Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-25
Wistsllansuas 8eadins.
RIFLE PRACTICE CONTROVERSY.
Capt. w. e. Gonzales Makes Reply tc
Col. J. r. Lindsay.

| Columbia State, Wednesday,
The following letter furnishes an
other chapter in the Military Mud
die" in this state:
Columbia, S. c., Nov. 90. 1910.
Col. John R. Lindsay, Yorkville, S. c.
Dear Sir: Your seven-column state
ment and defense made to the Even
ing Record of this city, evidences
change of position from that taken
at the meeting of the National Guard
Association of South Carolina when
you explained your failure to reply to
the inquiries about your official acts
on the ground, first, that you declined
to be drawn into a newspaper contro-
versy and, second, you were grouped by
the State with two officers of higher
rank, and it would not be proper for
you to take the initiative. Permit me
to commend your abandonment Of an
untenable position. The people have
no mode of seeking explanations from
their officials half so direct and quick
as through the press, and to deny reply
to a temperate call by l-recogniZed
spokesmen of the people is invariably
injurious to him relying on the defense
of silence 1t Is not bomb-proof.
And it is quite compatible with mill
tary ethics for an officer to seek Vindi-
cation, however Outranked he may be
by others with whom his name may be
coupled and who prefer to resort to
silence.
You, doubtless, have reasons for not
replying through the State to calls for
information made in the State. That
is your own affair But you shall not
with impunity convey the impression
that you could not reply in that paper
whose columns have been wide open
to you. You say to the Record: Il
have not a way of reaching the public
like the State has" You know that
you have the identical 'way"-the
columns of the State-and that each
card and editorial printed invited reply
replies that were not given the State.
You imply that l linked your name
with those of Boyd and Brock in order
that you might acquire some of the
odium attached to them as the result
of their controversy and investigation
last summer. That is imaginative and
entirely wrong. 1t was because you
were one of three high officers drawing
big pay on the rifle team, without a
return in service, at time when a
member of the team assigned as the
reason for poor shooting the lack or
funds. The State showed where mon
ey was wasted, and asked for explana-
ton of the waste.
Again you say: THE State has
sought to ridicule my fitness as a
member of the South Carolina team at
Camp Perry and to discredt me in
various ways" The only approach to
"ridicule" in which the State INDUCED
was when referring to your attempting
to fill-at 1912 a day-the office of
coach. How simple it would be to turn
the laugh upon the State by citing
evidence Of efficiency in that capacity!
And now, Col. Lindsay, l come to-
that portion of your published state
ment which is responsible for this
letter. You say in your plea to sue
ceed yourself:
why this suddenly discovered in
terest in rifle shooting, and why am
I attacked just now? Because l am
seeking reappointment and the Column
bia State wants to name the disburs-
ing officer for South Carolina.
I have been told that an effort would
be made to ignore the recommendation
of the adjutant general and go direct
ts the governor, in whose hands the
appointment is. I bel we that this is
the course of the party in whose inter-
est the Columbia State has been work.
is the province Of the State to dictate
who shall be the United States dis
bursting officer for South Carolina"
My dear colonel, it were a super
fluffy of action for any one to attempt
to make you ridiculous while you thus
write for publication. l did not know
until ten days ago that the governor
had the appointment Of the disbursing
officer, and I cared less. The editor OF
the State has no knowledge of when
your term expires, nor has he heard
Of any candidate for the place. So 1t
is utterly untrue that the State has
been working in the interest of any
one. or had the remotest intention OF
supporting any one, publicly or pri-
vately. So far as the State Is concern
ed. you might hold your job for hum
dred years, provided the duties were
discharged for the good of the SER
vice.
Since you have adopted a cheap ap-
peal to prejudice in your published plea
for reappointment l shall volunteer a
bit of information. One of the prin-
ciples guiding my course as editor is
to make no recommendations to gov
ernOrs or other public officials; to sup
port none for appointment: to ask no
favors The reasoning sustaining my
attitude is that an honest newspaper
supports a man or a cause in the pub
lie interest not for personal gain or
hope of advantage to be acquired
through influence: that governor or
other official should not be embarrass-
ed by petitions or recommendations for
appointments from source that may
have been influential in his election;
that the editor of a newspaper should
not seek personal reward for his pub
lie service, nor place himself under OBJ
legations to an official by the receipt
Of patronage at his hands
Your conception of the States pur-
pose is very small, but 1t is not uncom-
mon. In the minds of many it is IN
conceivable that any one who might
have a hand in the distribution Of
ie-counter prizes should rigidly alb
stain from such participation.
Quoting the State as saying that
Frank HAMPTON (whOm you remind
your audience is my law
whose letter of pertinent inquiry as to
the management Of the funds for rifle
practice precipitated discussion, mas
taken an active part in military rifle
shooting in past years, you ask:
Where is this active interest on the
part of Mr.. Hampton?" You report
that he did not participate in the en-
campment this year, nor in the rlhe
shooting. My understanding is that
Mr.. Hampton, after going with the
team to Camp Perry for several years,
was so disgusted with what he obserr-
ed, that he this year declined to take
part.
Had your interest in military rifle
shooting developed long before it paid
1912 a day and expenses to attend
practice and competitive shoots. you
might have recalled that Mr.. Hampton
hnr nf hlan1 IL
unteer Rifle team, champion of North
and South Carolina, and in 1898, after
defeating the team sent to Charleston
to represent the Savannah Rifle asso-
citation, claiming championship of the
south. That team paid it's own eX-
penses, built it's own range, and offered
it's own money in purses to induce
competition. 1t first applied, | believe,
to military rifle shooting in this state
knowledge of the effect of wind. light
and heat. To attend team practice, Mr.
l