Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-11-09
TAFT AND TIlLMAN.
They Are the Best of Friends Person
aIIv

ally.
The correspondent Of the New
York Sun, who has been accompany
ing President Taft on his trip
through the country, telegraphed
that paper the following from Au-
gusta on Saturday night:
United States Senator Benjamin R.
Tillman Of South Carolina was trav-
cling with the president as his guest
Of the day. At Columbia, the prin-
cipal stop in South Carolina, the SEN
|ator declined to attend the luncheon
given in the presidents honor, or
take any part in the reception ten
dered by that city. The senator was
peeved at the city Of Columbia, not
at President Taft.
A week or two ago the reception
committee sent the senator an ipvt-
tation to the Taft luncheon to be
given in the state capitol, and advised
the senator If he expected to attend
to send q check for $40. The senator
fired back letter declining to part
with the ten spot. 1t wasn't a ques-
ton Of money but Of principle with
him.
If the city Of Columbia was going
to give a banquet they ought to give
it, he thought, and not call for con-
tributions from outside guests, and if
it was to be a statewide affair it
ought to be thrown open to the state
Columbia has never been warm to-
ward Tillman. 1t Is the home OF the
Gonzales family, between whom and
the Tillmans there was a bitter feud
that resulted in the killing of N. G.
Gonzales, editor of the State, by
Lieut. Gov. Jim Tillman, the sena-
tors nephew, a few years ago. Till
hllf fNitiznnQ
of Columbia raised a monument to
Gonzales memory The senator's
spurning Of the Columbia invitation
has revived the bitterness against the
Tillmans in that city.
William f. Gonzales, the present
editor Of the State, and brother Of
the man that was shot down, also was
on the presidents train today, but
he and the senator remained In diff
ferent cars.
When the train pulled into Colum
bia early in the afternoon the sena-
tor declind an offer of an automo-
bile, turned his back on the recep-
ton committee and started off up
ator Smith and Gov. Ansel, who also
had accompanied Mr.. Taft from
Charleston headed for the state fair
grounds. Nothing more was seen of
the senator by members Of the Taft
party until o'clock in the after
noon, when he again boarded the
presidents car upon Mr.. Tafts in
vitation and accompanied him as far
as Trenton, the senator's home town.
President Taft is the first president
that had visited Columbia with the
exception Of George Washington.
The big crowd that had turned out
both at the fair grounds and on the
streets gave him a flattering welcome.
dent referred to South Carolina's
distinguished senator's"
The presidents invitation to Till
man to accompany him through the
state is a good illustration of how
little Mr.. Taft allows the animoSi-
ties and personal spites of his prede-
cessors to influence his conduct.
The president in his speech at the
fair grounds, again urged young men
to go to farming rather than into the
professions.
1.-The accumulations, the concentra-
tration of millions of people In
cities" said Mr.. Taft, sis not healthy,
and the improvements in country
life, the suburban electric railways,
the telephone, the rural delivery and
the means of reducing the hard work
Of the farmers wives by inventions
and cooperative arrangements, are
reaching such a point, that 1t soon
will become. l hope, more comforta-
BILE to live in the country than in the
city"
The president said both Senator
Tillman and Senator Smith had sug-
gested that the Federal government
drain some of the swamp land or
the South Carolina coast.
Il am prepared to say" the presi-
dent added, that either senator was
convinced that your great constitu-
tional lawyer and exponent, John c.
Calhoun, would exactly have found
the way by which there could have
been pried out of the national treas
ury the money with which to do that
in South Carolina. But as we go
along, as the necessities change, as
the issues change, somehow or other
our views of the constitution take
on a little different color"
The crowd appreciated the thrust
and laughed. The Columbia lunch
con was held in the house Of repre-
senatives chamber in the capitol. CO.
lumbia's beautiful women had been
admitted to the gallery to "see the
animals eat" as the president put
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