The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-05-19

the questions at issue. | had no
personal feelings against either the
Senator or the Representative-nor
did | seek to avoid responsibility,
on the contrary / instructed the ed
itor of the BULLETIN to give my
name to any one who had a right to
ask 1t, and | wish further to state
that | alone am responsible for the
article In question, and also that
my sources of information were
mainly taken from the reports in
the daily press, which, if inc orrect,
had never been disputed. A rep
resentative has the right of defend
ing his course, and if his record is a
good one, one of which he has
cause to be proud, it seems to me
that he would welcome the opportu-
nifty afforded by criticism to vindi-
cate it; if it was all right, he would
invite the fullest and freest scrutiny
and criticism, for il could only
show then that he had done his
duty faithfully and well, and there
in lies his only hope to meet the APP
proval of the people who have hon
ored him. But when the slightest
illusions TO the acts of the legisla-
ture or votes of its members is met
by personalities and not by argu-
ment, and it is taken as a piece of
impertinence for a constituent to
offer to discuss "gentlemen's rec
ords," and the free discussion of
the official acts of public men is re-
sented in bad grammar and worse
logic, it at least appears like there
must be ga skeleton in the closet"
which tLey are unwilling to have
exposed. The effort then to evade
the discussion of the questions upon
their merits, and to relegate the ar
ticle to the limbo of personality,
looks like a confession on their part
that the record is indefensible. 1t
would be better, it seems to me, to
first disprove the facts and refute
the argument, as that is really the
essential thing to do, for while
these questions remain unanswered,
any other citizen may ask the same
questions, although the original
Citizen" who wrote tie article
may have been annihilated by in
vective.
Mr.. Foster says in his card that
"Citizen" undertakes to give an ac-
count of his stewardship. | deny
it. Mr.. Foster will yet have to
give an account of his own steward
ship. l only gave a few samples.
IS the Queen of Sheba said of King
Solomon, "the half has never been
told" 1t remains to be seen what
the journal of the House will dis
close when it is issued. He ignores
everything except the last two items,
declares these to be untrue and
seeks TO discredit the whole article
and its author generally on the
strength of it. The first of these
two items was the statement that
the Legislature had created two new
salaried offices, while abolishing
some judgeships, thus not fully car
rying ont the pledge to the people
to abolish all unnecessary offices.
The second was the statement that
the junketing committees ha6 spent
more on themselves than ever before
and giving the amount spent by the
committee of 1897 as $3.50 and that
of 1899 at $IlOO.
Now these two measures were
passed by the whole Legislature and
do not affect Foster individually,
for l do not imagine his influence
was such as to control legislation,
except on mere local matters when
there was no opposition, consequent
ly do not lay the responsibility at
his door entirely. But let us see
what the facts are, for l propose to
have only the naked truth about it.
l stated that the legislature created
two new offices, the office of Super
of the Capitol Whose sal
airy l did not then know and did not
undertake to'give) and the Office of
Inspector of Factories with a salary
of $4,000. / have before me the APP
bill of 1899. / read in
it these words: "For salary of SUI
perintendent of Capitol, 5000 per
annum, $500. For Factory and
Shop Inspector, $500 (making for
the biennial term a salary of
S3OOO," thus completely bearing out
my statement. Mr.. Foster must
find something else by which to
prove that "Citizen" is unworthy of
belief.
But he claims that no new Office
was created, but that the Office of |
Landscape Gardener was changed to
of the Capitol.
Unfortunately for the veracity of |
his truth-loving man, l find an ap-
of $l.75 per day for the
Landscape Gardener also Mr..
Foster tells us that the Inspector of
Factories, one of these new officers,
s not paid anything out Of the
reasury, that she gets fees"
Then why on earth did he appropri-
tie $4,000 out of the state treasury
o him? Isn't he going to get il?
f this is the way he expects to dis
.redit the author of the article
igned "Citizen" or refute what is
herein written, it will stand against
lin till doomesday The Inspect
II Of Factories indeed collects fees,