The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1910-06-30
Bargain With Enemy.

IuTOuSHOuL the SUaI6.
Bargain With Enemy.
To prove to any fair-minded man
that since the corrupt agreement with
the Republican party was entered into
in the last Legislature there was new
er any intention to enter any sort of
Democratic primary, and that criti.
cism of the primary was not in good
faith, but only used as a cloak to sim
lister purpose, the facts need only be
stated.
AS soon as the criticisms of the pri-
mary plan were made / agreed in my
announcement for Governor, if the
opposition in the Democratic party
would put forward a candidate against
me so as to settle our differences in
side the party, that such candidate of
the opposition should fix the day for
holding the primary, select any sort
Of primary he desired, and that all
election officers be equally divided
Then the Democratic candidates for
| judges agreed If the boilers would re-
| turn to the jurisdiction of the Demo
! cratic party to recommend that the
primary plan be amended in every
particular in which it had been criti-
I cised.
Afterwards the committee met and
for the sake of harmony almost hui
initiated itself by actually making the
amendment
With all this nothing could move
these boiling judges from their course,
or induce any candidate to offer
against me for the Democratic nomi-
nation.
But this is not all. Before the
Executive Committee ever acted |
offered to General Gates, who is now
managing the campaign of the bolt
ing judges, in order to prevent fric-
ton or misunderstanding, to advise
a separate judicial convention, to rec
ognize the delegates which had al
ready been chosen, the only condition
being that all other delegates from
those counties which had not acted
should be selected on uniform day
General Gates declined to convey the
offer to Judge Shields, but suggested
it be done through Judge Beard. II
invited Judge Beard to meet me at the
Governors mansion and made the
proved it, and said that a man who
would not agree to it would be unrea-
sonable, and said that he would at
once communicate with Judge Shields.
He left me to do so and telephoned
later in the day that Judge Shields
refused to consider it. l made state
ment over my own signature to this
effect on April 81 in the Nashville
American and challenged a denial, |
and none has come.
Was this offer an act of coercion?
In view of all these facts, which |
have never been and cannot be contra
dicted, what will the people say of all
the false statements which have been |
made and of the receptions which
have been practiced upon them?
1t is not pleasant for me to deal in
criticisms of these judges, and l do
not wish any remarks to be construed
in personal sense, but duty to the
truth and the Democratic party COM
pels candid statements and conclu-
sions.
Before the bar of public opinion
they stand, and in the presence of that
august tribunal the judicial robes of
deeds.
The first excuse for not entering a
Democratic primary was that it would
bring the judiciary into politics, and
the cuckoo press for few days wrote
on this subject.
Failing in this, the next effort was
an attack upon the primary law, and
the Executive Committee was for
time the target for abuse.
But when it was shown that the of
fer was made and rejected to have
separate judicial convention, in which
the Executive Committee took no
part, and when it was proposed to
amend the primary plan to meet all
objections, this plea was also aban-
doned, and it became necessary to in
vent another which would better sat
isfy their judicial and political con-
sciences, and further infiame an al
ready disordered State. So they final
ly discovered that the Governor had
to coerce the Supreme
Court in the Cooper case.
This discovery was made by the
three who bolted, while the two who !
remained true to their party allegi-
ance failed to make it. The two who
did not bolt were evidently very OBJ
fuse in failing or refusing to see that !
they were being coerced, for the two
independent candidates who were sub
stituted for them, and who were not !
members of the Supreme Court at all.
knew it, and signed the written state
ment making the charge. {
Others coereed.
Four other gentlemen, independent .
for the Court of Civil APP ;
peals, also discovered it and Joined t