The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1910-08-19
VARDAMAN
HON. J. R. HOWORTH.
[continued from first page.

you Judged in the light of cold
reason. calmly and dispassionately, by
your official record, by the acts per-
formed by you as an officer, the servant
of the people, L ask, in the name of
decency and reason, how can you have
the hardwood to go before the people
again asking for further trust and
higher honors?
At the close of your administration
you left the executive office with one
Of the largest and most enthusiastic
followings that any retiring governor
ever had-a following that was intense
ly, unreasanably loyal q following
that trusted you implicitly a follow
ing that was willing to follow blindly
withersoe yer their idol led. Few m g
were ever thus highly honored or thus
implicitly trusted. Thus a golden
opportunity lay before you-an oppor-
tunity for untold good or incalculable
evil. What dis position did you make
of this opportunity
You established a weekly newspaper
in order that you might hold converse
with your ideas and policies, instruct
your friends md political followers
and unfurl a political banner around
which they might rally in future polit-
ical campaigns. This was . laudable
ambition, a worthy undertaking, and
presented a wonderful opportunity for
| q xuico 1onlo~ not 1n1v IN maintain hIa
hold upon his followers, but to instruct
them, to build up, to elevate them, and
to bring Joy and gladness, brightness
and sunshine into their homes and
lives, tightening their burdens and
Frightening their lives. Did we Mis-
sissippian have a greater opportunity
for good or evil placed for him?
Again, your paper was circulated In
thousands Of homes in the state, wher
it was probably the only paper that
entered those homes, except the county
paper. The children in those homes
were eager-hungry for literature.
This intensified the situation, and in
creased the responsibility of him who
sent that paper into those homes,
whose occupants lacked the power to
discriminate clearly between the good
and the evil, simply because there was
a lack of information along these lines.
Thus they eagerly grasped and assimi-
lated any literature that was placed
before them.
What food did you mete out to these
hungry, thirsty, souls, dependent on
you for guidsnce?. Let us see. The
one golden thread that runs through
all the pages of The Issue il Varda-
man; but few articles appear in its
pages that are not replete with fulsome
praise of him-the more fulsome that
praise, the greater is the prominence
given the article. Indeed, the paper
is filed with letters containing full
some praise for INFLAMMATION old
men in their detage, from young men
n their nonage, and from the ignor-
ant, ~reveiling in the sheer excess Of
their ignoronce and vanity.
In this connection permit mo to say
that I look not at the language with
which q thought is clothed, for Ian
guage is but the shell-the outer gar
ment that enshrines a thought. I look
rather at the idea itself behind it all
that which prompts the thought-the
deed--the act; if hat be pure, then the
thing itself is worthy of our consider-
alton, regardless Of the habiliment
with which it is clothed.
/ nave before me q copy Of Tho
Issue, in which, in the first six pages,
| casually count words universally to
booed in polite society, and oven in
the homes OF the semi-reflned, but
frequently heard in saloons and in the
underworld yet week after week you
send these papers and thsse vile. rep
rehensible words into the homes Of
those whom You profess to love, in
order that they may sntwins themselves