The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-04-18

lest beloved and the most hat. man
within the commonwealth!
There's No Middle Ground.
His friends idolize him,-his enc
mics detest him. There is no such
thing as getting an impartial view of
him in South Carolina. There he
wears either hoofs and horns or a
halo. In order to get at the truth
about Blease, one must have no di-
rect or personal interest in South
Carolina politics.
"I am this way" he said to me. Il
am for my friends and against my
enemies. No man who isn't for me
need ask anything of me-he won't
get it. I make only one exception to
that rule-in the matter of pardons,
I cast aside absolutely the question
of factional alignments.'
reminded him that he had been
criticised severely for issuing so many
pardons.
eyes," he said, ''I have issued many
the one, I issued today runs my
grand total up to 607 By the end Of
my term, hope to make it an even
1000"
"I love the pardoning power. 1t fur
nishes me a chance to give many poor
devils another chance.
s'I parole, however, more than
pardon and some-many-of my total
of 6O7 really are paroles operating as
pardons as long as they are not vio-
lated.
GA man commits crime under the
influence of drink After he has
served a time, and I am persuaded
that the man really came to grief
not through natural inclination so
much as through the misfortune of
unwise drinking, I say to him, GO,
drink no more! So long as you keep
free of liquor, all right-I'm your
friend-get drunk, and back you come
to prison, and my hand is against
YOU hereafter. Am 1 wrong in that?
I like to get petitions for clemency.
Whenever the good people of a COM
munity ask clemency of me, they get
it 7 am their servant-if they know
ing the immediate circumstances of
the crime, ask pardon or parole,
give heed.
eff we had in South Carolina such
a system as they hove in Colorado, 1
would not have to issue so many par
dons and paroles-but we haven't. |
go to the penitentiaries in person.
investigate the cases seemingly de-
serving of clemency, in person, and
make up my own mind what ought
to be done.
'I do not think the theory of i'm
prisonment for crime demands pun
ishment so much as reformation. l
believe in giving fallen human being
another chance, wherever it can be
done. I may have made mistakes in
the exercise of the power of elem
ency-if so, have erred on the side
of mercy, anyway, and that is what
I prefer to do, if I must err ever"
Opposed to Divorce.
'You say, governor that you be-
lieve in giving man another chance
and yet you oppose divorce" I ven-
tured.
ooh, well, that's another matter"
laughed the governor. "And serious
ly, I do oppose divorce-it isn't right!
con the question of divorce, South
Carolina stands alone. She is supe-
rior to all the other States in the
American union, because, WTltten III
her fundamental law are the solemn
words. No divorce from the bonds
of matrimony shall ever be granted.
''It may work a hardship here and
there, still I say that the only cor
rect rule to follow is that sanctioned
by both Biblical and human injunc-
tion,--what God hath joined together,
let no man put asunder.
"The sanctity and safety of society
depends upon the home. And in this
State no home ever is broken up by
eeal mans"
Governor lease will, I think, be
nqmed senator in the primaries next
year to succeed E. D. Smith, the pres
ent junior notor from South Caro-
lima. He will be named, I believe,
simply because he has the votes.