The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-01-26
THE NEW SENATOR.

time alone Will show the wisdom
and weakness of things. Hon Luke
Lea has been elected to term of six
years rs senator Of the United States,
beginning March 4, 1911. Every man
who has at hsart the good Of his coun-
try sincerely hopes and devOutIy prays
that he will measure up to the full
stature of the exalted position, and by
his conduct reflect credit u pom his ma
tive state. He goes to sit in the seat
where mighty men have sat before, a
place where only men can meet the
test. The new senator has at least
one hopeful sign in his favor according
to the old superstition of things, that
is, that "bad beginning makes good
ending"
Senator Lea is only thirty-two years
of age, the rich son of a rich father.
He is the owner and proprietor of the
Tennesseean, the living spirit and in
carnation of the political revelation or
instruction which has resulted in his
elevation to such high position while
yet but boy. The Comet will stand
by him as far as he is right, and hold
up his hands against all opposition so
long as he shows himself the represent
alive of great people, unmixed with
the vicious alloy of prejudice and petty
hate But it will not be forgotten for
a long period of probation that for the
last year or two Senator Lea has made
the columns of his great papera vehicle
of ribald, derision and scorn for every
man who dared to exercise the free
mans right of having an opinion of
his own. The fierce shafts of venom
which he hurled out Unfortunately
to all opposition, old or young, rich or
poor, black or white, suggests an impa-
thence and an intolerance destined to
destroy his usefulness unless he re-
penis, He has not respected age, or
honors, or even the possibility that
Others might be right and himself
wrong. 1t has been a sad spectacle to
see how the sages of the democratic
party, men upon whom the party and
the people have cast honors that were
worn without blemish or a scar, re-
tlecting credit upon themselves, their
constituents and their state, have been
belittled and overrun by the coarseness
of unjust assaults. Some of these had
worn the gray on the great battlefields
of the South, but all alike have been
scourged with the merciless whip of I'M
reasoning and unrestrained factional-
ism. No good can come from such
policy, and ruin follows in its wake.
Men of finer sentiments and softer SEN
sibilitieS will shrink from the glare of
public life if the penalties of public
service is TO be pilloried by the public
press, logged day by day by personal
persecution as unjust as it is implaca-
BILE. 1t floats to the surface small men
who are willing to struggle with the
mob for the pleasing hope of attaining
to a station higher in life than their
merit would entitle under ordinary
conditions and normal times.
But let us pass from this contempla
ton to another phase, hoping that re-
sponsibility and change of places will
sober the spirit of the time and mellow
down the conceptions born of the i'm
pulse of unrestraint Mr.. Lea will be-
come the new senator, and the momen-
toas question presents itself, what side
politically is he on? When he reaches
the capital city of our nation, and en-
ters there rs member of great ma
tional body, he ceases to be mere fac
Lionaist down in Tennessee scourging
some enemy within his own party, but
he must be known AS democrat, o re
publican, populist, socialist, anarchist
Or mugwump or something else. Ii he
IS democrat, il he processes TO be, he
must fight with the chieftains of dem
)cracy for democratic success under a
banner. He must align
himself with the regular organization
ali over the nation, including Tennes-
see, for a grand struggle for the election
If democratic president, or for the re-
election of President Taft. He cannot
nope TO secure the aid of Newell San
iers and that faction of republicans in {
Tennessee Tor democratic president,
md il therefore remains to be seen