UNCLE JOE ATTACKS LA FOLLETTE'S INDEPENDENT CANDIDACY
Hooperston, Illinois (JFK+50) On October 9, 1924, 'Uncle Joe' Cannon*, former powerful Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, "came out of nearly two years of private life...to address a business...meeting" here in Hooperston**.
According to an Associated Press report published in The Evening Star, the Speaker took the opportunity to attack the independent candidacy of Senator Robert M. 'Bob' La Follette for POTUS.
In characteristic style, the cigar-chomping former speaker says he has little use for "a man who is elected as a Republican or a Democrat and then turns around and raises the devil with those who put him in office."
*Joseph Gurney Cannon (1836-1926) was born in Guilford County, North Carolina & educated at the University of Cincinnati & UC School of Law. JGC served 23 non-consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives & was Speaker 1903-1923. The Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill was named in his honor in 1962.
**Hooperston, named after Thomas Hoopes who gave land for two crossing railroads, is located in Vermilion County is eastern central Illinois. It is known as the sweetcorn capital of the world.
SOURCE
"'Uncle Joe' Scores La Follette's Course," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 10, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
