Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-10-06
SENATOR BAILEY IS A

Gainesville, Tex, Oct 5.-Joseph Weldon Bailey, the famous represen- tative of Texas in the United States senate, will tomorrow celebrate his 44th birthday. Senator Bailey is native of Mississippi, having been born in Copiah county, that state, October 6, 1863. He became a citizen of Texas in 1885, and was elected to congress in 1891 and to the United States senate in 1901 and again this year. Once a popular idol of the Lone Star state, considered by many even as presi- dential possibility, the senator has ad- mittedly lost much in the regard of his fellows through the charges that were made against him during his campaign for return to the senate last winter. Personally he is as popular as ever among his neighbors In Gainesville, his home city, very few of whom have ever placed any ere dence in the accusations made by his enemies. Throughout the state, how ever, there are thousands of voters who looked upon the verdict of the legislature as Guilty, but don't do it again ' To these Bailey is now a whitewashed idol, and they refuse to longer bow down to him.
 Among the accusations against Bailey made last winter were that he. had been mainly instrumental, if not wholly responsible, for the Waters Pierce Oil Company, Standard aux Hilary, being allowed to do business in Texas after it had been busted under the stringent antitrust laws of the state The senator cOntended that his act was one of friendship and that he had never received fee as attor- ney. Bailey admitted that he had re- ceived money from H. Clay Pierce, the head of the oil company, but that these were personal loans and that he had paid back every dollar received. After one of the fiercest political bat fles ever waged in Texas, Senator Bailey was exonerated from the charges made and returned to the senate for another six years.
 A year ago Senator Bailey cele- brated his 43d birthday in the midst of battle that had no other issue than his political life or death. No one apeared to oppose him for the senatorial toga. It was fight for principles and not for office, and the Bailey supporters were victorious. Yet the senator did not escape unscathed The months that have intervened have not been sufficient to wipe out the stain Perhaps the stain, whether rightly or wrongfully applied, will never disappear There are thousands of people in Texas to whom the name of Bailey recalls the odor of kerosene. They consider that Senator Bailey a poor man before he was elected to the senate, now deals in thousands where he once dealt in dollars. How did he get it. is question that is still being asked in Texas, long after the smoke of battle has cleared away.
 Innocent, as he has been declared by the state legislature, or guilty, as some of his fellow Texans continue to believe, Senator Bailey begins the 44th year of what promised to be an exceptionally brilliant life under cloud of suspicion that only many years of patient and earnest public service can dissipate. Once man apart in the United States senate an imposing figure standing for hon esty and integrity and all the civic virtues, the chosen leader of the com mon people-Senator Bailey will re- turn to his seat in the senate next December shorn of his halo. Suspic- ion, whether rightly or wrongly, has placed upon Bailey's name stigma that is nothing short of tragic in it's results.