Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-11-16

Commerce and the board Of trade.
The committee issued invitations to
few distinguished guests who, Of
course, paid nothing. All others who
attended paid $40 plate. The list,
however, was not confined to Wash
ingtonians."
New Orleans: "At the banquet ten
dered President Taft here last Feb
ruary, just before the Inauguration,
all those who attended were invited
to pay S25, with the exception Of Mr..
Taft's party, the press (of New Or
leans) and possibly one or two guests
Of honor" Those invitations to par
! ticipate were not confined to citizens
Of Louisiana.
Atlanta: II have just wired you
that we did exactly the same thing
here in Atlanta, and It is the usual
custom not only here in the south
but In every other city In the coun-
try. It seems to me It Is
very sensible custom.
Somebody has to pay, why not, there
fore, those who are there In the ca
pacity of hosts? So far as
have heard this is the only instance
of complaint Of this kind on record"
Savannah: "The Taft banquet will
be attended by $50 persons. About
thirty will be guests Of the city; the
800 who are not special guests will
pay $50 per plate for the occasion.
In eighteen years T do not recall a
function of the sort In this city that
was not similarly financed. Invita-
tions to participate In that banquet
and its EXPENSE banquet given in
the name Of Savannah-were sent to
Atlanta and elsewhere In Georgia"
The direct charge that Columbia
was attempting to make the state at
large pay for her frolic, and the in
famous insinuation that the plan Of
a committee Of which the governor,
the mayor and myself were the men,
bers. had engaged in a money-mak-
ing scheme. warrants reference to
what was spent In Columbia aside
from the luncheon-whose cost, by
the way, was not covered by the esti-
mated $40 a plate. Aside from the
entertainment In the state house. the
outlay was as accurately as can now
secure the figures. $500.
I have no means Of defining the
motive prompting B. r. Tillman to
make the gross and insolent reply he
did to the invitation to be a host In
stead Of guest at the luncheon to
the president, and 1t Is immaterial
whether he imagined 1t an oppor-
tunity to hurt Columbia, or to embar-
rass his political opponents on the
backwoodsmen. But his ill-bred
TRADE, his maliciously false statement
Of Columbia's position, his charge
that our plan was violation of hos
pitality, and Indecent" would have
been ignored by me, had not news
papers in South Carolina, some Of
them perhaps misinterpreting the
committees silence while the guest
was approaching, INDUCED In wholly
unjustified, and, as distinguished
Georgian writes me. unprecedented
criticism Of this city.
That Tillman, who has never balk-
ed at the price Of dinner when paid
for with the money Of taxpayers,
should essay the role Of Ward Nc
Allister is grotesque. The man who
as a guest Of honor in Charleston,
"took the hide on his hosts and then
rubbed in salt" and gave Charles
tonians a stomach turning from which
they needed years to recover, the
man whose coarse speech when MAX
ing addresses by invitation has
brought the blood to the face Of far
mers' wives and daughters in South
Carolina, the man whose profanity
before women has shocked In South
Carolina and In Washington-this
mans criticism, say, Of hospitality
and etiquette Is grotesque. The
animus is revealed when Tillman, no.
torious for lack Of courtesy, lack Of
refinement, and for general uncouth-
ness, and boastful Of his disregard Of
the conventions, attempts to be men
tor Of Columbia's manners. And
when it comes to maintaining the
good name Of South Carolina, for
which he now essays to be jealous,
Tillman's display of an appetite for
getting something for nothing or
much for little, which had its incip-
lent manifestations when he was gov
ernor in the cultivation Of private
oat crop at public expense, and its
latest development in the Oregon land
affair, might se detailed as startling
Inconsistency between the word and
the deed.