The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-07-27
j. G. w. Beckham in the Kentucky
State journal.

A little more than two years ago
the court of appeals declared that
the Louisville election of 1905 was
void and that il was the duty of the
governor to fill by appointment the
offices made vacant by the decision
of the court.
On June Is. 1907, after the deci-
sion had been handed down and be-
fore the appointments were made.
the editor of the Courier-Journal
published an article from the Louis
| willie Herald in which 1t was charged
that Governor Beckham had made a
deal with John Whallen and others
to name WhalIens friends for
mayor and other offices. The Her
aid article indicated that the gov
ernor would appoint such men as
would be acceptable TO Mr.. Whallen.
The editor OF the Courier-Journal
proceeded in the same paper to
write one of his heaviest and fiercest
editorials denouncing such an al
legged alliance. While pretending to
disbelieve the absurd report ne
would, nevertheless, have his read
ers believe that there was much
truth in IL. We shall quote parts of
his editorial to show with what tre-
mendous Indignation ne, only two
ago. could hear of any Democrat
making an alliance with Mr., Whal-
len. He says: Eve reproduce else
where in this issue OF the Courier
Journal a most serious melange from
the columns OF our local Republi-
can contemporary, the Louisville
Herald. There are some persons who
might call this a pipe dream II is
certainly fantastic. That a newspa-
per, however absurd its pretensions
TO virtue, should set up for tin divin-
lily. and. to increase the illusion.
should supplement its post by the
addition OF the typical two thieves,
would be the rather laughable than
terrible: but that the Democratic
governor Of Kentucky. seeking an or
gan, should throw himself into the
embrace of such combine, is pre-
lposterous.
From the staggering grammer and
reeling rhetoric of the above con-
glomeration of words and ideas, II
is difficult to decide whether the
great editor" was trying 10 criti-
else the Herald. annihiIate the gov
ernor or demolish the English Ian
guage. In its mardlin commixture,
I however. a keen eye can detect that
the governor had reached or would
reach the depths OF sin and depra-
witty IL he even let Mr.. Whallen
speak to him about those appoint
ments.
He then proceeded to show. as ia
his inveterate custom. that he and
the Courier-Journal had always been
right and had never made mistakes.
He proves at length to his own salts
faction that he alone OF all men pos
sesssd a monopoly of virtue. political
purity and infallibility. He closes
this illumination with the following
elegant and polite language;
Let us dismiss the horrible homo
scope of our lively young contempo-
rary (the Herald), as either a vag-
airy of youth or mere horseplay in
advance of party convention.
mo doubt some such conceit has
penetrated the hot and hazy atmos-
phere of the vaudeville theater of
our local politics, perhaps has per-
colated through the precincts OF dis
reuptable and mercenary political
observation-disclosures the professional
traffickers in contraband goods have
given II out to enhance the value of
the stolen wares-but that the gov
ernor of any state. and least OF all
the governor of Kentucky. meditat-