The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-07-12
-kIHp WORDS

vile American gives forth complain
OF the awful abuse being heaped upol
the head of our wise and patriots
governor" Il quotes one or two art
cles from as many newspapers as
Justification Of the charge that Gov
Patterson Is being pursued with "vir
uieucs and malisnance;" that he hai
been .''slandered and maIisned as NJ
other governor since Brownlow;" anC
that a majority OF the Democratic
press Of the State is engaged in thi'
work OF detraction.
All OF which is utterly untrue and
utterly ridiculous.
That a majority Of the democratic
press OF the State have freely criti
cIsed Gov. Patterson, Is true enough
but that majority OF these democrat
ic papers are such slandereous and
malignant black guards as the Ameri
can represents them to be. is a charge
that has no foundation in truth.
The simple fact is that Gov. Patter'
son went into once after wasing a
campaign chiefly remarkable for its
extravagant personal vituperation. He
was not content with pouring out his
invective on his opponent, but every
body connected with Gov Cox's ad-
ministration was lampooned and Wilt
6ed. He villifled Coz for having a
machine; for having so much power
because Of the large number OF his
Oficiai appointments; for having con-
troll OF the election machinery and
filing it with his own partisans; he
attacked his record as revenue agent,
and charged him with receiving illegal
fees. nd he promised the people that
he. Patterson, would reform all this
when he became Governor.
Now there is no malignant abuse in
stating the plain fact that not only has
Governor Patterson failed to redeem
single promise, but that he has done
everything for which he abused Gov.
Cox, and worse things besides. He
has not tried to rid the State Of ma
chine rule, but has strengthened and
extended the power Of the machine.
He has not tried to diminish the gov
ernor's power and patronage, but has
DroouraS tha noccoCo nf lawc IN in 1
crease it. He has not reformed the |
election laws, but has kept that pow
er in his own hands. Before the echo |
If his fierce denunciation of Cox for |
aking illegal fees had died, he pro-
cured the passage of a law to practi- |
,ally double his own salary, during
lis term of Office, in plain violation of
he constitution. The Americans on
y ground of complaint is that the
papers have told the plain
ruth, and in doing so have exposed
iov Patterson as sham reformer.
Nobody has said anything of Gov. Pat
erson half as harsh as Gov. Patterson
himself said of his democratic oppo-
lent, or half as abusive as the Ameri-
can and the Memphis Commercial
Appeal have been toward his critics.
The American quotes single COM
nent from solitary newspaper and
makes it the excuse for the general
barge that Mr.. Carmack's friends are
in a wholesale war on Sena-
or Taylor, trying to "bemean and
elittle him."
There is no truth at all in the
barge, and 1t was made with the hope
reviving the animosities of the SEN
torial campaign, and to strengthen
ne great unpopularity of Patterson
18th the great personal popularity of
aylor But If the American wants to
o into that sort of thing, we can tell
that the most scornful and con-
smptuous things that have been said {
, ''bemean and belittle Senator Tay- {
IF" have come from the immediate {
amp of Gov Patterson; and Governor {