New-York tribune., 1907-11-10
WHAT DID 1T IN KENTUCKYf

New Jersey is not the only state in which
political pOst-mOrtem is in progress. Volunteer
coroners across the Hudson agree pretty well
in fixing the onuS two distinguished leaders
in Mayor Fagan's bailiwick. who, although
oStenslble opponents, recognized partisan
differences when it came to planning deliver
ance from the rule of a too practical and
manageable reformer. If Pagan had to fall,
the autopsy experts have figured it ont. Katzen-
bach had also TO be butchered to emphasize
the non-partlsan character of Hudson County's
holiday. The New Jersey inquest looks easy
But in Kentucky, where there is also a corpus
10 be accounted for, the problem is darker. Who
killed the Boy GOvernOr-JOhn Crops Wickliffe
Beckham. as Colonel WattersOn loves to print
his name-and who smashed TO finders the
! ear of triumph at the rear end of which the heir
of William Goebe accustomed to drag the
: vanqulshed Old Guard of Blackburns, Nc
CrearyS and Haldemans:
Who welded the knife and threw the bomb?
There is violent clash of opinion in Blue
Grass centres and along the reaches Of the
Kentucky and the Ohio. Editor Knott of The
Louisville Evening Post" says that unques-
tonably Colonel Watterson and The Louis
Vile Courier-Journal" ought to be hailed be
fore the coroners jury. He regards the bitter
lamentations of Colonel Watterson over the
election from office of the Barth administration
in Louisville and the COlOnel's impassiOned de-
fence of the Demon Rum, frowned by the
Beckham reformers at Frankfort, as equally
discOuraGing to the cause of JeffersOnanism.
Mr.. Knott argues that inasmuch as The Cour-
ierJOurnal' and the Louisville Democratic
machine turned down Governor Beckhams
| reform" appointees 10 the city offices. vice
| the Barth complement, elected for fraud, and
nominated instead wide open local ticket,
fbp yyOful SLAUGHTER IN IOuisyiIia Of tho
i cratic candidate for Governor must be upon
| their cOnscences. Mr.. Knott also holds that
the Democratic nominee, Mr.. Hager, played
| both not and cold with the prohibition issue,
| favoring prohibition in the rural districts and
/ license in the cities, thereby weakening HIM
self with both interests. In Louisville he ran
with the antBeckham open Sunday shOuters
| and IN the country he tried 10 hunt with the
exterminators of the juep and schooner habit.
| But Colonel Watterson dissents entirely from
Editor Knotts plausible diagnosis. He pleads
an alibi to the charge of having Faganized the
Hager ticket The man who slew the innocent
| and at whom vengeance should shake its CORY
locks is not Goblin. but Short; not Watterson,
but Beckham. Says the editor of THE Courier
Journal:
! II asked 20 put in single sentence
the cause Of Democratic disaster in Kentucky.
we should answer. the man power. The one
man power established by William Goebel de-
scended 10 John Creps Wickliffe Beckham. AL
! ways a precarious possession, il became periouS
and finally deadly in the hands Of an ambitious.
unsparing organizer sacrificing everybody and
everything, the ethics and practice of lust gov
ernrnent along with the principles Of Democ-
Tacy, TO the single purpose OF building n self
perpetuating machine. What Clay could
not do. what Breckenridge could not do. what
Guthrie could not do lay not beneath the COM
potency of a successor of far inferior talents.
Yet even Beckham might not have over
thrown the temple had the Democratic can
didate for Governor not truckled TO Prohibi-
tOn. At that awful example of apOStasy the
heart Of the ancient Kentucky Democracy
broke. There might have been chaDce Of sal
walton, Colonel WattersOn says:
At the last moment the day might have been
saved II the Democratic ticket had said as in
deed TO all intents and purposes the Republican
ticket did say: Prohibition does not prohibit
What shall it profit IL we confiscate one
hundred millions of yielding property and a
hundred years Of productive trademarks hun
dreds of millions Of contiguous values transfer
ring two three millions OF taxes from the
manufacture and distribution of distilled ana
OVerburdened farmer merely in order to make
Kentucky dry Maine. which is not dry
at all?
But the saving word was not spoken and
now there is 10 be a Republican Governor in
Frankfort. What put him there? Who killed
Cock Robin? The reader IS welcome TO his
choice of epitaphs and explanations.