The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-19
THE SUN, SUNDAY. AUGUST lQ. -l00A:
TILLMAN AMONG Els PEOPLE.


TIILMAN AMONG Ills PEOPLE.
nWOOL. Hat ONE. OALLUS B0YS"
GLAD no SEE HIM AGAIN.
"That's hight HuFrah for ole nenp' They
Cry ~ He Discusses the Issucs--An
Unconyentieaal Canvass IN South Care
iins-'Lacker" tho Reelection Issue.
. COLUMBIA; 8. O.; Aug. H. The Hon.
Benjamin r. Tillman, Senator from soutn
Carolina, 10 q spectacle IN the Senate OF the
United States which al visitors ask TO have
| pointed out TO them. A speech py nim
In the Senate 10 an occasion In Washington
and q feature in the papers throughout the
country the morning after.
But Ben TYllman In tho original and on
his native heath, among tho '~wool-hat-one"
gallus boys 10 . show indeed. He 10 run
ming for reelection to tho Senate. andthough
be has no opposition, the ono opponent who
entered the race having withdra wn. he 10
going from place TO place to address the
people on the Issues.
The Issues are whether or not South
Carolina shall continue the State dispensary
for tho purpose OF dispensing 4lioker' to the
people, and how and whore. 4Licker' Is
the question before the people Of the State.
Tillman invented the ~dispensary, fathered
and fostered II. For fourteen years IT has
yun O course Of trouble, and for the first Few
years Of its history 1t ram course OF blood.
Tho people Of South Carolina are now
asked to kill It. Already in fifteen ooun-
ties, nearly half Of the counties in the State
| the people have under o recent act OF the
Legislature voted out their dispensaries.
Tllman's pet Is the ~dispensary. He said
,t was established in the interests OF tenn
peranoe, and some one OF his ieutenants--
Tillman himself, some say-said IL was a
great moral institution. Some Of the news
papers have since so called IL in derision,
a~bbreviating It to the 60. M. L.
It has been an issue In every election for
Governor since 1894. This year eight candi-
dates are running for Governor, each ex-
pressing different views as to the mana &C.
ment OF the liquor question. Tfllman Is
putting forth the stoutest efforts to save
the "a. NJ. t. and he is going about In the
interests Of good licker.'
The Issue, as some one has expressed IT,
is between those who believe that there
is no good flicker but only bad, worse
and worst, gnd the other school Of political
thought, which holds that there is no bad
sucker," but good, better and best. Till
man is the achampeen' Of good Ticker
and he tells the people how to get it.
Regardless Of The issues and the views he
expresses, which are always less interesting
than the way he expresses them, 1t 10 TILL
man on the stump who 10 to be described.
In the little town Of Union. up In the red
hills OF South Carolina, the other day there
had gathered, then, not the beauty and
the ohivalry that in an elder day had been
won't to gather around Senators in South
Carolina, but some 1900 or 1000 wool
hat-one- gallue boys from the woods and
hills and fields to see and to hear the man
thew had sent TO the United States Senate.
MANY of them did not know what the United
States Senate 10, neither what 1t 10 like nor
what it is for.
Some sixteen years ago q lean, lank,
sallow faced fellow with one flashing brown
eve, a tremendous square head, long,
nervous, rapidly moving arms, q high,
whining voice and a fiery, scathing, voluble
tongue had come out Of the baokwoods
of Edgefeld and told them that they were
n downtrodden lot, that they were under
the heal Of aristooracies, rings, corpora
tons and other horrible things and that
he was the M~oses-just like one Of them,
he told them, except that he had moro
sense-to lead them up out Of bondage.
They made him Governor. They knew
what a Governor was, most Of them did,
and he saw them occasionally and told
them what he was doing for them. Then
he told them there was a place called the
United States Senate and that they were
entitled to AVE q mar there to look after
their interests and he wanted to 60 there.
when you go to elect members OF the
Ieqislature," he told them, you need
not ask them where they stand on this
question or that. What you want to ask
them is IL they will vote for Tillman for the
United States Senate
They did, and Tllman was cent to
the United States Senate. He went away
and they have not seen much Of him since.
Now Of late they had heard hat he is
become famous. They gathered around
him in the grove at Union and mounted
him on a stand erected in the grove and
hurrahed for their hero, sent of by them
to the wars and come home covered with
glory.
1T is my pleasures as It has been many
a time before said the chairman, TO in
troduoe to you the foremost man In the
United States
that's right several shouted, and they
gave a tremendous yell, not that the an
nouncment was unusual or in any way
striking.
He was their Ben, 'Ole Ben they called
him arectionately, and many In the crowd,
IL he had told them that black wal white,
would have declared sThat's so,' and
shouted @Hurrah for Ole Ben"
The crowd was very familiar. Not
alone was Tillman unconventional, as he
always Is, but this time the audience was
"a unconventional as he. It was the most
~undignifed, undeliberative assembly In the
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