The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-04-01
GOVERNOR EXPLAINS
HOW HE STANDS
Speaks Plainly at Law and
Order League Meeting at
Louisville on Sunday-His
Speech.

governor Wilson Sdlus
"Somebody says, Why haven't you
said something about the trust? There
are 1890 people going around this day
saying things about the trust. l never
i am for our people against any trust
that ever lived (applause). But all our
tobacco and all our farms and all our
homes are nothing If the ghost OF fear
rides over them. What is all the to-
bacco worth If cannot go among my
neighbors without fear of the ASSASSIN
or murderer or the infamous scourge
of the lash? All property is nothing
tobacco is nothing, home is nothing if
fear. broods over II.
There are 119 county attorneys
and thirty-three, / believe, common
wealth's attorneys whose luty it is to
prosecute tlle trust and very nearly
all of them m sympathy with the So
ci' ty of Equity, and in Heavens name
why don't they prosecute it? But they
say, Why doesn't the governor prose
cute the trust? The governor cannot
bring law suit; you elect common
Ng.ralth's attorneys and county attor-
neys to do that, and you give the COM
monwealth's attorneys so per cent. OF
the fees and the county attorney %
per cent. of the fees. 1t is their bust
ness to bring suits, not the business OF
tie governor.
"But, my neighbors. what is the sit
nation? A mob of 800 men, towards,
with masks on their faces and guns n
their hands rode into the city of Hop
R:nsvllle. Does any man or woman In
the hurley district deny it? Is it right
or is II wrong? Now then, when yoI
find somebody denouncing that which
We all know happened, what do you
think is the real purpose of the peo-
pie who say, Why do you speak Of
that? Why don't you speak of a thing
that happened back there about a
trade in tobacco? The person who
tries to divert attention from crime
IS acting in the interest of unfolding
the crime and not putting It down.
(Applause.)
81 haze spoken of the crimes that
occurred because it Is My duty under
the Law to maintain the peace. am
the leading peace officer Of the com
monwealth. | am not here to make
defense about It nor to make any eX-
plantations. This officer, trusted by his
people, the people of the tobacco dis
trict, as well as the Louisville district.
loves them all and he loves the law.
and under God is doing his duty just
a earnestly, just as conscisntiously
and increasingly as he has power TO
do it.
''The trouble is, and ! call your at
tention to this now. because it is an
important thing to consider, If this is
wholly due to the wrongful acts of the
tobacco truct, why haven't some OF
you tobacco producers done something
II the trust, either in court or to its
property or to its men? My neighboTs,
from the beginning of this trouble un-
Ill now. there has not been a finger
laid upon a trust man or a trust piece
of property or a trust pound of to-
bacco. There has never been a thins
o. that kind, except where the fire
house communicated itself to a trust
warehouse
at is as If the two trusts were
working together, and the unfortunate
y op.e, who love liberty and want each
man 10 do what he pleases, were
ground to death between them. Every
man that has been whipped was an in
dependent, not one a Society-of EQUITY
man or belonging TO the farmers trust
for it is a trust; not one an American
trust man, or belonging to that trust,
but every man, and every warehouse,
and every barn, and every home and
every pound of tobacco has been the
property, life or liberty of some man
that was trying to have his rights in d
free country.
What do these men go 10 the in
dependents for? Because the offices cf
the various farmers trusts have got
ten into the hands Of a number of
acute AM shrewd managers, who are
intoxicated with the love OF power that
has come 10 them, and they are de-
termined that no man shall dispute
their rule. They do not care that this
is a free country, or that the consti-
tuition guarantees liberty; they simply
are determined that every man in their
district shall obey their rule and the
rule of terror and fear They XIII the
independent they murder the poor,
humble farmer az his door. They whip
him with blacksnake whips and thorns
They burn his home over his sleeping
familys heads; they burn his barn. !
don't say the Society of Equity does
this; | believe in that society nine
tenths OF its members are good men.
''Take any county whore it has hap
pened, and ii forces man after man
10 say. 4 won't raise any tobacco and
he has to apply for admission to the
dark tobacco association or the burfey
association. If you see hundred out
RACES. one after another, every one of
which Is used over these people 10