m. If he had been disposed to do so,
much friction could have been avoided, and at the same time he
would have had his own way in caring for the interests of the
country. I have believed in him and have stood by him through
thick and thin, and I know he has done nothing but what he himself
believed right.

Joseph G. Cannon has his own notions of what is right and what is
wrong, and fearlessly follows what he thinks is right, without
reference to what anybody else may think or say. The apparently
determined effort on the part of the masses of the people, and
especially the newspapers, to discredit the Payne-Aldrich Tariff
Bill resulted in the Democrats carrying the House in the campaign
of 1910 with the result that in the Sixty-second Congress the
Democratic party has a substantial majority, causing the retirement
of Mr. Cannon from the Speakership.

For a time Mr. Cannon was apparently very unpopular and the people
seemed disposed to hold him responsible for much they did not
approve of in legislation; but his feeling is passing away, and
Mr. Cannon will be regarded as an able legislator, an able Speaker,
a man who has during his service in Congress saved the Government
untold millions. His honesty and devotion to duty cannot be doubted,
and he will go down in history as one of the foremost leaders in
Congress of his day, when those who are now criticising him are
forgotten.

On January 16, 1907, I was by the Forty-fifth General Assembly
elected for the fifth time as United States Senator from the State
of Illinois. This was an entirely different contest from any
previous one I had ever had, as the State had enacted a primary
law which contained a proviso that the names of candidates for
United States Senator could be placed on the ballot and voted for
at the primaries, but that such vote was advisory merely. This is
as far as the primary law can go on the question of the election
of United States Senators. I had not the slightest objection to
having my name go before the people, the individual voters, as a
candidate for the Senate. The first primary law was declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the State, and as soon as
I heard the decision I promptly wired the Governor, commending him
for his announcement that he would call a special session of the
Legislature to enact a new primary law, and I took occasion to add
that I hoped by friends would work with him in the passage of the
law, and that