The Washington herald., 1912-08-25
TELLS HOW TO BE a CHRISTIAN.
POLITICIAN, AND PROHIBITIONIST
Senator Newell Sanders, Of Tennessee
Gravely Accused of Telling the Truth
in Politics, Talks About PIOws

his class mate at the university, and
who distributes the money he sets apart
for charity. IT don't want q word to 60
out about myself" he said to me, when
/ was interviewing him. unless the name
Of Mrs. Sanders is brought into the ar
ticle. While worked. she saved. She
Is entitled to as much credit for what
ever may have done in every relation
Of life as I am"
There is a strange and even a TO
mantle mixture OF men and public mat
| tiers IN Tennessee. Newell Sanders and
Luke Lea have come from that State to
the Senate. They are great friends, not
withstanding that Sanders is a Repub-
/ lican, and Lea a strenuous Democrat.
Both are strong prohibitionists. In q
sense. they are statemen by chance. They
were working together for temperance
neither Of them looking for ofice. when
death and an unexpected angle in poll
tics brought them into national activity.
and prominence. Prohibition is vital
and vigorous question in the South,
where nearly all of the people, white
and black. are native Americans. and de-
scendants of ancient American stock. In
deed, most of the public men in that part
Of the United States are avowed cham
pions Of temperance. They believe that
crime among the negroes is very much
lessened in those communities where the
sale of liquor is forbidden. And the deal
ers in liquor throughout the Southern
States. except in the largest cities, have
comparatively little influence in politics.
In great stretches OF the country they
have no influence whatever.
The Assassfnatfon of Carmack.
The situation in Tennessee respecting
prohibition was suddenly changed from
lively skirmish fight into a furious bat
tie by the assassination OF Edward w.
Carmack, editor of a newspaper in Nash
vile. His murder was charged to the
liquor interest. Carmack. who had been
member of the United States Senate.
was brilliantly abusive and potential, and
had returned home to make open war on
the liquor business. Luke Lea, a lawyer.
twenty-nine years old. followed him into
the editorship Of the Nashville Tennessee
an. and continued the argument for pro-
hibition. Thus temperance brought
Sanders. the Baptist. and Lea, an Epis-
copalian. into a knowledge of each other.
and eventually into what may be called
a political coalition. Neither OF them
then thought they would serve in the
United States Senate together.
By his own word. Sanders for more
than thirty years. has been struggling
to change a majority Of the voters in
Tennessee from Democrats to Republi-
cans. He did not neglect deep blowing,
nor prohibition. And wealth poured in
through his factories and was paid out
most literally. II am an optimist." he
told me. He could also have said. and
bulldog in tenacity." Tall. blue-eyed
and benign of countenance his person.
ality has always been helpful in his
pillow business and his missions. More
oven he treats every man alike. The
rich get no more smiles than the poor;
the strong no more consideration that
the weak.
There was a fatherless and motherlessI
waif in Knoxville. He had walked In
from the mountains. Nobody knew his
name. He said 1t was Ben. His own
information went no further. A kind
man took him out Of the streets, where
he was selling newspapers. and put him
into an orphan asylum. Afterward, al
physician adopted him. sent him to col
lege and helped him to become a law
yer. The waif took the name of his
foster father and as Ben w. Hooper
emigrated to Oklahoma, and made $50,
900 by trading in farms and other real
estate. Then he returned to Tennessee.
In 1910 the Republicans nominated |
Hooper for Governor. Newell Sanders
managed his campaign. Prohibition
dwarfed all other issues. Hooper, too.