The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1907-06-13
McLAURIN'S ADMINISTRATION REVIEWED
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Senator A. J. McLaurin's attack on
the Herald through certain papers
last Sunday, and which was repro
duced in these columns Tuesday last,
was in his very best and most typi-
cal style. Its alleged provocation was
that the Herald had INDUCED in ''un-
provoked abuse of him. As mat
ter of fact his distinguished name has
scarcely appeared in the Herald since
he was governor. In recent years, by
the outward signs, his senatorship
has been a sideshow to his criminal
law practice; notices and interviews
in the Jackson papers when he was
going TO or from the courts being
about the only evidence that he was
in public life, AS he was notoriously
cipher in Washington, his absences
from there have called for no criti-
cism in the Herald. So far as we
recall, the last mention it had of him
was of his engagement in the defense
of the late Sergeant Dave Puckett,
who was indicted for cruelty to con-
u
Der, 1905, the fiction of his plant is
plain. The sole specification he ad-
vanced in substantiatiOn of the
charge of unprovoked abuse is the
Herald's reproduction, April 28th, of
an article from the Southern Sentinel,
which, he says, was copied "after
having it published in that subsery-
lent paper" This slur is left to the
Sentinel to take care of. And as to
the imputation on the board of con-
troll in said article, which the ag-
grieved senator charges up to the
Herald, it is thus introduced: "The
following is an extract taken from a
speech recently delivered in Newton
by Hon. Z. \. Thomas, candidate for
governor" The Mississippi senator
treats this extract as though insti-
gated by the Herald, though originat-
ing in the Sentinel; the fact that
the real author was Mr. Thomas, he
suppressed. The unbIushing mendac-
ity of this specimen of deceit is only
equaled by its transparent stupidity.
AS to this extract it may be said
further that the statements and con
illusions of Mr.. Thomas upon the rec
ord of the board of control, with
which Senator McLaurin joins issue,
are derived from the official report
of the State revenue agent.
Having shown that the senator's
attack is in its alleged cause sham,
that he has in truth been given no
provocation for the libelous false
hoods he has lodged against the Her
aid, we will cite two circumstances
which betray his real motive. Re-
Gently a Jackson scribe gave out that
Senator McLaurin was going to butt
in on the canvass; warm personal
tiles were predicted between him
and Governor Vardaman; meeting
was announced between him and Mr..
Scott, where exciting scenes" were
to TO be expected. 1t was asserted by
fEa+e clan positively that he was going
to take the stump for Truly. Doubt
less such assurance was given that
protector of the State from Dago
peril Notoriously gutter. whose
courage, like that of Bob Acres, has
the habit of "oozing" away when the
time of performance comes on, the
senator's Truly obligation has dwin-
died down to a slanderous attack on
the Herald.
So much for the motive Of the at
tack upon the Herald: As to the
attack itself we will be pardOned for
dealing somewhat plainly with accu-
sations so widely published that seek
to make the editor of the paper in
famous. So long as the falsehood of
being owned by the constituencies
public service corporations, the finan-
cial pirates who are robbing the peo-
ple," was only peddled out by Truly