The Tupelo journal., 1903-05-22
Reform In Mississippi.
Candidates Said to Be Expected to
Pay as They 10.

ilOht uAou uAO 1otliASlo VA III
state have become weary Of enter
tanning candidates free of charge
as follows:
"The hospitality for which
Mississippi has long been famous
is about to suffer a stunning blow.
Sheer force of circumstances has
compelled the farmers of the
State to abandon their time-hon-
ored custom Of giving to the can
didates who honored them with
visits during political campaigns.
"The reason for the change r
cogent. One is that the crops
have not been good Of late. The
Mississippi farmers r not so
prosperous as they were. Still
they would not shut their doors
in the faces of strangers on this
account alone, for like all South
erners, they would be willing to
share whatever they happened to
have with those who might call
upon them, if the number of call
ers had not been increasing at a
rate that threatened to lmpoverish
the rural districts. cit has been
the custom in Mississippi for
farmers to take care of the candi-
dates, their horses and sometimes
their servants indeed. among farm
ers it has heretofore been deemed
a privilege to be asked to enter
tain ~aspirants for public honors.
But the asplrants have been becom-
ing too thick. No fewer than 6, 600
of them are said to be at large in
Mississippi this year, and the
farmers are in revolt. They have
begun to suspect that persons who
do no care to work seek political
preferment for the purpose of
living off the country.
The ~aspirants for honors, it
seems, have been invading the
country districts in squads, com
panies and batillions this year.
The movement has been assuming
the nature of a plague. The hun
cry candidates, their horses and
their servants were eating up the
surplus in the farmhouses. Some
thing had to be done to abolish
the old. custom.
"Some of the farmers did not
like to 60 to the extreme of turn.
ing the aspirants for the public
honors away from their doors.
Only ii few have decided thus far
to set their dogs Oh them. In
Leake county the farmers will
hereafter charge for the feed of
the candidates horses. In War
rem county all candidates have
been pledged before nomination
not to deadbeat their way through
the agricultural regions.
"There may be isolated cases
where farmers are awaiting the
coming of the aspirants with shot.
guns, but it is believed that after
a few hundred of the political
wanderers are refused lodging
and food and arc picked up starv-
ing by the roadside, a desirable
reform will set in, and that in a
short time there will be no more
than the candidates for every
public Office in Mississippi, and
hat most of these will be capable
Of going their way during the
campaign"
We print the above for the edi-
%fication of our Lee county candid
ates. The Chicago Inter- Ocean is
a rabid republican sheet that
never lets an opportunity pass to
beslime the south with It's venom.
In this instance it has stepped be-
You'd the bounds and has knocked
the chip off u shoulders. We
feel it our duty, as it is IL pleas
ure, to defend our candidates and
people from the ISLANDERS, open
and covert, contained in this
article.
1t is we'll known, to us, that no
man can become a candidate for
a county Office in Lee county, who
has not passed a personal inspec-
ton and examination. If he falls
below a fixed standard Of personal
beauty, education, intelligence and
moral character he is ruled out Of
the lists. 1t he eats green's with
his knife, or spits tobacco juice on
the door steps, or wipes his nose
with the napkin, Or says 81 taken
ed" for II took" or has not read
Quo Vadis, or believes that
Booker Washington is a son of
old George, or thinks that the re-
publican party is composed of
cherubim and seraphim, or thinks
that the Chicago Inter Ocean can
tell the truth or that eddie Roose
welt is any better than the compa-
ny he keeps, why then, lie IS dis