The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1897-07-06

another feature OF the conspiracy.
About 10 days before Senator Earle's
death we received letter from Col
onel Neal suggesting that we remove
The Cotton Plant to Columbia and
60 in with Koester, the editor Of Mo
Laurin's personal organ, and now if
there is or was any other construc~
ton to put on their meaning or in
tention than that tkay wanted to use
The Cotton Plant in conjunction
with the Daily Record to boom Nc
Laurin, or that Colonel Nears mo-
tive was for any other purpose than
to use The Cotton Plant for "par-
tisan" motive we will dispel such a
belief little later on. The follow
ing is the letter:
columbia, S. c., May 10, 1897.
"Desr Crews: On my return to
Office 1 find yours of 9Th. Colonel
Duncan is away from the city a week
or more
81 think it will be a good plan for
you and Rooster to join. Make The
Record the daily and The Cotton
Plant the weekly, each paper could
be more cheaply cotton out. will
see Koester, and would suggest that
you come down here about Sunday,
10th, and by that time Colonel Dun
can will be back and we can talk
over the business. Come down and
let us talk the whole thing over.
Wishing you much good luck and
The Cotton Plant many readers for
many years. Truly, w. A. Neal"
We dislike to parade this letter in
public, but we have been driven to
it. We do not purpose to rest un-
der tne charge of having broken our
contract with printing committee,
when it was plain enough that if we
had entered into tho treacherous
scheme of McLaurin's boomers with
Gonzales and his silver followers to
disrupt the Reform movement and
1 the defeat of Tillnan thore would
4 not have been ono word said about
our BIPARTISAN editorials" Accord
ingly, at the time set we went to
Columbia, when Colonel Neal, who
4 seems to have been vested with full
authority by the printing committee,
made us.a proposition, but on ac-
Y count of some delay or hesitancy on
the part of Editor Rooster, no de-
finite agreement was arrived at,
owing, as Colonel Duncan remarked,
to Koester's unwillingness to go too
far in the direction indicated in Col
onel NeaPs letter until he (Koester)
could first consult McLaurin. So
the readers of The Cotton Plant can
very plainly SEQ that in tho opinion
Of the printing committee Bipartisan"
politics in this paper depended al
together as to whether we advocated
or opposed the election of John l..
McLaurin, as they say in their pub
lished cards, that "when Mr.. Crews
took charge Of the paper the com
mittee instructed him to conduct it
as an Alliance paper, 80 as to ad-
vance and promote the interests OF
the Alliance principles and organi-
cations, and that no politics should
be indulged in." Certainly not
The committee did not want any
"po]itics indulged in" unless such
politics was in tho interest of the ad
ministration's candidate, Mr.. Nc
Laurin, and we believe that fair
minded public cen very readily sec
that there could barely be anything
more BIPARTISAN" than to seek to have
The Cotton Plant "join hands" will
Rooster, the man who publishes and
odits the personal organ of the ad,
ministration candidate, and TO,
whose support the Mark Hannas o
Governor Ellerbe's administration
are furnishing the Doodle. But W.
are digressing somewhat. As w
were saying, there was nothing def
3 nitely decided upon at this meeting
= because Editor Rooster had not ha,
. an opportunity to discuss the matte
with his patron saint, John l.. Nc
D Laurin; but after sufficient tim
0 had elapsed to enable him to SEQ O
communicate with Johnny, we re
= ceiyed the following telepram.