The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-04-18

he can and will carry on his campaign
just as II | were not running then
what have my inherent merits to do
with it? My record as national legis-
lator for fourteen years is not criticized
by the Governor. He admits it to be
without blame or blemish. Does he
want me to go around uselessly boasting
of 1T everywhere? The record is there.
| am more than willing to make it the
issue. | am prepared to defend it, /
now offer it as the issue. But / do not
like to be egotistical in earnest by boast
fully defending that which Gov. Varda-
man does not attack.
after he was through with all this
diatribe of a personal, if not insulting
character, he illogically, if not suicidally,
adds this language: If to win this
fight it were necessary for me to rob
Mr.. Williams of one flower from his
justly earned laurels, l would spurn
the commission This is another dem
onstration of the Governors lack of the
logical faculty. If were 'demagogue,'
disingenuous,' capable of deliberately
disappearing an opponents position
'perverter' of that poscition, blind
egotist' and all the other things that I
appear to be, either to his distorted i'm
agination or to his distorted vocabulary,
hardly know which, then I could not
have any Justly earned laurels' to be
robbed of.
"Of course it is idle for the Governor
to say that he will ignore me, while
he is running for the Senate. / shall
not be so unkind as to say that that
sentence shows egotism upon his part. /
will remember, whether he will take the
trouble to remember it or not, that he is
my opponent and that the restraining
influence of civilized society require that
one shall use courteous language and not
insulting phrases, when referring to ones
opponent. Of course, | shall feel very
much hurt to be ignored by my friend,
the Governor, but, provided the people
of Mississippi do not ignore me, l may
possibly recover from the hurt. 1t is
hard to have ones existence thus
haughtily overlooked by a great man,
but if my digestion remains good, l can
survive it.
He boasts and | admit that he has
higher office than l ever had, or prob
ably ever will have. / am glad to adj
nit it; glad to know that he is not
one of those who, highly honored by
their state, regard the Governors office
as only stepping stone to the United
States Senate.
''The Governor seems to have a dis
gust for the time honored custom of
gentle and courteous debate between
seekers of office in the state of Mis-
sissippi. Whatever he may say, or
others may say, the real issue before
bo nf IL, l. L
Senatorial contest, in which Gov. Varda-
man and | are offering, and the issue
which win present itself to them for So
luton is this business propositions:
Which one Of the two candidates is the
best fitted, by training, equipment, tenn
permanent, the habit of self-control, tact
in dealing with men, experience in Ma
tional legislation and otherwise, to do
the work of Mississippi, of the Demo
crate party, of the South and of the
white race in the senate of the United
States? The Governor and [ have spe-
cial interests in the contest, but the en-
tire interest of the people may be
summed up in one sentence: we want
the man best calculated efficiently to
do our work at Washington OF course,
in a seertain sense, it is true that neither
of us is running against the other,
but both are running for the Senate In
another sense, however, it is equally
true that each is running against the
other.
There is one part of the Governors
interview which | recommend to his re-
perusal and to the perusal and consid-
Grafton of all the people. 1t is the part
in which he uses this language: I am
going to discuss public questions-meas
ures, not men; principles and policies
and not persons, before the people of
Mississippi 1t is great pity that he
should have rested content with merely
saying that in his interview
at is a great pity that he did not
act upon it, instead of violating it in
toto and discussing me and my imagin-
airy characteristics, as the jaudiced eve
of a rival candidate sees them | shall
do what he said he was going to do and
in discussing measures | shall discuss
my views of them and his views lin as
far as [ am able to ascertain any views
he has,. [ shall in no event discuss
him. | shall not come back in kind
L shall indulge In no petty, pettish, per-
sonalities analogous to those which
have quoted. l shall not follow the Gov
ernor's linguistic example for several
reasons.
First, because this style of debating
public question has long since been Ia
booed. Secondly, because neither the
Governor nor / would be a very inter
esting topic of discussion to anybody, ex-
cept perhaps ourselves. Third, because,
if / replied in kind and he in kind again
and so on, there would inevitably arrive
a point where the affair would cease to
be contest between debaters and would
become a contest between sharp shoot
erS.
Seriously, my friend, the Governor,
is either capable of some measure of
self-restraint or he is not. If he is he
could have announced to Mississippi that
he would not engage in joint discussion,
if he chose to make that announcement
in perfectly measured terms of courtesy,
and he need not have sought from what
had said, any mere pretext, either to
wrath. If, upon the other hand, he
that a difference of opinion on public
question provokes him to discourtesy,
if not to insult, then he has demon
elIdleu his uHAtHesS Iof place III the
Senate, where a man who loses his
temper every time he gets the worst of
an argument, or because he is impatient
of argument, has no manner of influence,
less indeed than one of the pages or
doorkeepers. Those old Scriptural words,
He that ruleth his spirit is greater than
he that taketh a city, are not foolish,
but wise words.
Il still entertain the hope that the
Governor will reconsider the conclusion
at which he seems to have arrived, so
that we can discuss u11astions IN q 0cn