St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1911-10-07

ooAA l : N4S0SA.
I have no apologies to make for sup
porting Colonel Wilkinson. I recog-
nized In him one OF Louisiana's b"st
and noblest sons. / believed him to be
the best man for the governorship. l
supported everything that supported
him and l fought to the best of my
ability every interest and every person
that opposed him. / glory in the fact
that l was privileged to serve him
and my association with him will ever
remain a cherished memory.
Michel Best Man.
/ am supporting the Hon. John T..
Michel in this campaign for the very
some reason. / believe him to be the
best man.
Mr.. Michel is a candidate for gov
crnor on his record, his merits and his
platform, and not on the delinQuencies
of his opponents.
He has never at any period Of his
campaign sought to drag those who
opposed him in the mire of personal
politics, On the contrary, in his open
ing speech at Ruston he was careful
to avoid any allusion to either Judge
Hall or Prof. Aswell. He confined
himself to the discussion of his own
claims.
An illustration Of his deep-rooted
abhorrance for personal politics is fur
nished by his connection with the now
famous autograph letter from Judge
Hall to Mr.. Henry Bernstein, on Mon
roe, asking the latter to write to the
registrars and game wardens in his be-
half when he. was a candidate for as
sociate justice of the Supreme Court.
This letter was in the possession of
Mr.. Michel some time before Prof.
AsWell charged that Judge Hall had
written it. The fact of its existence
was known to Mr.. Michel at a very
early stage of the campaign. Hear
ing. in fact, that such a letter existed,
Mr.. Michel asked Mr.. Bernstein for
the document and that gentleman
furnished it.
The temptation to use this letter
was naturally great. 1t completely
nullified Judge Halls assumption Of;
natural enmity to the machine. 1t
gave Mr.. Michel, in fact, immeasur-
able advantage over Judge Hall, but
he declined to use it. The letter was
kept for several weeks under lock and
key, and was returned to Mr.. Henry
Bernstein, from whom 1t had been OBJ
tanned, when that gentleman request
ed its return in order that he might
be able to answer Judge Halls chal-
lenge for proof of the charge that he
Judge Hall) had written the letter.
Prof. AsweIl, without the actual proof
in his possession, was less ~forbearing.
He is conducting a campaign along
different lines than those followed by
MI. Michel, and jumped at an oppor-
tunity to put Judge Hall in the nine
hole.
| merely state these facts about the
connection of Mr.. Michel with the
Hall letter In order to show you the
sincerity Of the man whose |
am espousing and 70 convince you
that when he says q thing he means
it
Prof. Aswell, in several of his ad-
dresses, referred slightingly to Mr..
Michel's occupation as stenographer.
He said 1n his Baton Rouge speech
that Mr.. Michel had been taking dict0
ton all his libe, and woutd take it at
Baton Rouge II elected governor. His
reference, Of course, was to political
dictation, but the records do not bear
out the charge.
Mr.. Michel did not take dictation In
1906, whea Governor Blanchard com
PEELED the majority of the ward lead
ers to accept as district attorney OF
New Orleans a gentleman who was
not their choice, but his. He refused
to follow the governor and was n OF
those who held out to the last against
the choice of the governor for district
attorney.
Nor did he take dictation when the
new historic Monroe conference
sought to eliminate him as 3 factor
In the gubernatoral a He spoiled
the plans Of those who sought to
make his candidacy impossible by ap-
pealing directly to the people.
In no instance Of his public career
has he subordtnated his political judg-
ment and independence to the wishes
of others.
Mr.. Michel is charged by all OF the
opposition with being a ward boss,
and an effort is being made to pre-
JUDGE the country voters against him.
It is natural that IN q political cam
paign each side uses every weapon
that may be at hand in In effort to
discomfort their opponents. All sides
are looking for votes. And l make
the honest statement to you. without
fear of contradiction, that If the reg
ular organization of New Orleans was
divided into three parts, and that each
third Of 1t went to the support OF
one of the gubernatorial candidates
in this race, you would neVer hear
another word about the ward bosses.
The plain truth of the matter Ia that
they are the enemies Of the common
wealth when they are against us, and
they are angels in disguise when they
are with us.
The Ward Leader.
The ward leader is a nan ocsupying
a similar position to the Craftsmanship
of our own country Democratic parish
committee, the difference Sometimes
being that he Is selected by the ma
jority vote in \ Democratic primary,
whereas, our chairman il always ae-