Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1907-06-15

! Wv Hihi7f VI VIC iltIulu litllll NttP
| separated its editor and his confrere
from the Levee Board thereby savin,
thousands of dollars to the people of th
levee district
The alleged separation of the edito
OF the Herald from the Levee Board /
an unblushing falsehood--he had lef
Greenvile year before, and was II,
more interested pecuniarily in leyee mat
ters than the man who utters it. As t,
saving money! the record will show tha
MeLaurin's appointees forthwith raise,
the salaries of levee officials, and tha
never since that of Adelbert Ames wa,
there so costly an administration. Their
Is humorous feature about our sait
conireres'-some of them-which W,
may here pertinentIy interiect. The,
had supported McLaurin for Goyerno
and had urged the Herald editor to ioil
IN the procession. Although there wa
but a shadow of opposition, we refused
stating that we knew him to be Il shy
ster and believed him to be boodlcr
and would not touch such pitch. Equally
fictitious is the rest of the quoted pass
age We are proud to say that McIau
rims administration, like that of Ames
earned scant praise from the Herald
editor, and not yestige as our files
which are open to all, will show, in this
period when Senator McLaurin saws hC
was 'besmirched' with it. On the con
trary he was repeatedly criticised, a,
our files will also show, in this time; the
first occasion being his message NIarcl
3, asking the Legislature to prohibit golc
contracts Il piece of demagoguery that
even a free silver legislature would moi
treat seriously
"The following count in the indictment
of the Herald will be read with a feeling
of amazement at the moral obtusity OF
the man who could furnish such proof
of his own baseness
Again, when | used the lawful au
thority of the governors office to see
that the state had a fair and impartial
decision of the question of the liability
of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
Aaihoad Compan yfor taxes, which they
had long shirked, and which they were
continuing to shirk, which resulted in
a decision holding that company to mill
ions of dollars of Just taxes, which the
plain people of the country had thereto.
fore paid for the railroad company, the
hostility of the Herald toward me was
intensified
Decision Condemned.
"The Herald, and many other state pa
pers, condemned the bad faith of this
decision, as to the taxes of 1SS6-1S02 in.
elusive; taking for our text the dissent.
ing opinion of Judge Woods. We criti-
csed the judges and the revenue agents,
with some severity. As to McLaurin,
then governor, he was never thought of
in this connection. Why should he have
been? What is meant by this lawful
authority to influence the courts de-
cision i'll a great lawsuit? What can he
mean by such assertion? Presumably
our courts are Independent and un-
tramelled, in reaching their conclu-
sions, Here we are told that Nc
Laurin, the governor, vested with power
of appointment and reappointment,
used the authority of his Office to
show them what was fair and i'm
partial decision. who as this au-
thority used upon, and how? What can
Chief Justice Whitfield, the sole incum-
bent of the old court, who wrote and de-
livered tSis decision, think of such an
aspersion? The story is just another
alsehood--blinded by the intent of de-
grading the Herald, Senator McLaurin
has wiltlessly slandered the supreme
court judges
"The claim of the governor for any
share of the credit in this decision is no
less impudent than it is calumnious. To
far from being entitled to credit for the
recovery of the millions of Just taxes,
he was employed by the railroad, as we
have been informed and believe, tO
lobby in favor of bill in the legislative
session of 1900, to compromise the
amount of the states claim, as declared
in this fair and impartial decision.
Wewill give the name of our informant
upon this matter, if Senator McLaurin
will cite us to his authority for stating
that the Herald is owned or controlled
told that had Revenue Agent Adams
been guided as urged by Senator Me
Laurin, the plain people, of the state
would have been iuggled out of all but
statement i not trne vo win oocen+
from Mr. Adams as IN that
nor+ of Il in which his nomo ;e ,rsad
Attack on the Clan.
1--WE quote further from Senator Nc.
Laurin's attack upon the Herald:
"'There is this extract in the Hera,d's
article: Everybody knows the McLau-
rim brothers had feast as long as they
kept the keys, and when the business
was turned over to Longino and Edgar
Wilson the situation showed no i'm
for the state" This vile and
Shiny accusation is its own refutation.
No honest man who knows me can be made
to believe that during the time | was
governor | ever misappropriated dollar
of the states money, | never handled
any of the public money except when |
counted it in the state treasury, as was
required to do by law.
"'No brother of mine handled any of
the public money except Walter Me-
Laurin, the year he was warden, and
every dollar he received as warden was
faithfully accounted for and turned into
the hands of the state treasurer, ex-
officio treasurer of the pententary. No
honest man believes that he ever mis-
appropriated dollar of the states
funds, and no truthful man will ever
make any such insinuation.'
"This extract appeared in this paper,
with several columns of items from state
exchanges, credited to the Southern
~.