The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-08-20
Col. o. x. Gunter for Attorney General.

Mr.. U. x. Gunter, liz his candidacy
for Attorney General, has laid special
stress UPON the fact that his opponent,
-Mr. Stevenson, was not the man for
the Office, because Of his connection
with . railroad rs an attorney, and that
position is well taken. AS q corpora
ton attorney Mr.. Stevenson is sup
posed to have thoroughly studied cor.
poration laws and naturally his inter.
pretation Of that Law was favorable to
the corporations. He must have con-
7ineea himsc!s that such Interpretation
is proper, and naturally the bent of his
mind is in that direction. The fact
that he has resigned his position as a
corporation attorney could not possi-
bly, have changed an opinion which he
has held for years, and neither would
his election as Attorney General trans.
form his mental attitude toward such
questions so that he could view them
with an unbiased eye. This is natural.
and however honest man might be
and however much he might intend to
do what is right, he would under such
circumstances always be badly handi-
capped by previously formed opinion.
This fact is recognized in law, for
when o man is put upon his voir dire
in trial, if he says he has formed an
opinion as to the case, it is considered
sufficient generally to reject him as a
iurnr mt init O ko ~ d;ro / -
the belief that after hearing the evi-
dence he would render an unbiased
verdict. Lawyers are afraid to risk
such man, however honest he might
be, and the people Of South Carolina
will no doubt look upon Mr. Stevenson
in the same way. As to what Mr..
Stevenson has done, it is fact that
while speaker aud railroad attorney
he appeared before committee which
had some matter connected with his
railroad under consideration. It may
be true that he was sent for by the
committee, but under the circumstanc.
es it was extremely impolite and i'm
proper for him to have accepted the
invitation. and it would have been
eminently correct for him to have de.
clined and given his reasons therefor.
D1en nave deci;ued tc participate in
oer.aic matters of legislation when
.:.eir personal interests were of far
less Importance than Mr.. Steven
sons IN the case referred to. The
rights " the corporation and those
OF the people ought to be equal
under the laws, but everybody knows
that in ttCSe latter times cornora
tions have 90 be strongly held back
from encroaching upon the rights of
the people. Hsre their interests are
generally considered autagonissic. Mr..
Stevenson. recognized that principle
when he resigned to become candi-
date. Note the fact that he consider
ed that necessary even befofs he asked
the votes of the people. Why should
he do this unless he knew that the
people believed that he could not serve
them and the corporations at the same
time? Yet Mr. Stevenson was speaker
and railroad attorney at one and the
same time. As We said on a previous
occasion, he could not serve both hon
estly. IF he served the people, he
was recreant to his duty to the rail-
road, If he served tho railroad, then
he betrayed the trustsconfided in him
by the people. There is no getting
around the logic Of the situation, aud
whichever horn Of the dilemma Mr..
Stevenson chooses to hang upon. he
proves himself unfit for the position
to which be sspires. Columbia Re-
cord.