The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1907-08-22

herd then butted and batted the en-
ragged animal until Mr.. Irwin escap-
ed over the fence.
Mr.. Folk Replies.
To the Democrats of Bamberg
county: Replying to circular letter
of Rev. A. J. Foster, in which he as
sails me for having addressed my
letter to you calling your attention
to misleading figures and statements
published by him l beg to say:
| addressed my remarks to you
then, as I do now, because you are
the intelligent and ruling element of
our county-because upon you falls
the burden of maintaining our gov
ernment and upholding constituted
authority-because out of your pock-
cts would come the cost of expert
menting with the farce that prohi-
bitionists are trying to foist upon
us-because to you would come the
loss of profit occasioned by the clos
ing of the dispensaries because
upon you would rest the response
bility to enforce a law that expert
ence has taught us cannot be en-
forced-because upon you rests the
responsibility of maintaining society,
protecting the purity of our homes
and perpetuating the sancity of our
churches Sin short, because you are
the backbone and sinew of our county.
By your votes you placed me upon
the watch-tower of Democracy in
this county, as it were, and would
have been recreant to my duty If l
saw impending danger and failed to
sound the alarm. If as pastor-the
watchman on the tower-of the Bap-
tist church, Mr.. Foster saw danger
or disaster threatening his church or
the welfare of its members, would he
keep his mouth shut? If he did he
would be unworthy to hold the posi-
ton.
AS the head of the Democratic
party in this county, l have as much
right to warn its members Of impend-
ing danger as Mr.. Foster has to
warn the members of the organiza-
ton over which he presides, and |
shall continue to discharge the
duties of my office, as l see them,
regardless of the opinion of Mr..
Foster or any who may think like
him. To the Democrats of the
county and to them alone am | re-
sponsible for my actions. 1t is the
height of presumption on the part of
Mr.. Foster to attempt to dictate how
l should discharge the duties of my
office. 1t will be noted that while l
felt it my duty as your County
Cairman to sound a note OF warn
ing" did not sign my name as Coun-
! ty Chairman. My idea was to become
doubly responsible, if possible, for
my action, and l am proud to have
had the honor of correcting state
ments so misleading and figures so
incorrect, especially when they ema-
mated from a source that people
would naturally think could be ac-
credited.
had hoped that Mr.. Foster would
have the manhood to come out and
say that he, through no fault of his,
had gotten incorrect figures from
the treasurer's office and that my
figures were correct, but while he
has not denied the correctness of my
figures he says, referring to his, If
the data is misleading it is a fault OF
figures and not my own" He knew
the figures were incorrect before this
circular letter was printed. Is not
this a pitiable defense for a minister
of the gospel to resort to? But, ap-
parently hoping to still further be-
cloud this issue, he publishes a GER
tifcate of the county treasurer,
which if examined, in connection
with his statement concerning the
Ehrhardt dispensary and the Sl5.l6
excess turned over to him, only goes
to prove the correctness of my state
ment and my figures and the incor-
rectness of Mr.. Fosters. But this
amounts to a discrepancy of only
s15.16 between our figures, which
was occasioned by typographical
error as to county profits at Ehr-
hardt in making a copy of the report
for the treasurer's office. The copy
in the office of superintendent OF
education and the statement pub
lished in the county papers July IL,
are correct. Refer to them and you
can verify every figure | have given:
If, however, this little matter OF
SIS. is had been the only error of
MIR. Foster I would not have con-
sidered his statements misleading and
would have had nothing to say in re-