The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1912-12-09
sENAToR-ELEcT ANSWERS RE
QUESTS FOR HIS OPINION IN
PREPARED STATEMENT.
SOUTHERN GOVERNORS
LOST fine OPPORTUNITY
INSTEAD Of critlcsIns South Cardinals
Unconstitutional Executive, They
Should Have Acquainted Their Asso-
cIates With True Conditions in South

jackson, Miss, Dec. 9.-Senator
elect James K. Vardaman, who has
himself established a record for nro-
nounced views on the race question,
mas opinions of his own on the position
OF Governor Blease Of South Carolina
as delivered before the house of gov
ID ernors at Richmond two or three days
ago. Having been questioned consid-
ierably by wire and by personal query
Tor his views on the Blease episode,
senator Vardaman prepared the fol-
lowing statement last night:
"A splendid opportunity was lost by
the governors of the Southern states
in the Richmond conference to teach
the uninformed nation the truth re-
garding the anomalous condition exist
ing in the South, which condition made
1t possible for Governor Blease to
make the extraordinary speech accred-
tied to him. Instead of commenting
on and condemning the ebullition of
temper manifested on the part of the
South Carolina executive, it would
have been better to have brushed aside
his Incorporate utterances with an
expression of denunciation, if they
felt like it, and then proceed to ex-
plain to the American people the rea-
son why hundreds of thousands of
good law-loving, home-building, God
fearing white men, both in the North
and the South, down, deep in their
- hearts, harbor a feeling toward the
~black rapist, close akin to the senti-
ment expressed by Governor Blease.
They might, with great profit to the
nation and credit to themselves, have
explained how 1t Is possible for race
feeling to run so high in Pennsylvania,
the state Of brotherly love, that the
leader of mob indicted for hanging
negro who murdered a white man
was promptly acquitted by white
jury. and the case against his ac-
cessories dismissed by the prosecut-
ing attorney with the statement that
race prejudice was so intense in that
community that you could not con-
vict white man for killing a negro.
Governor Blease's unfortunate
speech was only a symptom scarcely
deserving a passing notice, but the
governors of Alabama and Virginia
overlooked the serious problem be-
meath it all and were content with de-
nouncing the individual, who really
Scounted for nothing, and overlooked
the problem, which is all important,
AS a matter of fact, in the heart OF
every true Southern man there is a
feeling that would lead him to over
ride the law, defy courts and disregard
all the restraints of civilization when
It comes to wreaking vengeance or in
flicting punishment upon beast In
human form who had committed a
crime against a member Of his fam
lily more horrible than death.
IT have been the governor OF Mis-
sissippi, and was called upon to re
peatedly enforce the law, and l did
it as no other governor before oI
since in the South has ever done to
protect the black despoiler Of the
white mans home.
"And yet felt while doing It that
If one of my loved ones had been the
victim I would have gone to ex
tremes that would have shocked civili
zation to have punished the brute.
am not inclined to condone the indis
erection of Governor Blease. There was
no necessity of him putting the ques
ton in the way he did. It was un
!" fortunate, because the man was misun
.derstood. But I think the Southern
governors who condemned him were
guilty Of a greater crime Of omission
than was Blease's sin Of commission
Governors Mann Of Virginia ant
O'Neil of Alabama lost a glorious op
poEtunity to instruct the American
people in regard TO the race problem
( of the nation. The evil is here. l
cannot ,be. removed by ill-tempere'
speeches 1Ike lie one delivered by th'