Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1894-04-12
The South Carolina Disturbances.
From New York Tribune.

1t is not likely that the example of
Governor rillman, in taking possession
of the railroads and telegraph lines in
the state, will be followed by the COVER
nor of any other state until he has estab-
lished the success of the present expert
ment or it has resulted in failure. Dur
ing its progress it will serve as useful
object lesson. Governor Waite. of Col
orado, and Governor Lewelling, of Kan
sas, both of whom have apparently had
in contemplation the same vigorous
stroke of policy, will do well to watch it
closely.
Governor Tillman is one of several
governors who came into office on the
wave of the movement known. in some
sections as Populist. in others as the
Farmers Alliance. In the elatioa fol-
lowing their temporary successes these
statesmen, most of whom were without
experience in public affairs, became fud-
died and light-headed. They assumed
that they were not merely the advance
guard of a sweeping political, moral and
social revolution, but hat they were the
revolution itself; not precursors of the
millennium, but the actual millennium.
During the last year three or four of
these governors have made more noise,
created more disturbance and emitted
more dreadful threats and sulphurous
cuss words than all the governors of all
the states in the whole history of the
country. No such ridiculous assump-
tiOns of absolute power were ever heard
of. No such mad and reckless attempts
to direct all departments, control all
operations and ride roughshod over law
and precedent, courts and judges, were
ever witnessed. A parcel Of magistrates
chosen hardly have raised greater tumult
or set the communities over which they
were placed more by the ears.
The action of Governor Tillman is in
pursuance of an effort on his part
to revolutionize the morals of the
people of South Carolina by cutting off
their supply of intoxieants; or, if not
cutting it off entirely, compelling citi-
Zens to purchase of state agents. Per-
haps it is putting the movement on too
high ground to say that it was solely in
the interest of temperance and good
morals. The law confining the liquor
business to state agents and turning the
profits of the same into the state treas
ury may be considered a revenue meas
ure. But it was no doubt enacted in the
interest of tempera 1ca and morality
Very likelv some such restriction was
needed. Wisely framed and judiciously
enforced, it might have accomplished
great good. But Governor Tillman, who
| inspired the enactment, is neither wise
nor judicious. He is the logical outcome
Of the political craze of the last two OF
three years; the craze Q& violent a nd un
reasoning men, who h6x n fhe intel
liaence to understand tn 1S Qt thei
tasSatisfaction, nor the p1<iepne 10 dea
with them by healing processes rathel
than surgery.
| South Carolina sin q condition Dor
dering on anarchy, because her citizens
deliberately chose headstrong rantel
little better than madman for governor
He called out the militia and provoked
mutiny on their part; took possession o1
the railroads and telegraph lines. anG
practically locked up the state. and
plunged the state into bloodshed anC
riotous confusion, not so much to enforce
law as to assert his own power. In thi
he is simply manifesting the spirit of th'
popular movement which he represents
the rule-or-ruin spirit which stops a
nothing in its mad passion for power
Meanwhile the sober, law abiding, order
loving people of the country may lool
on the spectacle presented, if not will
satisfaction, at least with philosophi
resignation, in the reflection that the,
are witnessing the elimination of dan
| gerous delusion and senseless craze.