One of the most prominent and promising young men in the political
life in the United States is Joseph Wingate Folk, who was elected
governor of Missouri in the fall of 1904. Though Governor Folk’s rise
has been a very rapid one, it has been the result of qualities which
make for the most substantial and enduring kind of political success.
Dominating factors of Governor Folk’s career have been honesty and a
rigid performance of duty. For these he has courted defeat and failure,
has even undergone danger to his life. He has refused to listen for a
moment to some of the largest financial offers that have ever been made
to tempt a servant of the people to betray his trust. Not only has the
power of money, but also the corrupt personal influence of many able
men, been brought to bear upon him in his work as circuit attorney in
St. Louis. Many of his friends, even, endeavored to persuade him that
his course of action toward the political leaders in St. Louis would
result only in disaster to himself. But Governor Folk’s invariable
answer was that he accepted public office for no other purpose than to
do his duty.
The result has been a great surprise to both his friends and enemies,
and the introduction of an uplifting influence in American politics.
Governor Folk has won a great personal triumph in his election to the
governorship of Missouri, and the indications are that he will rise to
still greater heights. His prominence and influence are rendered all
the more notable by the fact that he is only thirty-five years old, and
rose from the position of an obscure lawyer to American leadership in
the short space of four years.
Governor Folk was born in the town of Brownsville, Tenn., in 1869. He
finished his college education at Vanderbilt University, where he was
known as a clever, whole-souled young man who devoted much attention
to his books, but by no means neglected athletics and the general life
of a college boy. He was admitted to the bar in 1890, and began the
practice of law in St. Louis, where for some years his experiences were
those of the average struggling young attorney. During this period of
his career he became a friend of Henry W. Hawes, who was afterward one
of his bitterest political enemies. Hawes rapidly rose to a position of
considerable power in St. Louis, and when, in 1900, he was asked by
the Democratic boss of the city, Edward Butler, to suggest a likely man
for the place of circuit attorney, he at once recommended his friend
Folk. Butler knew very little of the young lawyer, but on the strength
of Hawes’ word he accepted him as being sufficiently pliable to serve
the corrupt uses of the political machine.
Folk was elected and immediately inaugurated the now celebrated
campaign against the corrupt practices of both his political
supporters and his enemies. It was the former who suffered chiefly in
the execution of Governor Folk’s ideas as to his duty. They were at
first astonished, then incensed, and finally panic-stricken. Many of
those who helped to elect him to office were sent to prison. Others
were compelled to take flight to avoid the same fate. The St. Louis
political machine, one of the most corrupt in existence, was shattered.
It was a herculean task which Governor Folk had mapped out for himself,
but his courage, steadfastness and ability carried him to a triumphant
conclusion of it, and now he stands before the country as a political
leader of the highest type.