The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1910-02-27

that he expected to put them or
the witness stand later to prove
that none of the things said were
SO, Senator Percy said:
| If out of the struggle that
we have been making in the cap
ital of the state had come to me
defeat the love and affection, the
loyalty that the people of my
home show for me during that
time would have made that de-
feat the sweetest memory of my
whole life, and when out of it all
has come victory, the sweetness
of that victory lies in the fact
that / can bring home to the peo-
pie of the delta and the people Cf
Washington county the honor
which they have bestowed upon
me, there to lay it at their feet.
1t is yours and that is what
makes it dear to me. 1t was
your encouragement that won
the victory; it was the hopes and
the wishes, the help, the moral
support t at came to us when
the hour seemed dark and defeat
seemed nearer to US and victory
further off. 1t was the help
from you that made possible
tagging courage, and made it
possible to work out the long
battle into a victory at last. 1t
was the people at home that won
it for us and here / want to say
that one of the saddest things
connected with the whole fight
is that one heart that pulsated
so strong, one heart that prayed
for victory so often, was stilled
before that victory for (which he
had yearned came to pass. /
want to pay a tribute to our
friend who has gone before to
the great beyond, Britt Lee.
HOW THEY BEAT VARDAMAN.
As my friend, and he has
been my friend indeed, Van Bod
die has said. | suppose you all
want to know how we won the
fight. They have ascribed it to
various things. They said l was
a politician and won it by trick
cry. One fellow said / pushed
the high man out, then | pushed
the low man out, then | pushed
the balance of them out, and
then | pushed Jim Vardaman
out.
81 will tell you how we won it.
| will tell you what makes the
victory of value. | will tell you
why you can read in that victory
a promise of a better era in Mis-
sissippi politics. 1t was because
80 men of the Mississippi legis-
lature, coming from all parts of
the great state, drawn from all
ranks of life, summoned to Jack
son to discharge the high respon-
sibility of saying who should rep
resent the state in the greatest
deliberative body of the world,
came there with courage and pa
triotism in their hearts; came
there unled and uncaptive, each
one pledging himself and his
conscience to his God that by
aught, however little it might be
that he could do, that the era of
Gi sension, of strife breeding,
of attempted stirring up of an
tagonism between the two races
that have got to live together. of
vituperation alone, and condem-
nation for what we hold dear
and sacred in life, that era in the
politics of Mississippi, if they
could make it, had to come to an
end, and so they gathered
around no trained leaders, no
men of rational repute, no man
or men who had led them again
and again to victory time after
time, none to draw them by per-
sonal ties, but they looked
around to find how they could
work out the salvation for their
country out of what seemed to
be hopeless chaos, and they went
first to one and then to another.
and they sought leader after
leader, and gradually as the
weeks went by they came to-
gether, and out of the whole
they selected one, and they
marched as a solid phalanx to