The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1912-09-25
LARRY CAN'T ASSAILS
! THE SENIOR SENATOR
Declares Tillman Is Untrue to His
People. One Of Former LOudest
Tillman Champion Severely Arraigns
His Former Leader.
News and Courier.)

Would anybody have believed twenty
years ago that the time would ever
come when T. Larry CAN'T would turn
on Ben Tillman and bitterly assail
| him as traitor? Capt. Tillman in
those days had no louder champion.
Through the Columbia Register and
In other newspapers Larry, to quote
his own words, tried to do with his
pen what Ben did with his tongue"
1T was Larry, so it has always been
understood, who first suggested to
Tillman, then governor, the estab-
lishment of the State dispensary sys-
tenn, Larry having gotten the idea
from the county dispensary which
was then iii operation in Athens, Ga.
Larry is now running weekly
newspaper, the News-Reporter in
Whiteville, ~ c., just across the line
from Horny county and in his last
issue he devoted nearly four columns
to review Of Mr.. Tillman's career in
the endeavor to prove that by his let
ter urging the election of Jones prov
ed himself a traitor to the common
people," who put him into office. Lar
ry being now as enthusiastically for
Governor Blease as ever he was for
Capt. Tillman. His disaffection for
the latter is not it appears, Of recent
origin. He says:
How TilIman Was Nominated,
We have seen for years that the
environments of Washington city and
new associations had wrought a COM
pete change in Tillman's policy, if
not his vitws, and when he voted for
Lorimer, we knew that the day had
come when the masses of South Car
olina, If not the Democrats of that
state, must search out another leader
who was in closer touch with them
and their interests. But we did not
criticise Tillman, for we disliked to
help pull down a popular idol, but
juietly waited for that idol, of it's own
free will, to tumble from the pedestal
upon which admiring constituents had
placed It,"
Larry has a good many interesting
things to say in the article which fol- |
lows this remarkable statement. Per-
haps the most interesting is his dec
laration that the Reform moYemen"
never profited in the slightest degree |
the "one-gallus wool hat boys" who |
formed it's backbone. But his article |
pose to write a defense of the COM
mon people of the Palmetto State"
from which "it will be seen that the
charge Tillman makes of ingratitude |
is laid at the wrong door" and with |
this professed purpose in view he pro-
ceeds as follows;
when John l.. NJ Irby, in the ia |
nous March convention that gave |
pirth to the Reform movement, |
brought about the nomination of Till |
man 1--WE believe by one vote) after he
tTillman had given up the fight and
was found sitting on the banks of the
river ready to go back home to his
farm. Ben Tillman was a small dairy
farmer in Edgefield county. and report
said he was in the same fix as thou
losing money, If not practical bank
rupt.
mo one can deny that Tillman made
a magnificent fight for the release of
his people from practical political
servitude, and taught them their
rights and their power He triumph
ed, and in their love and gratitude the
farmers continued to heap honors and
rewards upon his head. Even since
1890 he has been holding lucrative
officers and drawing large salaries. 1t
is believed that today Tillman is
rich man. Any way. he and his fam
lily have for more than twenty years
been living on the fat of the land, as
it were, and enjoying all the pleasures
and luXuries of life.
The Charge of Ingratitude.
CAS- it was the votes of the men
whom Ben Tillman denounced as in
CRATES, and so severely criticised that
gave him those high Offices, and it was
the men to whom Tllman rightfully
says he owes his scant majority over
Talbert and Dial, who saved him from
crushing and ignominious defeat, af- |
ter writing that eleventh hour letter
attacking Governor Blease. No one
denies the good work Tillman did for !
the masses in South Carolina, but no