The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-04-08

betrays one of her betrayers. And
then for a staid committee of a state |
legislature to look wise at their fell
lows and grow grouchy at the woman
and stop her wagging tongue lest
she tell too much, is taxing upon the
patience of honest people who want
to know the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth.
OF course anything she might say,
not connected with and in no manner
bearing upon the case on trial, would
not be considered in connection with
the case. But If this aliunde evidence
should disclose corruption in spots
and places not yet discovered, why
not let it out? Why hush it up? Why
squelch it?
The people of Mississippi are not
interested in this case primarily from
a Vardaman-Percy standpoint. With
little intimate acquaintance personally
with the people of Mississippi, but not
. without some knowledge of its glori-
GUS history, it's grand men, its patriot
ism and it's honor: in recognition of
their past achievements and in full
appreciation of their ancestral lines
and teachings, we misjudge them in
their favor and accredit them as be-
: ing worthier their noble sires than
they are, If they do not place the
: personal ambitions or political prefer
ment of all the Vardamans and Percys
who have ever lived. And it is or
should be for the protection Of the
honor and the name of the state that
[ this investigation is being held. 1t is
for the cleaning out of the augean
stables. 1t is not for the punishment
of miserable bribe-giver. nor for the
vindication of a senator who consents
to play the questionable role of a de-
tective. But it is to clear the name
of the state to keep clean, as it has
all these years been kept clean, the
name and fame of Mississippi.
The Magnolia state, chastened by
the drenching of it's best blood back in
the sixties sweetened and made
strong by the life and stature of the
lone figure at Beauvoir, whose silent
dignity and stately presence hardly
less that the masterful logic of his
Rise and Fall of the Southern Con-
federacy" convinced a doubling world
of the justice of his cause; defended
through years that tried mems souls
by such grand figures and PERSONAL
ties as Walthall, Lamar and George;
down if you will to the present time,
its escutcheon kept clean of all brides
or corruption, or rumors of brides or
6 corruption; with such an heritage as
that behind them, we mistake the
patriotic sons of Mississippi utterly if
put honor in one hand and death
in the other they would not look upon
each indifferently; and it, jealous as
they must be of the mother soil that
gave them birth and ancestral name
they care but little for the ambitions
G of men, as compared with the unfair
nished name of their state.
Such men as these will bear with
little patience the technical rulings OF
!, a small committee, narrowly combining
+ itself to a single issue, when a greater
G issue still confronts them. Open the
O doors to the public, and the mouths o.
n all the witnesses to the truth, ant
render a verdict according to the
facts. That is the duty that is set be
l. fore them. And if by pickering anC
2, quibbling and technical rulings the!
Y fall short of that, they fall little shor
l. of treason.
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TILE ~ n NnrTON GIN