St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 14, 1913

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| STLOW — Pe Ss ee = 2 # 329 BoD 222 Selph “gaa for Doing the * ‘Odd Jobs”’ of Politics |\- Man Who Overcame “Major and _T”’ in Long Fight for $8000 Place Is Self-Made, Has Been Active in Agitating the Mil- lion Population Club’s Civic Ideas and Has Achieved a Reputation as an Indefatig- able Writer of Political Plat- forms. By Carlos F. Hurd. OLIN M. SELPH, who its Postmaster of St. Louis in spite of the wishes of “Major and I,” is a fighter, and a resolute doer of political and civic odd jobs. — He showed in the postmastership contest that he begins fighting where most men would quit. And he showed his readiness to quit fighting when the fight was won, by his instant announce- ; ment that he had “no friends to reward and no enemies to punish.” . 7 To be sure, he has not very much to reward or punish with, for the Postmaster, who is the boss of 1885 persons, has the appointment of just three of them. But Selph’s chief desire, as anyone can learn who talks with him, give an administration which will bring a re- } is to. | gretful blush to the brow of that Missouri Con- , gressman who declared, in the House the other day, that Selph had “never seen the inside of a postofiice.” Some civic experts hold that a postmastership fight, every four years, is a good thing for a town. If this be true, St. Louis'has had a great | deal of a good thing lately. The city was kept conspicuously before the attention of the Presi- dent of the United States; a number of useful and worthy citizens were brought forward, whom, as they could not be Postmaster, we will doubt- less proceed to. honor in some fitting way later; and Missouri. got, politically, a. more accurate Who's-Who than ever appeared between two red covers. -. Missouri's two ‘Senators, both fighters, made such ‘a ght for Selph thatthe hard-pressed > tha Kanéas City..Times for a year, and returned ) writing is not so easy as it looks to a casual | Postmaster-General | almost envied John Lind his; to gt. Louis in time for the period before the {reader of the “view-with-alarm” and “point-with- } mask, “When it was over, and’ Stone and Reed \ World’s Fair. were “recognized,” the question was asked, why they gave Sclph such ‘extraordinary support for the $8000-a-year job. The answer is like the answer to that historic query, ‘“‘What makes the lamb mre Mary so?” Why Reed and Stone Were Lo yal Gelegation and embassy. )} was flourishing Selph was elected to the 1903. he had fought for them. He handled ‘Stone’s St., Louis campaign against Gov. Folk for the senatorial nomination in 1908, and | two years later he was Reed’s St. Louis manager in the contest against David R. Francis for the junior senatorship. in both cases he was supporting an outside canididate against a St. Louis man. In the case of Reed he was standing against the local Demo- S's and Reed fought for Selph because ‘eratic organization and againat nearly all the leadership and money in the party here. got a hearing for Reed, after } H tee had barred him, and Reef received a St. Louis vote which was a big contribution to his) 6” nized the St. Louis Democratic Club, which, by victory. The new’ Postmaster is 49 years old. Unless bis new cares cause him to age very rapidly, he will next year be the younzest-looking semi- centenarian in St. Louis. He is well-groomed, and has a keen glance and a voice which isa little hard, and which gets much harder when he {is under the necessity of saying -anything unpleasant. His eyeglasses temper whatever severity his face may have, and . his handshake is of encompassing cordiality. é « Pie a o There is no hemming and hawing about Selph’'s : COLIN Mi. SELPH- He Liked D. R.F’s Pictures E ran the World’s Fair Bulletin, which published photographs of David R. Francis at every. spot on the Exposition £rounds, and in the company of every~ visiting While the Bulletin Legislature, and was the author of a number of’ World’s Fair bills and the introducer of all the legislation pertaining to the Exposition. He also ss Selph’s Political Philosophy PP RE C I- ATE criticism, but don’t fear * * * Be your own press agent—if you have one. * *# Never let the other fellow know what you’re going to do, until you’ve done it. Party managers, as well as candidates, must be men in whom the people have con- ~ fidence, | go down with a losing ticket, it is because the voters do not deliberate enough or are not well in- formed. The power and the duty of the press lie there. °°’ * * F good candidates * 2° 8 If a man has merit and integrity—and if he can live long enough—he will win, no matter what is said about him who says. it. or pride” paragraphs. Selph showed: that he had a ‘hand for making platforms, and every State and city Democratic | ‘platform in recent years has had at least a few | planks contributed by Selph. Home-rule planks are his specialty, and the one on which Dr. Simon ran for Mayor of St. Louis was his latest work in this line. From politics, Selph’s activities shaded off in ‘the semi-political and even the non-political. is one ofthe City Plan Commission, he was in | ' almost ‘is a pure Celt, { Labori, Dre yfus’ Famous La wyer, Sees -Lamwdeo America and Marvels at Our Progress” — But He Warns Us Against Our Tendency to Be Overbold in Taking Up New Ideas and Measures and in Sacrificing Traditions and Beliefs That Have Never Been Found Wanting in National Crises. He Tells, for the First Time, How His Connection With the Case That Shook the Founda- tions of France Began and‘ Declares That, if the Courts Had Upheld the Persecution of the Jewish Army Officer, He Would Have Led a Revolu- tion. By HENRY N. HALL. A Special Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch. NEW YORK, Sept. 13. AITRE LABORI, the man who defended } M Dreyfus, came to greet me. A giant in stature and intellect, this famous French lawyer, the leader of the Paris bar, who had crossed the ocean to attend America’s greatest gathering of lawyers at Montreal, is. fully six feet two ahd weighs about two hundred and thirty pounds, but he is light and muscular and cat-like in his movements. Labori is not a bit the typical Frenchman. He light blue eyes and erstwhile ‘golden hair, upon which the snow of age is just ) beginning to fall. He is only fifty-three, and | but for the white-tipped Vandyke beard and the ) thinning hair, he might be ten years younger. ( } ‘and manner he \ f \ ) | me | His skin is as white as a woman’s. In speech has lost none of the fire of / youth, none of its ingenuousness. Twenty years—the years that separate boy- hood from middle age—have passed since I ‘heard Labori pleading for the anarchist Vail- , lant and admired the easy flow of sonorous | phrases and the rich imagery in which his thoughts jhad changed! We began to talk of the past, and quite naturally we drifted to a discussion of the Dreyfus case. Maitre Labori did not want to talk about it, but I pressed him. Sud- denly he turned on me and said: “There is no doubt that Dreyfus was innocent, but when I took up the case I did not know whether he was guilty or not, and I did not care. Something far more important than the ault or innocence of any one man was at stake. The question was whether a man could be con- victed in France on secret evidence placed be- Jore his judges after the trial was ower and without any opportunity being given to the ac- ‘introduced the resolution requiring the union the Free Bridge movement from the outset, and )cyseq to ascertain the nature of the charges or label on the House Journal, and was chairman , of a Convict Labor Inquiry Committee, which ’ raised the rate of prisoners’ compensation from | 49 and 50 to 60 and 75 cents a day. Legislature expired , Selph was doing Pefore his term in the Selph was admitted to the bar. He |8¢ many things about that time that it is dif. the City Commit: ; ficult to avoid overlooking some of them. But, Central Parkway, it should by no means be overlooked that he or- all the laws and’ precedents governing St. Louis he is president of the Million Population Club, Vy rhose industrial parades he has marshaled and | whose balloon race junkets_he ha means. He was active in getting pneumatic tube service installed in the St. Louis postal system, ? ) case of Capt. romoted, and (‘;pqsons of State.’ Las sometimes financed rather-beyond his modest \q eourtmartial could traduce justice That is what Dreyfus, and If, for was done in the it was done ~) ‘reasons of State,’ ‘refute them. and violate could rob a man of his liberty and his hon- without giving him a chance to answer his: ‘law: \ or and he was an advocate of street widening, the (accusers or even to know what they said against and anti-loan shark legislation. | were clothed, and vet how little ) / ( { him; if a@ courtmartial could cast aside all le-)} He does not claim the title of father of the gal guarantees and judge men according to the Free Bridge, being content to be the father of ‘ orders they receive from their superiors. Colin McRae Selph III. But the Free Bridge | political clubs, should be only a memory by this bond issue ordinance which passed, and under manne? of speech. He might be, perhaps, a bet- ) ter politician if he had a little of the art of seem- Avenue Bank. ing to grant what he does not intend to grant, end of half-committing himself to things which can be conveniently forgotten latter. But that is not Selph’s way. He has a yes or @ no ready decisiveness from others. Selph is self-made (the writer holds a pun- ster’s license), so far a’ making his own way in _the world is concerned. He gives his ancestors ‘@ great deal of credit for the qualities which have enabled him to get along, and claims de- scent. from four races—the Irish, Scotch, En ’ @Msh and Greek. His father was Colin McRae Selph, Scotch, and a Confederate army. officer. The three other nationalities are on the maternal . side, a grandfather having been Alexander Dim- ttry, a scholar of Greek descent, and ‘founder of the public school system of Louisiana. He was born and educated in that section ‘where almdést the only white Republicans were Postmasters and internal revenue officers, or, as they were euphoniously termed, “stamp lickers and liquor stampers.” As he was not ambitious, at that time, to enter the Federal service, and as his: and surroundings left no queetion about the matter, he was never anything but « b came to, St. Louis in 1886, his work , circulation and | for every proposition, and he expects the same | He did not know very much about. time—but which is still one of the livest things Which the election of 1906 was held, was type- | The to be seen in a ride out Olive street. | One Sunday morning in 1908 the clubhouse was the meeting place of a despondent gathering of depositors in the Olive Street Bank, pm had been closed by the Secretary of State. Selph Was made chairman of a depositors’ committees and so managed matters that the 3886 depositors written in Selph’s office. It was known as the } Kingsland-Karbe-Selph bill, and it had a lively rival in the Ziebold-Gerhart bill, which was final- ly pigeonholed in the Council. This happened, one of Selph’s friends relates, } ress of mankind depend, like liberty, upon law, ' after the two factions of the Joint Free Bridge ' Committee had contested in court for supremacy, got the full amount of their deposits, some $400,- ‘and after the Selph side had obtained a favorable 000 in all, ciently to be made the basis of the present Grand | Both in 1906 and 1908 Selph ran for Congress. and that the bank was saved suffi- decision from Judge Withrow. To prevent any of the partisans of Ziebold and Gerhart from getting the books, Selph put men on guard at the door of the Manufacturers’ Association office, \In his first campaign,:he did not have much to‘ with orders to admit no man not identified by gay about national issues, and ,explained frankly ) Selph to the committee meeting. that there were some national problems which | If he went to Congress, he said, he would try to learn as fast as he could, ang while learning would sit tight and take notes from the experienced men who did know. He spoke with like frankness of another mat- ter of which he still hears occasionally. This was his supposed allegiance to Col. Ed Butler. He said he was a friend and admirer of the | Colonel, but that he could not boast of being in the old chieftain’s confidence, and that he did not know anything he could do for the Colo- nel if he should go to Congress. The St. Louis. Democratic Club, of which Selph was then presi- dent, ‘was commonly termed a Butler Club, but at the State convention in 1906 Gov. Folk’s can- didate for State Chairman, Judge Evans, was re-elected by the votes of Selph and his fellow clubmen. Writing Platforms His Specialty ELPH did not get elected to Congress, but S he was elected a delegate to every con- ( vention held by the Democratic party in Missouri for many years. And always, when the report of the Committee on Résolutions was ad be aretin Selph’s black mustache and glasses appear from the wings. For ’ platform- ‘members voted, onited Selph’s name. The guards excluded the Gerhart following, and the ordinance Was drawn and presented by.Selph to the presi- dent of the Council, who introduced it. There- | after it had the right of way. How Million Club Hazed Him. HE “boys” of the Million Club hazed Selph before they elected him to office in the organization. In 1910 the club's election was held at the Mercantile Club, and a “regu- lar” ticket, containing Selph’s name as a candi- ’ date for the Board of Directors, was shown to him. But it, happened to be a specially printed tirket, and all the rest of the tickets, which the When the votes were announced, Selph bowed and ac- knowledged that he was not the only man in the ‘ oiub who knew the game of politics. The next year he was elected vice-president, and the fol- lowing year president. Other officials of the club say the first sue- gestion of the Centennial Welebration of 1909, which was later managed by the Business Men's League, came from Selph. As @ receiver of dis- \ | hideous nakedness: } \ ( ) [eee Er | tinguished guests, Selph and the club glad-handed | such men as Roosevelt—if there are any other “such men”’—Taft and Champ Clark and the ‘OONTINUED ON PAGE 10. in- stead of_according to law, then and there was an end to civilization; its bases undermined. ‘reason of State’ was revealed in all its ( it was nothing but a brutal : tarbarism, @ diabolical despotism, a veiled dic- were overthrow it, because the happiness and prog- | the law I was sworn to uphold.” } Unwritten Dreyfus History ABORI’S vift of speech is truly wonderful, Of cours. being trained to the hevatanten’ methods of the French bar, there is more) ef rhetoric in his discourse, more declamation in| his delivery than a man of his intellectual force) would use in America. He puts all his potent personality behind his pleadings, yet he is at his best when simply stating facts. I prevailed yee im to tell me how he got into the Dreyfus case. | The facts have never yet been made unblic. He said: } “Dreyfus had been arrested in October, 1894, ( courtmartialed, condemned and. in January of the following year, degraded. Shortly afterward he was transported to Devil’s Island. Like all Frenchmen, I had been shocked by the tale of treason and had only given passing attention to the efforts made by Schuerer-Kestner and Tarrieu tc obtain a revision of the case. At that time I was editor of ‘La Revue Du Palais,’ a purely literary magazine, the contributors to which were( all members of the bar. One day, right at the start of the Dreyfus cgitation, Joseph Reinach, who was already championing the Captain's cause, approached my publisher, Fasquelle, and asked him if I could pwblish the story of a judicial crime turning on, the wrongful convic- tion of a Jew. I took the story and read it. It was admirably written, full of human interest. I knew it would be unpopular with my readers, but out of sheer Independence I took it on its merits and promised to publish it. This I did | \ ( (represent her at the trial. ( ‘ af a, Ne , Wy MAITRE LABORI Civilization and Human Liberiy Real Isiu2s in Dreyius Case. Explaining His Zeal in Dreyfus’ Behalf: ‘i I’, for ‘reasons of state’ a court- martial traduce justice and violate rob a man of honor withont giving a chance to answer his accusers know what they said if a courtmartial could aside all legal guarantees and men according to the orders they received from their superiors, in- stead of according to law, then there was an end to civilization; its bases undermined. The ‘reason of state’ was revealed in all its hideous nakedness; it was nothing but a bru- tal barbarism, a diabolical despotism, a veiled dictatorship, and I . would have led a revolution to overthrow it, because the happiness and progress of mankind depend, like liberty, upon law, the law I was sworn to uphold.” could law: could his liberty and him or even to against him; cast jJudce were “Shortly thereafter a man I did not know, Leblois, who played a great role in the a Why run the risk of arousing fresh passions? His Fee for Defending Zola for Writing the “I Accuse” Let- ter, Was a Set of the Noted Author’s Works, Autographed and Especially Dedicated to Him—Practice Declined for a Time Because of His Attitude, but He Is Now the Elected Head of the Paris Bar. ; Yet he made it plain that Dreyfus was tnnocent; that he had been condemned by methods which were a denial of all law, civil or military, but that the great principle at stake was the only thing really essential. Labori made no éffort to hide how great had been his chagrin when Dreyfus accepted @ pardon after his second condemnation at Rennes; he looked upon it as a political compromise anworthy of a cause in which the better half of humanity had flocked to the standard of truth and justice. Then he changed the conversation and we began to talk of the things that have impressed him dur- Z nS (AE La 2 ir Oa, aa ert iat Ue aN eg ec ete at Siclee at a Pee, MMR Ma re OO ee Sh eee ay Be aay aR ee ER ee EE Pe at AS BRS eee : ag a ten PONE A . : Eakin ‘ Saag bs. . d , i ‘ : ee eae ey TRS, Be a tea a te RRR RA BEE sc IR EBS Oli I Rat atc amtine a >t a ee ee ee . tity See ing his brief visit to Canada and the United States. :: fle said: “I have really had but very little time to study conditions here, or rather I have had very little time to see things and no time to study. So my impressions are but fleeting and cursory. Of course, however different the forms of government under which people live, the human race is every- where much the same. and everlasting truths on which civilization is fuilt are constant. also.. “But after all, the ills of pee have but ttle ...) effect upon the real greatness or the material ~~ The social life of all maw17e progress of a nation. The fundamental laws And this: is true with evils tions is entirely distinct from their political lite, <2 I’ the political ideals of a country are low; if, as_ is sometimes the case, politicians are lacking in altruism, that will not affect new inventions, nor improved methods of construction, nor modern systems of communication, nor the height of | buildings nor the output of manufactures. “It matters not to the man in the street, going | peacefully about his daily business, who is May- or of the city or Governor of the State or Presi- ( dent of a republic, or to what sovereign he owes allegiance. Of course, this may have no applica ‘ tion to conditions in the United States, but I men- M. | tion :it to show how great material progress does not necessarily connote ideal political conditions, because material progress is not affected by the shortcomings of tHe body politic. In the same way political ills find their source, not in the abstractions of social economy, but in the short- comings of men. A Political Peveilei: a ee, A “R gium and to compare it with my own country. Belgium is @ monarchy. France is a republic. frage. In Belgium the clerical party is in power: in France the anti-clericals hold sway. Yet the stages of the ‘affaire,’ brought me a letter from Officjal ills against which reformers clamor in tatorship; and I would have led a revolution to} Senator Tarrieu on the Dreyfus case, and asked) 0°th-countries are exactly the same: The courts me to publish it. It meant my taking sides in ( /uf justice are not sufficiently independent; poit- the controversy, which had already grown oy PRIS are in politics for themselves ond have . serious proportions, and I did not see what good [ too much influence in public affairs; corruption could. do. I told Leblois that it was useless, I | \is widespread and real independence in public © would not publish the letter; that if anything was life a mere myth; finally wealth is too powerful. ( fruitless than writing ietters to the newspapers. It was like trying to.dry a lake with a teaspoon. I told him that I was under no moral obligation to» take up the case, but that if he showed me a moral obligation I would do my duty. ) to be done it would have to be something less\7J am not saying that any or all of these criti- cisms are justified, but it was strange that they — ‘should be urged simultaneously in two-countries of such outward different political complertons as France and Belgium. “Now, to get to more practical observations. : “A few days later M. Leblois came back and re-)}I was struck, in Western Cayada especially, by — minded me of what I had said about my willing-(the great work being done by Americans who ness to fulfill any moral duty. the family of Capt. Dreyfus wanted me to rep- )resent them at the Esterhazy trial. Dreyfus had denounced Esterhazy as the author of the ‘Borderau.”’ Esterhazy was about to be tried by secret courtmartial. The Dreyfus family, or rather, Mrs. Lucile Dreyfus, asKed me to This the court- martial refused to permit and Esterhazy was tl but his acquittal was not to be allowed unchallenged. Within a fortnight Zola pub- : ed his famous letter ‘J’accuse,’ in which he Mathieu | tore the veil from all the hidden infamy. Prose-. cuted by the Government, Zola asked me to de- fend him. But why talk of all this? lee T was clear ; that M. It is past and gone.” F rance Reunited Now | Labori was reluctant f From that moment on everything of | grates importance in the case pasced through my hands. pire out He told me that have established for themselves new homes in ‘the dominion, of the North. These A mostly Western farmers, are making a wonder- ful country out of the parts where they have settled, and their influence is one of the most © potent factors in the great increase In trade be- tween Canada and the United States. “In the last 10 years, I am told, trade between Canada and the United States has increased three-fold while the proportion of trade being done by England in her own colony has re mained stationary.. The Americans who heave gene to Canada are mostly the sons of che plo- neers who opened up the West in the United — They saw their parents carving an em of the wilderness and when stilt little — children they helped to hew wood and Graw water. They do not have to conquer nature; she has long been their obvdient handmaiden, Be “Compare thelr lot with that of the Emglish- further to discuss the part he had played in{™an, generally a clerk from a city office, who the great drama that thrilled the hearts of two worlds .nd shook France to her very founda- tions. He was literally bashful about it; he | goes out and starts farming alongside of them, — He is usually a child of the city and views most things with a certain dull, honest prejudice, the in the November number in 1896. It was called } pleaded that France was once more reunited and{ outcome of eee ccm | ta ~s ea ara ‘Rafael Levy, by Joseph Reinach.’ ae peraenso ee » = qgeerwe See Nn et eT ee ee gS a oa ECENTLY I had occasion to visit Bel- | Belgium has limited and . —_ { proportionate suffrage; France has univereal suf- ORB ee + net POOR 8 I ye iti ail ;