The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1913-11-20
WHY PATTERSON
FIGHTS WHISKY.
FORMER TENNESSEE GOVERNOR
TELLS OF CONVERSION TO
PROHIBITION.


leagues national convention was
designated as Governors day, not
withstanding the Governors present
were not to be heard from the plat
form until the evening. The pro-
gramme for that period called for
addresses by Governors Hanna, of
North Dakota, and Hodges, of Kan
saS.
Former Governor Malcolm R Pat
terson, of Tennessee, was to be the
principal speaker at the afternoon
session.
Twice elected Governor of Ten
nessee as wet" Mr. Patterson
came to Columbus in special car,
accompanied by Governor Ben W
Hooper, who succeeded him as Ten
nessee's Chief Executive, to give his
Endorsement to a nationwide pro-
gramme that would have for its aim
the entire elimination of the saloon.
Former Governor Patterson said,
in part:
The Anti-Saloon league and |
have not always been friends. The
paths we travelled were wide apart.
They seemed so parallel thatit look
ed incredible that they should ever
meet. The path | travelled turned in
its course. 1t ran into the other and
now we find ourselves in the same
road marching in the same direction,
under the same flag. .actuated by the
same desire to destroy the traffic IN
LIQUOR and redeem nation from its
curse.
Il am aware that to have sudden
ly changed the views of mature
manhood, which | once asserted and
proclaimed from one end of Ten
nessee to the other, has excited sur
prise and provoked comment. But
this is a world of change. Stagna-
ton is decay and progress is the
command of the age and the hope of
mortality. l am neither ashamed
nor abashed to stand before this
great audience and admit that | once
advocated policies which would have
made legal a trade which have
come to look upon as having no
rightful place in the scheme and
economy of Christian civilization"
Commenting on one of his own
messages to the Tennessee Legisla-
ture, in which he opposed further
legislation to regulate the saloon
traffic, Mr. Patterson reiterated that
at that time those were his honest
convictions, based upon misguided
Judgment. He then continued:
Il say to you, fully conscious Of
the meaning and responsibility Of
the declaration, that if this message
has encouraged lawlessness or ever
been sought as refuge for violators
of the law. if it had to stand as my
last expression on the liquor ques-
ton, would consume it in the liv-
ing fires and erase it forever from
the minds and memories of men.
my life has had deep sorrows.
My soul has been tossed on the
waves of angry seas. My nature has
been profoundly touched and stirred.
Il have seen the trail of liquor in
the criminal courts where | have
prosecuted crime. | know, and
have been participant in its para
lying and corroding influence in
the social and public life of our
national capital. AS the Governor
of Tennessee have seen it yerit-
able and raging center of storm
around which gathered its defend
ers and assailants, and from which
sprung divisions in parties, disputes
in families and dissensions in
churches.
Going through life, l have seen
it drag down many of the associates
of my boyhood, blasting their hopes
and consigning them to untimely
graves. l have seen its forked
lightning strike my first born-the
child OF my young manhood, and |
have borne with him the suffering
and tried to help him in his brave
but sometimes melancholy struggle
for redemption. At last l have felt
its foul and stealthy blow as it turn
ed upon me in its deadly and sham
ing wrath-upon me who had plead
ed before the people for its very
existence. Men have calico me
strong; and while l could see its
harm in others, | thought myself
immune, as thousands before my
time have thought, and suffered for
the thought.
All this knew and felt without
a revelation of the deep pathos and
meaning of it all. l needed help, for