Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1910-10-13

Q -
tant. To the mind of a machine
politician a public avowal of an
honest purpose presupposes a clan
deStine deal 10 do something dirty
Republicans do not expect the Leg
islature to be made Republican,
and are not demanding any such
measure.
CONFEDERATE PENSIONS.
l heartily approve OF that dec
laration in our platform in favor of
continuing liberal appropriations
for the Confederate soldiers of this
State, and endorsing the present
method of selecting the State PEN
sion Board by the Confederate biv-
ouacs. The same provision was in
our platform two years ago and is
now the settled policy of the Re
publican party of Tennessee. This
declaration meets with my approval
not simply because it is now emf
bodied in the platform OF my party,
but because it expresses my own
personal view of many years
standing.
But, my Countrymen, many things
have happened in this broad land of
ours in the last fifteen years. We
have seen the sons Of the men who
wore the blue and the sons of the
men who wore the gray go up San
Juan Hill side by side and together
plant the American flag in the
islands of two oceans. We have
seen grand old Joe Wheeler don
the blue uniform and climb that
Cuban tree, field-glass in hand,
even if he did forget himself and
call the Spanish damned Yam
KEGS" We have seen William Nc
Kinley, the great apostle of demo-
cratic peace and goodwill, wear a
Confederate badge in the city of
Atlanta. We have seen both Fed
eral and Confederate soldiers deco
rate the graves of their former
foes. An era of good feeling has
come, in which there is the fullest
mutual recognition of the good
faith, patriotism and valor of both
sides.
This is frank statement of my
feelings on this subject. If | am
elected Governor, the old Confed-
crate soldiers will never have any
cause for complaint against me. |
voted for three of them in the Au-
gust election = Judges Beard, Will
son and Taylor - which believe,
is something more than even Gov
ernor Patterson did. Let me say,
furthermore, that when | am Gov
ernor none of my political friends
will be found slipping around seek
ing to control the votes of the old
Confederates by threatening to de-
prive them of their pensions. Some
of the adherents of the Patterson
machine will need no analytical
diagram of this statement in order
to understand it. In this connec-
ton, | am reminded of an awful
charge that is brought against my
Legislative record, namely, that
voted to put a privilege tax on
preachers, those men that the Gov
ernor says do not disturb him when
they illuminate against him. I'll
bet he wishes | had taxed all of
them out Of existence, for they
have been thorns and thistles to the
Governors cuticule. This is really
too absurd to notice, but it was
published with such cold sobernesS
in that great religious daily, the
American, that | will refer to it
with apologies. Some good brother
in the Legislature offered an
amendment to a revenue bill to put
a privilege tax on lawyers, doctors,
dentists, etc, a tax which the ST.
preme Court had previously de-
cided was unconstitutional Just to
demonstrate the absurdity of his
proposition, | offered to amend it |
by adding preachers, blacksmiths, |
shoemakers, county officials, and
most everybody else | could think !
of, on the SPUR of the moment. OF
course both amendments were
promptly tabled, and my vote
helped to do it. And now this in
nocent legislative joke, with the
smile all rubbed off its ancient face,
is brought forth, with stern counte-
nance, to become my accuser. All |
of which, however, goes to show
how exceedingly hard-up the Pat
tersonites are for something to talk
about.
LEGISLATIVE cHEsTNUTs.
And they say, too, that while |
voted for the age of consent law, | |
expressed the fear that the age had
been fixed too high. Very true, |
had a doubt about that matter, but
| gave the law the benefit of the
doubt, and voted for it. | am glad