USA > South Dakota > Who's who in South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 4
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Once more we catch our orator in a different mood. This time, with his silvery tongue inlaid with "pearls from many seas," we see him standing before a joint-session of our state legislature, sounding forth the praises of the martyred Mckinley. Space forbids the use of more than a few paragraphs of this able eulogy :
"When I think of the greatness of my theme, I almost hes- itate at the thought of even attempting to approach it, but when I think of his splendid character that shines forth as brilliantly as the light-house that marks the pathway of the mariner at the midnight hour, I am inspired to go forward and do my duty; not because I believe I can tell the story better, not because I believe I can sing his praises more sweetly, but because I believe down deep in my heart that some of the most beautiful lessons in the world's history are to be found in the life of William Mckinley.
"In June, 1896, in the city of St. Louis, the Republican National Convention was held. That mighty host of delegates from every state in the Union was determined to bring back to our country that cofidence and prestige that seemed to be swiftly departing from us. They called for a leader; the trumpets were sounding, the bugles rang forth; and the knightly Mckinley
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came forward as the man of the hour. His spurs had already been won in the halls of our national congress, and the voters of the nation were quick to rally around his standard. The contest came-one of the fiercest that has ever been known in the history of politics. For days and weeks two great political parties of the nation were doing battle royal; but on the evening of election day, when the smoke of battle had cleared away, it was found that the hosts of democracy were retreating, and the victorious banner of the republican party went streaming by.
"Was there ever such an hour as that? Have you ever stood by the sea-shore and watched the ebbing of the tide? the receding waters drifting-drifting, until it seemed as though they were gone forever? Then the change comes. You can see the return- ing waters, the sea-gulls, the canoe and all that ride upon the bosom of the mighty deep, come gliding merrily in to greet the sea-shore. So with the condition of our nation. After hope had fled and confidence had gone almost forever, the incoming tide brought us the greatest period of prosperity ever known in the history of our country."
A man may say certain things to you and mislead you temporarily in shaping your estimate of his real make-up; but when he begins to write, then you . see" the 'real man himself come to the surface. A few days since while doing a little Pinkerton work in the north central part of the state with a view to picking up some more data in the life of Mr. Branson with which to enrich this article, we ran across a letter dated July 20, 1910, written by him to one of his friends, which shows better than we can express, the sincerity of the man about whom we are writing, and his loyalty to his friends. We herein publish a part of it:
"As the years have come and gone I have made many new acquaintances, but when-
O. L. BRANSON.
O. L. BRANSON
ever I want a real good visit, I cling to the old ones. I have always appreciated your friendship and goodwill.
"As I grow older I think I can truthfully say I become stronger in the hope that every transaction which the First Na- tional (the bank of which Mr. Branson is president) may have may be honorable and square in every particular. I appreciate fully the value of our friends, for without them we could never have accomplished the few things that we have.
"That your future may be bright and your business career successful is the wish of one of the best friends you have ever had,
O. L. Branson."
BUSINESS MAN
It is seldom that a man of strong literary tastes is successful in business. Branson is an exception. He is a happy combina- tion of oratory, business, refreshing sociability and tact. On the stump he is an effective political orator. Always unique in his opening remarks, he catches his audiences with ease and holds them to the end. On the other hand, as a banker and business man, he is quiet, considerate, approachable, fair, honest and aggressive.
At present Mr. Branson is president of the First National Bank of Mitchell, an institution which he took hold of thirteen years ago and when its existence was hovering in the balance, placed it upon a Gibraltar basis; raised its capital stock from scarcely enough to meet its pay roll, to $100,000 and has watched its deposits cli nb up from mere nothing to $850,000. He took the institution out of its old one-story, rented building and housed it in an elegant new pressed-brick, three-story structure of its own.
He is also president of the corporation of O. L. Branson & Co. of Mitchell, and is president of a number of smaller banks throughout the state.
POLITICS
In his younger days Mr. Branson held various minor offices. In 1902 he was sent to the state senate from Davison county; two years later he was re-elected. In 1906 he was elected Mayor of Mitchell, and at the close of his first term he refused to become a candidate for his own successor. He was however, a candidate for Congress that year. Early in the campaign he said: "Our boys are going to lose; I am going to withdraw." He withdrew. His prediction came true. The "boys" with whom he had trained, lost; but O. L. Branson had withdrawn in time to save himself
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for future days. He says he is out of politics except to repay his friends for their support in the past.
Nonsense! A new story will be written inside of ten years.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Mr. Branson was born in Whiteside county, Illinois, Feb- ruary 3, 1861; moved to Iowa with his parents who settled at La Moille, Marshall county, in 1868. A few years later the fam- ily removed to Manning, in Carroll county, where his parents still reside.
His early days were spent on a farm. At the youthful age of fifteen he became a teacher in the public schools of Carroll county, and at eighteen, he was elected principal of the Arcadia schools.
In 1885 he was elected cashier of the Rawlin County Bank, in Atwood, Kansas. This position he held for two years. He then organized at Atwood a bank of his own, remaining at the head of the institution four years. During these six years in Atwood, he spent his nights reading law, and he was finally ad- mitted to the Kansas bar. Later he removed to Osmond, Ne- braska, where he engaged in banking and in the practice of law. His marked ability as a trial lawyer soon won attention, and despite the fact that he only used litigation as a side-line, his legal practice soon became so large that it demanded all of his time. At the high tide of his success he left Osmond to come to Mitchell, South Dakota, where he bought the controlling interest of the First National Bank, yet when he left Osmond he turned over to other attorneys for trial thirteen cases in district court, besides all of the smaller cases which he had listed up. Had he remained active in the legal profession he would no doubt today be one of the conspicuous legal lights of the country.
One of Mr. Branson's leading traits is his ability to make friends, and to hold them. He is never too busy to be inter- viewed and he is always ready to shake hands. As he takes you by the hand you can instantaneously feel the pulsations from his great heartstrings vibrating through your whole being. At once you feel the magnetism of an abiding friendship. When you start to leave, he invariably accosts you with the appeal, "Don't be in a hurry! sit down and stay awhile longer." Blessed-thrice blessed, is any man with such a temperament!
Enviable record! Noble manhood ! Illustrious statesman !- South Dakota will ever be proud of him and she will continue to honor him.
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C. H. BURKE
A STEADFAST REPUBLICAN
When the good people of our state, who remained at home, heard that a few young up-stars in attendance at the Republican state convention held in Sioux Falls in June 1906. had actually hissed Congressman Burke when he arose to speak, and that John Lockart had been compelled to rise up in the midst of the tumult and plead for a higher expression of citizenship, they said quietly to themselves, "If we ever get a chance, we'll right that wrong." The chance came. Mr. Burke became a candidate for congress again in 1908. The public righted this wrong at the June pri- maries of that year; they righted it again at the primaries this year, and they will right it again in November.
Mr. Burke is a born vote-getter. He knows nothing about the tricks of the average politician in this regard. He gets them on the strength of his past record, on his ability to assimilate good hard work, on his political consistency; in fact they just sort o' come to him. Any man who would hestitate to vote for Charlie Burke, either doesn't understand Mr. Burke, or else he has a grudge at himself, commonly known as "political dyspepsia."
Charlie's political career is not at an end in South Dakota yet. Oh! no; not by any manner of means. In a large number of states, the capital thereof is not the metropolis. It is true in New York, in Illinois, in North Dakota, and in a long list of other states. It is equally true in South Dakota. Every state capital wants a senator or a congressman, so does every metrop- olis. There is a lot of good political prestige goes with a sen- atorship that is worth looking into. The capital of South Dakota has a congressman. The metropolis had a senator. She delib- erately threw him overboard. Today, Sioux Falls' loss is Huron's gain. Nevertheless, the time may not be far distant when the city of Pierre will be clamoring for a senator. If she does, keep your eye on Charlie Burke.
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It has been a great many years since Congressman Burke entered public life. During this long interval of time there has been a steady influx of settlers into our state. Many of them know little about him or his public work; therefore, we deem it proper to give him a little biographical introduction.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Burke is an Irishman. (Hardly necessary to mention his nationality, so long as he spells his name exactly like Edmund Burke, the famous Irish leader in the House of Parliament during the latter part of the eighteenth cen- tury.) He is just in the prime of life -forty-nine years of age.
Born in New York state, he, too, saw the advantages to a young man in going west, and so in 1882 he settled on a homestead in Beadle county, South Dakota. In 1883 he re- moved to Hughes county, where he has since resided. He is married and has four children.
Congressman Burke was admitted to the South Dakota CONGRESSMAN C. H. BURKE bar in 1886, but he has never been active as a practitioner. Charlie is, first of all, a business man. In his own private busi- ness affairs, he has been pre-eminently successful,-just the kind of a man we need on our congressional delegation.
POLITICAL
Mr. Burke was elected to our State Legislature in 1894, was re-elected in 1896, and two years later, he was sent to congress; was re-elected in 1900, in 1902, in 1904, (missed in 1906), in 1908, and he will be again on November 8, 1910.
When he left the national capitol, March 4, 1907, after his temporary defeat in 1906, the men in congress, with whom he had trained for so many years, gathered about him and bade him an affectionate farewell, each one saying as he shook hands with
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him, "Charlie, I hope you'll come back at the next election." As he walked down the capitol steps, he said to a friend, "I'll never come back to this building again so long as I live, unless I can come with a commission from my state." Charlie came back, and he'll keep coming. Why not? Look at his record. Follow- ing are only a few of the splendid measures which he favored and worked hard to have enacted into law: -
The extension of rural free delivery of the mails;
The Act prohibiting freight rebates by railroads;
The Act to expedite the hearing and determination of suits in equity brought under the Sherman anti-trust act of 1890 to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies;
The Act to promote the safety of employees and travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers to equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes, and their loco- motives with driving wheel brakes;
The Act authorizing the Interstate Commerce Commission to employ saftey-appliance inspectors;
The Joint Resolution directing the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate and report on block signal systems for the control of railroad trains;
The Act requiring common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to make full reports of all accidents, both as to the nature and cause;
The Joint Resolution directing the Interstate Commerce Com- mission to make investigations into the subject of railroad dis- crimination and monopolies in coal and oil;
The Act to promote the security upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce and to encourage the saving of life;
The Act to regulate commerce, approved June 30, 1906, commonly known as the Railway Rate Legislation of the Roos- evelt administration;
The Act establishing the Department of Commerce and Labor and authorizing the Bureau of Corporations therein to exericse the same power and control in respect to corporations, joint stock companies and combinations subject to the provisions of the act, as the Interstate Commerce Commission exercieses over common carriers;
The Meat Inspection Act:
The Pure Food Act;
The Employer's Liability Act;
The Denatured Alcohol Act;
The Oleomargerine Act;
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The Reclamation Act;
Postal Savings Banks.
Again the skeptic says: "I don't care what he has done in the past, what I desire to know is what he is going to do with regard to the reform measures that will come up for enactment during the next session of congress. Very well, Mr. Radical, here is what he has pledged himself to work for, and Charlie has never yet broken faith with his constituents:
Support President Taft's administration;
Revision by the Tariff Commission of the Payne-Aldrich tar- iff law, after it shall have been thoroughly tested and its weak points ascertained ;
Amendment of the Interstate Commerce law;
Conservation of National Resources;
Improvement of the Missouri river as a public highway so as to hold down freight rates;
New laws making the American Indian self-supporting;
The early opening for settlement of the remainder of the Indian reservations of the state.
When Mr. Burke was returned to congress in 1909, he was offered a position on the Ways and Means Committee, one of the most influential and important committees in our national con- gress. He refused this honor, saying: "By refusing this ap- pointment I may get the chairmanship of the Committee on In- dian Affairs. I can then be of far greater service to the people of my state." Always a practical politician, he got the Indian assignment, succeeding Mr. Sherman, vice-president of the United States, who had held the position for fourteen years. It was a well-deserved promotion, and it gave to South Dakota a recog- nition never before equalled, except in the appointment of Sen- ator Kittredge to the chairmanship of the Committee on Inter- oceanic Canals. Speaking of his appointment, our newspapers, without regard to politics or to factionalism, were unstinted in their praise. Among the hundreds of beautiful comments were the following extracts:
Aberdeen American: South Dakota has been given notable recognition in the appointment of Congressman Burke to be chair- man of the Committee on Indian Affairs, one of the big plums of the House register. Mr. Burke has long served upon this com- mittee, and his place of seniority recommended the post and his ability and careful participation in the duties of his past mem- bership counseled that the honor go to him. Some idea of the importance of the position held by the head of that committee
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may be gained when it is known that the committee has the di- rection of the expenditure of about $10,000,000 anually.
Blunt Advocate: The elevation of Congressman Burke to the chairmanship of the Indian Committee is certainly a great honor, considering the importance of that committee, and it brings to South Dakota the highest recognition in a national way that has ever been given the State.
Hot Springs Star: Congressman Burke has been appointed chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. Mr. Burke was a member of this committee during his first term in Congress, be- fore insurgency put him out for a term, and he exhibited such a thorough knowledge of Indian affairs and the government's deal- ing with them, that he was the logical man for the chairmanship. He is a keen Congressman, whose push, pull and ability are counting for the state.
Northwest Blade (Leola) : Congressman Charles H. Burke, of South Dakota, has been made chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, one of the very best and most important com- mittees in the House of Representatives. The honor is no small one to confer, but all who know Mr. Burke will agree that the appoint nent was the right man in the right place.
Mitchell Republican: The Republican is exceedingly glad to know that Mr. Burke has been honored and that he has brought additional honor and credit to the state. As chairman of the committee, the South Dakota Congressman will be the chief fac- tor in Indian legislation and an appropriation bill which carries $10,000,000 annually. The utmost confidence is placed in his ability and business capacity to handle the chairmanship of this very important committee to the end that it will result in credit to himself, his state, and benefit to the Indian affairs of the government.
Ft. Pierre Stock Growers' News: This was the most impor- tant appointment to be made at this session and it is certainly a high honor coupled with a great responsibility. Mr. Burke has shown himself to be the man best fitted for this position, and we are of the opinion that no other man so well understands the In- dian's status and needs. His ability to allow competent Ind'ans to acquire title to their lands has done more toward placing them where they can take care of their own affairs than all other leg- islation passed during the last twenty-five years
Huronite: Whether it was an exhibition of wisdom or com- pensation for being good, Mr. Cannon has conferred service on the red people by substituting a Western Congressman for an Eastern Congressman at the head of this important committee.
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Cresbard Beacon: This is not Mr. Burke's first experience in the lower House; our peope concluded to try another set of Congressmen, but before their first term had expired they found out their mistake and hurried to remedy it by returning Martin and Burke to their old positions. We congratulate Mr. Burke and the Indians at the same time.
The above are only a few of the several hundred choice edi- torial bouquets which were thrown at "our Charlie" by the news- paper fraternity of the state. We wish that space would grant the publication of them all.
BURKES' HONESTY
While addressing the citizens of Mitchell and the surround- ing country, during his presidency, Colonel Roosevelt said: "It takes three things to make a good citizen-honesty, courage and common sense." We just believe he had Congressman Burke in mind.
The reason Mr. Burke has been so effectual in legislation is because of this inherent honesty; his manly courage to stand up for what he thinks is right; and his good. common-sense, in not antagonizing the administration with which he is compelled to work and at whose hands he must look for favors for himself and through himself for his constituents.
No other congressman in all history has been so successful as he in securing "unanimous consent" for the enactment of his proposed bills. It is because his colleagues-Democrats and Re- publicans alike-have learned to trust him. They know he is honest; they make him a law-making body unto himself; what Charlie Burke asks for he gets.
HIS APPROACHABILITY
Whether you meet Mr. Burke on the porch of his own mag- nificent home at Pierre, on the streets of his home town, on the train, in Chicago, or at Washington, he is always the same Charlie-always in the same pleasing mood-always a man. He is better than the good, as good as the best, and he side-steps for no man.
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EBEN W. MARTIN
AN ABLE CONGRESSMAN
"I'd rather have against me on a case any other lawyer I have ever known, than Eben W. Martin," said Judge Moore at a political convention in Sioux Falls in June, 1900; "He is the shrewdest attorney in watching the fine legal points in a trial, by whom I have ever been opposed. It is simply impossible to out- wit him."
True, no doubt, and Martin is just as alert in the halls of congress. Any time that some congressman wants to get through a bill with a "nigger" in it, he wants to make dead sure that Eben W. Matrtn is not going to be present when it comes up for final passage.
Congressman Martin is just as shrewd in politics as he is in trying a law suit, or in wacthing the course of national legisla- cion. In the campaign of 1908, he was identified with the "old guard" in this state, and the insurgents repeatedly declared, 'We can win if we can only find some way to get Martin out of the field."
He makes no attempts at impassioned oratory. He is simply a keen, smooth, fluent, logical convincing speaker. He knows the power of argument, and he marshals his thoughts so as to carry conviction to his hearers. As a political campaigner he is an old war horse, and his opponents dread him. He can com- bine fluency and logic, season the mixture with high grade sar- asm, sugar coat it with wit, and then dish it out over his oily ongue, in a silver stream that will invariably turn the heads of is hearers, and make his audience become a united Martin rowd. Just a few nights ago he spoke at Plankinton, and the reporter who was present sent out the following:
MARTIN AT PLANKINTON
"Congressman Eben W. Martin was the principal speaker at rousing republican rally held at Plankinton Monday night. Jis address was the best made at Plankinton thus far during the
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present campaign, and he was listened to with the closest atten- tion by a mammoth crowd, which filled every inch of available space in the hall in which he spoke. Congressman Martin always has been popular among the republicans of this part of South Dakota, as well as those of other parts of the state, and he won new friends by his able address."
His style of oratory is entirely different from that of many others; in fact, he has a style of his own. And he is always sur- charged. Wake him up in the night and call him to the platform, and a stream of prose will at once gush forth over his silvery tongue like a new antigerm foundation. The fellow is actually such a walking dictionary of words that he doesn't even need an index to find them; they are always at his tongue's end in super- fluous profusion, fighting among themselves to be released in rapid, orderly succession.
POLITICAL NOTIONS
In politics Martin is a free thinker. His recent public utter- ances classify him as a progressive stalwart or else as a conser- vative pogressive; that is, he has in a measure divorced himself from the old radical element, yet he has not seen fit to identify him- self with the radical insurgents. In fact the line of demarcation in thought on public questions, between him and such men as Regent Dwight of Sioux Falls who presided so ably over the last republican state convention, -himself a prominent insurgent- has now grown so fine that you can scarcely detect it with a divisible lens, double objective microscope.
The political ground on which Mr. Martin stands is feasible. If we are able to read the signs in the political horoscope, he is standing right now on the line of intrenchments where the repub- lican party has got to make its rally against the onslaught of democracy in the future. We belive it is due to Mr. Martin to herein quote briefly from a recent interview of his on public questions, particularly with reference to South Dakota affairs:
"The South Dakota Republican platform is abreast of the best progressive thought of the day. With this platform I am in entire accord. Its most prominent principles I have advocated publicly for years as my speeches at State Conventions and in the debates in Congress will disclose. I shall continue to advocate these principles and to labor for their realization in legislation while I remain in public life.
"There has been some right and some wrong in each of the
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republican factions in South Dakota. The only honorable basis for a permanent union of republican forces in the state is to rec- ognize the fact, and to treat all republicans in a spirit of justice and fairness.
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