The Winchester news. [volume] (Winchester, Ky.) 1908-19??, 1908-12-22
JUDGE BENTON's
final REPLY
Confined from page one.]

that he should be lynched. Support
ed by the best Sheriff | ever saw, and
Chief of Police willing to surren-
der his life as sacrifice to duty, /
defed the mob and announced that
Sam Hisle must have a lawful trial
and be condemned according to law.
The law prevailed, and many gray
haired man in Clark county, who
was actually in sympathy with the
mob, came to me and with tears In his
eyes thanked me for saving the
county from the disgrace of mob
violence.
In every county in the district,
for the sake of the men who serve
the State as jurors, l have adopted
a plan by which each juror is paid
in full for his service as soon as it
is ended. The old rule was that
the jurors must wait months for
their pay or be compelled to discount
their claims against the State.
In my political relations | feel that
l belong to the Old Guard of De-
mocracy. In Clark county | have
seen the Democratic majority less
than nothing in 1890, a scant % in
1896, and when, In 1897, became
officially connected with the county's
party organization, in the terrific
struggle of that year, | saw the ma
jority reach AS, and / have seen
it continue to grow until 600 is now
recognized, even by the Republicans,
to be the normal Democratic major
ity of Clark county, and it will not
be denied that in bringing about this
result, l have borne my share of the
work and have never faltered In it.
On my official record and my party
service | appeal for the support OF
the loyal Democrats of the district.
Of the four reasons suggested by
Mr.. Hays why l should not be given
the position, he urges two in all the
counties, one in one, and the fourth
in still another. He is an agile an
tagonist. When he is successfully
tripped from one position, he ahghts
confidently on another, equally un-
sound, and equally untenable.
His first idea was to create a pref
udice against me because had the
moral courage to ask that the salary,
which he admits is too low, should
be increased. When l showed that
that was a dead issue, which neither
he nor /. even with the help of the
Legislature could revive, he ceased
to place emphasis on that point.
His second idea applied only to
Madison county where he attempted
to make the personal and political
friends of Hon. James B. McCreary
believe / had been disloyal to him,
but when / flashed telegram from
Senator McCreary to me, dated De-
cember 4, 1908, in which he said:
81 believe you always have voted for
me when l was a candidate, and i
have never questioned your loyalty
as a supporter of mine," my friend
Mr.. Hays dropped that notion like it
was afre.
His third plea is that the primary
election was called too soon, that |
wrote the call, and that he was not
given time to canvass the district.
When the district committee met at
Richmond December 10th, 1908, Mr..
Hays admitted before the committee
that he had had it in mind for year
to run for this Office, that he knew
when and where the committee was
to meet to make the call, but that
he neither attended the meeting in
person nor by representative, as he
could have done. and that he made no
request of any sort of the committee.
1t is a known fact that he did not
announce his candidacy for two full
weeks after the committee had called
the primary. My announcement was
made In every newspaper in the dis
trict in September, the committee
met the middle of November, and
there had been no suggestion of any
opposition to either Mr.. Crutcher or
myself. l did not even attend the
committee meeting, but at the request
of Mr.. Sullivan, its chairman, / fur
nished him with the draft of call,
but In the letter by which / sent it
to him / told him | was not welded
to any particular time and that what
ever the committee did would be en-
tirely satisfactory to me. / can not
be truthfully charged with any re-
sponsibility for the date fixed for the
primary. That responsibility rests
upon the committee, but In view of
Mr.. Hays admissions before the
committee he is certainly estopped
from complaining that he was not
ready to run.
Mr.. Hays fourth reason applies
olo,,o 70 Pomoll oorofxy x.zboro bo opJ