interests of the state in this matter. He explained the iniquities of the ripper legislation taking as an example his home city of Saginaw. 

He spoke of the Michigan Central's possible claim of $25,000,000 for damages. He was opposed to this road becoming a chief factor in state politics. When a claim of that size was to be presented involving an interest charge of a million dollars per year, he said, the state should have an administration that would meet it at the threshold, fight it from the word go and down it at last. 

He spoke warmly of the sentiments of Jefferson and of Lincoln and said they were the sentiments which should rule his official actions if he were elected governor. 

There was the sound of straightforwardness in his address which contributes to his promises the force of a guarantee, and on the whole it was one to command the respect of political opponents, and cement the allegiance of those voters who in the ensuing weeks of the campaign will look to him for assistance and leadership in a flight to redeem the state. 

Hon. Justin R. Whiting opened his speech by stating that if newspaper reports are correct this meeting differed givaty from a recent meeting here at which there were vaudeville attractions and in which a recently appointed U. S. senator showed subserviency to a local boss. He confined himself entirely to state interests and made a strong plea for Mr. Durand’s election and a democratic legislature to aid him in carrying out the needed reforms.

David A. Hammond, the nominee for auditor general, said the great issue before our people was the bringing back of the control of our public affairs to the people themselves. He spoke at some length on the lessons of the coal strike. If the voters of Michigan are determined to have clean, honest government they can have it. During the past few years we have had things happen in Michigan which have disgraced us not only in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the nation. Back in Gov. Rich's time he had to ask three men to resign because they had not been honest. He spoke of the military ring under Pingree and of the money debauch in the republican convention two years ago. He denounced the ripper legislation, especially of Detroit signed at the instance of Tom Navin, when local appointees were handed over to the governor, one of whose appointees is now under a sentence of 15 years for breaking a bank and defrauding 8,000 depositors, and another of whom has just assembled 1,200 city employees behind closed doors to tell them for whom they must vote. He believed a greater degree of honesty is found in local governments than in the larger political divisions and that no division of the government is so well administered as the local school district.  He spoke for the primary election law, the initiative and referendum and for the need of  a legislature in sympathy with Mr. Durand’s views.

The meeting then closed with three rousing cheers for Durand. Many stayed when Mr. Frank Fogg, a senior law student, aroused the enthusiasm of the students.