The Paducah sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, 1903-02-23
State Committeeman Ayers Opens
the Fight Against Honest John
Tells Him He Has Not Been on the
Mourner's Bench Long Enough
Fight Begins in Earnest.
MORE SAID TO BE COMING

tnt bOhhAhetsoA ~ So'Ns
nor, and the Beckham machine, has APP
parently opened in earnest in this sec
ton Of the state, and here in Mr.. Hen
bricks own district we find the Demo
cratic state committeeman leading
the fight against him.
1t appears Mr.. Hendrick in his re-
cent speech accused the committee
man of having been influenced In his
vote on the question Of primary by
the fact that Governor Beckham sp-
pointed him colonel on his staff three
years ago. This has drawn the fire of
the committeeman, Colonel Mott Ay-
ers, who publishes the Fulton Leader
and is q scrapper from away back, and
he pours the following hot shot into
the Hendrick camp:
What right have you, Mr.. Hen
drick, to talk about the Democratic
organization, when just few years
ago no man tried harder than you did
to destroy that organizationf We
suspect that you have not been on the
mourner's bench quite long enough to
be classed among the duly penitent,
and we are sure that the Democrats Of
Kentucky are too sagacious to trust
their leadership to a runaway horse,
for the habit is said to be incurable.
When did you get to be the apostle of
pure Democracy? Since 1896 or since
1897? We would advise you to be
calm and curb your frothy mouth, for
we propose to show up your political
record in such fashion that no true
Democrat in Kentucky will be willing
to take a chance upon your bogus can
didacy. We did not wish to do so,
for our personal feelings towards you
have been kindly, even If our regard
for your party fidelity has been small.
But you have invited 1t by your childish
personal attacks and you must suffer
the penalty your rashness has invoked.
. You have the unenviable and
unprecedented distinction Of being a
zone termer" congressman from the
Gibraltar district of Kentucky Democ-
racy. You were first nominated and
elected to that position in 1894, but in
1896. when you asked for q renomina-
ton, your position as a goldbug and
your hostility to your party were such
that you were overwhelmingly defeat
ed in Democratic primary by that
gallant and knightly Democrat, Charles
K. Wheeler. No wonder you are so
much against primaries, now, for that
was the last one you ever went up
against. Your present state Of hydro
phobic fear Of such things is therefore
easily explained. "The machine" Of
unterritied Democratic voters which
ran over you then is the same kind Of
machine you think you are fighting
now. You skulked in that cam paign
Of 1896 and lent aid and comfort to
the enemies Of your party. If you
voted for the Democratic ticket, as
you claim, then you doubled your
offense by adding hypocrisy to infidel-
ity. Faithless to your party, you
should not claim to have voted for 1t
when you were working against 1t.
But let us go little further. What
did you do in 1897? In your speech
at Georgetown the other day you gave
as your reason for not voting the tick
ct that year that you were "too i'll to
90 to the polls" Was that your rea-
son? Let us see how sincere you were
in that statement and measure your
sincerity in other statements by the
test. As a matter of fact, and you
cannot deny it, you were delegate,
duly selected. from your county by a
goldbug convention to the Louisville
convention which nominated Hindman
as the boiling candidate for clerk of
the court of appeals against the regu-
lar Democratic nominee for that office.
You have in your scrapboot an article
which you do not now exhibit from
the Courier Journal Of July 10, 1897.
We also have a copy of that article,
which we print in another part of
this paper, and it shows in big head
lines on the front page hat j. X.
Hendrick' had been welcomed into the
rauks OF the 'Palmer-Buckner' fol-
lowers and would be a delegate to the
Hindman convention from his county
Of Livingston. IL further shows that