The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-10-18

You occasionally hear 1t said, always
by politician with an axe to grind,
that the election of legislature is all.
important, and the election of governor
a matter of secondary consideration. l
would not minimize the extreme impor-
tance of electing a good legislature, but
that man stultifies himself who drgues
that it is a matter of Indifference who
is elected governor, OH what sort of
platform and under what sort OF influ-
ences.
Governors Influence.
The Governor of the state exerts
tremendous legitimate influence upon
legislation, and when the power, pres-
tige and patronage of his office are i'm
properly used to influence legislators
and control legislation, he can easily
make himself the balance of power in
a well-diyided general assembly.
Had it not been tor my veto, the in.
famous back tax jobbery of Dibrell and
Cox would now be law.
Had it INTO been for my refusal to
sign the appropriation bills, the credit
OF the state would have been wrecked
and the treasury bankrupted.
Had it not been for my veto, the great
masses of the people VINO believe in the
principles embodied in my platforms
would today be without the hope of an
honest election.
Had Benton McMillin been your Gov
ernor in 1911 the Baxter election bill
would have been a law, and the lawless
saloons and election crooks Of the cities
would have counted your votes and the
friends of decent government would
have stood about the same clance that
Preston did in the Memphis primary.
The illustration is both fresh and force
full.
Let me say, also, that no man can
maintain the position that the McMillin
platform is not fit to elect a member of
the legislature on, but is good enough
to elect Governor on.
The sensible, honorable, patriotic
course for every man who believes in the
principles of the Republican and Inde-
pendent Democratic platform, Is to get
behind both the state and legislative
tickets that represent those principles.
Platforms are like religious creeds-
they are valuable only as they are
transplanted into action.
Faces Crisis.
In my Judgment Tennessee faces today
the greatest crisis in her history. Think
not that / make this strong statement
on account Of my personal interest in the
outcome. My interest is much less than
you think. i have he'd the governor
ship without the hope of financial gain.
| have labored day and night for the
welfare OF Tennessee. I have borne
many times more than the burden of
one man. As token that self-aggran-
dizement is not my sole motive, when the
United States senatorship lay ut my
finger tips, to be had at the cost of turn
my friends had won it at the polls, |
would not pick it up. Politically, have
contended for two years with the world,
the flesh and the devil, and have fought
the wild beasts at Ephesus. My oppo-
sition has been unfair, implacable and
dishonest. The liquor press of the state
have violated every rule of civilized war
fare anu journalistic ethics in their
fight upon me. Other public men have
been permitted to become sick, and even
to die. without criticism, but when my
strength failed me under the weight of
work, they misrepresented and ridiculed
my illness. They pictured the cobwebs
in my office chair. They were merely
mistaken in the chair. The chair in
my office which is festooned by cobwebs
is the one formerly occupied by Duncan
B. Cooper, Prime Minister to Patterson.
Nor have the agents of the whiskey in
terests and the pimps of the pardon
bureau busted off chair in the exec
utive office for about twenty months.
| might also drop the thought just
here that have never been absent from
executive office one hour engaged in
drunkenness and debauchery.
While blazing light of publicity has
been turned on my administration day
and night, no fault of any magnitude has
ever been found, and the criticisms have
been either false or frivolous.
Moving Pictures.
A fair specime of the weighty attacks
made upon me by the liquor press and
echoed by McMillin is their much-ado
in regard to taking the moving pictures
of the state prison and prisoners. Now,
isn't that ~ betty issuef The pictures
were not taken at the request Of myself
or any of the prison authorities, but
upon the earnest request of the picture
makers, and entirely for their accommo-
dation. These pictures are educational
to the public, and harmless to the pris-
oners. Thousands of people have seen
them who will never have chance to
see the prison. People have always
paid gate fee of ten cents to go through
the prison and see just what these pic
lures show. Does that humiliate the
prisonersf II is certainly great deal
worse than the moving pictures, for no
body will ever recognize one of the men
in those pictures. The former prison
authorities took this very same picture
of the convicts entering the dining room
and put it in their published prison re-
port. Wasn't that awful? McMillin
says that he wants to work some of the
convicts on the public roads. wonder
how he will do that without having them
seen!
Workhouse Gang.
| wish that l had moving picture of
the Davidson county workhouse gang on
the public roads, with their foul cages
and the brutal guard in the act of beat
ing to death sick and defenseless negro