The Paducah evening sun., 1910-02-25


Confederate veteran, Adjutant Gen
eral P. P. Johnston, and the attack
on the governor led precipitately VI
to the affairs of the First regiment
at Louisville. where there was trou.
BILE among officers. A Louisville law.
yer of the name of Carroll prepared
the report, which was brim full OF
vituperation, and lacked all the
characteristics OF a judicial finding;
and the report was denied other pa
pers and furnished TO the Louisville
Times, early enough that II was able
to print it double column on the
front page, with an elaborateness OF
display that indicated to the trained
eye foreknowledge OF the context,
and the best way to show 1t up. The
added touch was given the partisan
character Of the report, by the declar-
alton Of Republican members OF
the committee. that they had nothing
to do with the investigation, and did
not know of single bit OF evidence
Iproduced.
The Louisville Times, which was
one of the papers that urged the
governor to take the drastic steps
he finally adopted, and that praised
his efforts at the time, has difficulty
in maintaining its balance. This is
the way it attempts TO:
With Gov Wilson's professed
desire to enforce the law during
the night rider rebellion, The
Times was in open and hearty
sympathy. OF his methods, be-
ginning with the hectoring of
the tobacco growers of the state
like lot of naughty school
boys, when they petitioned him
in convention to aid them in an
open fight for their property
rights against an aN-powerful
monopoly. continuing, with his
refusal to extend to the civil
authority the recognition OF the
right guaranteed to them under
the Constitution and the law,
and eliminating, in the total
collapse of his scheme of armed
repression, with not one law
violator brought to punishment
| and almost 5000 900 of the
states money squandered, there
can be but one opinion.
The Times did not, during the
might rider trouble, caution the gov
ernor to aid the farmers in their fight
on the trust, nor does 1t now
deign to explain how the governor
could aid the farmers in fighting the
tobacco trust.
No one could proceed against the
trust otherwise than by law. and II
there was no state law, the legislat-
ure, which was in session, and which
professed friendship for the night
riders, was negligent OF its duty to-
ward its friends. If there were laws,
and the county and commonwealth S
attorneys of the night rider district
did not prosecute the trust, then
they were lacking in ability, as evil
denced by the closing argument OF
the Times: "the total collapse of his
armed repression. with not one law
vtolator brought to punishment"
Such methods are beneath The
Times, and we are surprised The
Times knows that the only way the
trust can be fought is through the
courts, and that the law officers
the commonwealth and county at
torneys and the courts, not the gov
ernor-are responsible for the prose
cutions Of night riders The Times
knows that the governors effort at
armed repression" did not fail; be-
cause it did effectually stop depreda-
tions, and 1t knows that the failure
to bring a violator 30 punishment is
a reflection on the county and com
monwealth's attorneys and courts of
the Black Patch, and not on the gov
ernor.
The Times stood nobly by the gov
ernor during the fight, when rural
papers were openly hostile, or afraid
to speak their sentiments. and we
are shocked to see it leagued in a
common cause to discredit the mill
tary department of the state, after it
had more than once expressed the
pride of the state in the character of
the troops, their discipline, and the
decorum they manifested during
their months of active service in a
section where the ingenuity OF the
population was exerted to provoke
them to excesses.
We cannot but believe that, had
there been no trouble in the First
regiment. the charge of violating the
constitution in the Black Patch,
never would have been made.