An Anti Has His Say

An Anti Has His Say

How the Judson-Wedemeyer Controversy

Looks to Anti-Judsonite

The Argus is Looked to By All Factions of the Republicans to Give Their Views to the Public

Ann Arbor, Mich., March 16, 1903.

Editor of Argus:

Dear Sir--Will you pardon me for asking for the use of a little of your space. I can come to you because there is no republican paper in Ann Arbor. The only alternative I have is to request the use of some space in democratic columns. I desire to say a few things anent the political situation in this county. As a republican, I am interested in the so-called revolt agains Judsonism. I am especially interested in some things which appear between the lines as well as some things which appear in the lines in a recently published letter from the Honorable William W. Wedemeyer. There are three things which stand out so plain that, even though some of them appear only between the lines, they are so prominent that they almost strike one in the face.

First: It has taken this would-be shrewd political leader ten years to find out that Judsonism was fatal to republican success in this county. I do not believe that there is another place in this country where a man, with no more political sagacity, would be rated above a very, very low type of peanut politician. How consistent it is for a man to want to go to congress when it takes him ten years to see a point as big as the Majestic building in Detroit and when he has been compelled to run up against that point good and hard a score of times.

Second: Honorable William W. Wedemeyer says he is now going to work in the interest of the party. Between the lines this says in great big black-faced type that, heretofore, while he has been demanding a nomination for congress, he has been working against the party, for he has certainly tried to be active in politics. It must be that there is some truth in the current rumor that Judson, who claims to have made Wedemeyer all that he is, really did so and that he began work when he induced Wedemeyer, when the latter was holding the office of country school examiner, to which he was elected as a democrat, to flop from the democratic party to the republican party for the purpose of securing a republican nomination for county school commissioner. If that rumor is true, and all indications point strongly in that direction, Wedemeyer, hand in glove with Judson, was working the party rather than working for the party. It is to be hoped that he will, now that he is going to work for the party, work hard enough to make amends for all these years of being so persistently blind to the party's interest.

Third: It is painfully noticeable in the Honorable William W. Wedemeyer letter that nowhere, either in the lines or between the lines, is there a hint or intimation of any kind whatever of a protest against Judson methods. It is not because Judson methods are disreputable that Wedemeyer bolts; it is not because Judson methods have disfranchised the honest republican voters of this county that Wedemyer protests; it is not because Judson has herded two-dollar cattle at the primaries and thus been able to control so-called republican conventions that Wedemeyer objects. No, that is what has given the Honorable William W. Wedemeyer delegations to congressional conventions. It is rather because Judson methods do not get enough votes--aye, there's the rub. The Honorable William W. Wedemeyer does not say whether he means the two-dollar kind of votes or not, but since he has worked hand and fist with Judson, who knows no votes but the two-dollar kind, it is to be presumed that these are the kind of votes that Wedemeyer means. At least it must be presumed that this is true for that is the only kind of votes that Judson and his henchmen, of which Wedemeyer admits having been one, has had anything to do with during all these years. The only presumption is that Judson must be bolted because he did not use more Bliss and Alger money last fall so as to elect Harkins and Haarer. If he had only done this, one cannot help but conclude from the Honorable William Wedemeyer's letter that Judson would still be all right, and Wedemeyer would still be shouting for his now cast off master.

The writer would suggest that before Wedemeyer again deliver his eulogy on Lincoln, he enter the quietness of his chamber and sit down and from "the bottom of his heart" reflect whether or not "Honest Abe" would not turn in his grave, if he could know that he was so frequently being eulogized by a fellow who would write such a letter.

Then it is interesting to hear Judson talk about ingratitude. He has been the very embodiment of ingratitude in his treatment of others. There can be no doubt that Wedemeyer has earned the same lesson well. His conduct on many occasions proves this beyond question. But should Judson find fault with that?

Respectfully,

REPUBLICAN.