The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1909-01-27

| ly published in two volumes of over
500 pages each by the Cooke Com
pany, of San Antonio, Texas. The
book is written and compiled by
Hon. VIM. A. Cooke, member OF
the House of Representatives of the
Texas Legislature, who filed the
charges against Senator Bailey and
pressed the now famous investive-
tion before a partisan Legislature
committee, touching the Senator s
shady relations with the Waters
Pierce Oil Company, a branch of
the Standard Oil Trust, the Stand
ard itself and other big moneyed
corporations and thus drew from
Bailey himself and his own partisan
witnesses, enough to prove that he
was unworthy to longer represent
the people of Texas in the Senate.
No fair-minded person can read
the facts set forth in detail in this
book-the. testimony of various
witnesses, the documentary evil
dence, the incriminating admissions
and the self-contradictory state
ments of Bailey himself without
reaching the conclusion that he be-
trayed for filthy lucre the sacred
confidence unquestioningly reposed
in him by an admiring people and
proved himself unworthy Of future
public trust.
1t gives an interesting and i'm
pressive review of Bailey's career
from the time he was a youth in
his fathers saloon at Crystal
Springs, Miss, on through his
checkered college life and disrepu-
Gable connection with the Copiah
outrages of 1888; his subsequent
removal to Texas and ambitious en-
try into political life there, first
becoming a Representative in Con-
gress, then United States Senator
with a powerful political machine
at his back, until in an evil moment
he was tempted and seduced by the
head of the Waters-Pierce Oil Trust
(which had been outlawed by the
State courts), to reopen the
way for its return and became its
secret adviser and ally until over
taken by open exposure. 1t shows
Bailey man of transcendent natu-
raj endownents, yet all along lack
ing in that finer moral perception
and stamina which in every time
of trial or temptation is the sure
anchor of the greatest characters.
Mr.. Cooke rendered brave and
inestimable service to his State by
forcing the investigation of 1907 on
Bailey and his unwilling partisans
and exposing him as he did. 1t
required the highest type of moral,
political and physical courage, un-
der the circumstances which con.
| fronted him, but he was fully equal
to the demands of the occasion.
But he has rendered another ines
timable service to his people by
producing this book, so as to pre-
serve in compact and permanent
form reliable history of one of
the most crucial and important
epochs in the political annals Of the
Lone Star State.
The fight in Texas to break the
financial and political power of the
trusts, the exposure of Bailey as a
secret ally of these unlawful COM
binations and his fast waning
political prestige, SO truly and
lvividly shown in the pages of Mr..
Cookies recent work, will become
/ 4
as epochal in Texas history as the
assassination Of Carrnack, the
prohibition wave and the smashing
Of the Patterson political machine
in Tennessee.
The recent decision of the Su-
lpreme Court of the United States
affirming the judgment of the
Texas Courts fning the Waters
Pierce Oil Company 81, ,62S, 900 anc
ousting it a second time from the
State after the trust had beer
lsmuggled back through Bailey's ad,
Ivice and influence, but adds color
and verify to the facts and history
presented in Mr.. Cookies book.
If this book is circulated and
|read in Texas to anything like the
3extent it merits, its influence will
lprove an insuperable barrier to al
of Bailey's future political aspira
tions, and at the same time signal,
ize a return to the high standard ..
lpriyate and official honor which
formerly distinguished the publil