The Forrest City times., 1905-06-30
Governor Davls' Reply.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark, June 24, 1905. Hon. J. H. Berry:

Hon. J. H. Berry:
 My Dear Sir-Upon my return this
 evening from Benton county. where I
 went to participate in an important
 public meeting at the urgent solicita-
 ton of host of the citizens of that
 good county, and where I am grati.
 ned to say that l met with a recep-
 ton Of unusual cordiality and en-
 thuSlasm, l find that your letter of
 the 20th instant, addressed to me.
 mas been published, in full, and with
 naming headlines, in the St. Louis
 Globe-Democrat and the Arkansas
 Democrat, and probably other jour
 nalS, habitually hostile to the Demo-
 cratic party, and being thus made a
 campaign document find myself un-
 able to refrain from calling attention
 to the confirmation it affords to my claim that you have so long re-
 malned out of touch and sympathy
 with the people, and been subjected
 to the artificial atmosphere of official
 life to such an extent that you have grown over-sensitive, and treat as an
 anront, when applied to you, the
 plain and candid language usual in the dealings of ordinary mOrtals. |
 in no wise intended to be impolite. and least of all not offensive, when I
 ventured to say that l was willing to accept the invitation of the people of Conway to speak there on the Fourth Of July, and I hoped that you were. If could bring myself to believe that l had been in the least degree offen- sive in tone or words I should hasten to make amends. l am disposed, rather, to think your present dis turbed condition to be due to the CT. rOneous impression under which you rest, that because you have been kept in public office nearly all your adult life, therefore it is treason to seek to put an end to your tenure.
 You reiterate, with emphasis, that you do not intend to meet me at Con- way, and that there was no necessity for me to urge you second time to do so. This persistent and emphatic re- fusal to make compliance with the courteous invitation of the people of that enlightened and prosperous com- caused me less surprise, since l recall that the intelligent and dis citizens of the county, of which Conway forms a part, decided, in the primary election held six years ago, that even then your day of use- fulness as United States Senator had passed, and they accordingly voted for your opponent. You now advise me that you will not enter in- to joint debate on the senatorial question as early as the Fourth of July, and you assign as your main reason the fact that you do not de- sire to furnish the people an occasion for refraining from work long enough to attend the meetings to be held at the various places. This particular brand of solicitude on your part dis closes the fact that you are the vic tim of the plutOcratic notion that all the average man is fit for is to work, treating as wasted time and energy any effort he may make to inform himself as to the merits of measures and the fitness of men; that if the com mon people will work necessarily, oth- CTS will continue to look after the matter of governing them-and you are one of the others. think this an unkind suggestion, coming as it does from man who has been kept in pub lie office for thirty years, and addressed to the indulgent constituency that kept him there. The need for the people to work, and keep away from public meetings, is Of course greater than 1t would have been if you and other senators had not defeated the passage of the Hatch anti-option bill, designed to prevent gambling in farm products, but even with the handicap of being misrepresented in the senate on such great measures as this, ven- ture the assertion that they are still able to afford the loss of time neces- sary to hear me tell them about your record on this and other matters that vitally affect their interests. You are also greatly disturbed because for five years past the people have been kept in constant excitement and turmoil by the vigorous campaigning done by candidates. Of course, your strictures in this behalf do not reach me, nor the temperate and philosophic dis courses on good government, and the interest of the common people therein, delivered by me from time to time. Even if you refer to the hot time tour friends, the enemy" sought to afford