The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-11-06
SETS TASK FOR MCLAURlN
KILL BiEASEISM rs 4 PENANCE,
SAYS SENATOR TILLMAN.
Senior Senator Makes Reply to
Charges in McLaurin's Speech
at Columbia.

gested by Senator Tillman in a state
ment which he has issued in reply to
charges made by Mr.. McLaurin in his
recent speech before gathering OF
Blease followers in Columbia. Mr.
Tillman says that if McLaurin will
he can destroy Bleaseism better than
anv other man in the State, and
that he (Senator Tillman) will help
him. Mr.. Tillmans statement is as
follows:
I read in the South Carolina pa
pers John L. McLaurin's S farewell ad-
dress, or statement, withdrawing
from the Governors race and bid
ding adieu to politics forever. 1t is
q pathetic utte:ance-pathetic be-
cause it is the swan song Of very
brilliant man, who failed to be a
very great man because he lacked
the moral fibre to always be true to
himself and his convictions of right
rather than allow ambition and self
ishness to warp him. His life, in q
way. is a sermon, which young men
everywhere ought to take to heart.
Nothing in the States history is
more lamentable If he had only
been true to true Tillmanism, to
which he says he was converted IN
1910. he would be in the United
States Senate now and would be ar
ornament to it.
Believed Him a Traitor.
McLaurin says: 1T is the irony
Of fate that |. who suffered most in
justice from Tillman personally,
should now be the sole defender of
Tillmanism."
There are two things about this
statement upon which l desire to
comment. l never did have any per-
sonal ill-will towards John l.. Nc
Laurin and have none now. l de-
nounced him in the Senate because
l believed he was a traitor to the
people of the State who had sent him
there. The people were convinced
that my charges were true and have
sustained it whenever they had an
opportunity.
When he says he is the sole de-
fender of Tillmanism," he means
among those Bleaseites to whom he
was speaking. He, of course, knows
there are tens of thousands of Till
NANTES, some of whom voted for
and some against Governor Blease
last year, who have never wavered
in their adherence to Tillmanism as
they understand it, and as he now
understands it.
Mr.. Charles Carroll Simms outher-
oded Herod in his Bleaseism, pro-
claiming that it is higher than Till
manism. He illustrates Byron's
eouplet:
He stood a foe with all the zeal
Which young and fiery converts
feel"
Ends an Anarchist.
He is, no doubt, as sincere in his
Bleaseism now as he vas in his Has
kellism in 1890. He never under
stood Tillmanism at all. Inheriting
a grand name he thought he was an
aristocrat and has ended by becom-
ing an anarchist, and wants to run
into the Governors Office on dema-
gogery. Truly ''politics does make
strange bed fellows" and if the
Tillmanites who deserted me last
year on account Of Blease, vote for
Simms for Governor, it will only
show how wild men can become
when their political passions are
aroused, and how little wisdom, or
reason, governs their actions.
Wise to Withdraw.
There are some things about Nc
Laurin's statement that are very ad-
Tnirable, and l say now that for
the first time since l denounced him
on the floor of the Senate believe he
has at last become patriot and
wants to do the State all the SER
vice he can during the balance of his
life. Of course, he has played poll
tics so long and used diplomacy so
much that even now he cannot drop
the role all at once. l have felt
heretofore that he was trying to
come back" into politics under the
spur of ambition, and l still believe
that was his motive. / have been
hoping that Governor Blease would
endorse him as a successor in the
Governors Office, feeling that that
would be enough to damn both of
them in the eyes of the people. But
Blease had too much political sense
to make such blunder as that, and
McLaurin is wise in withdrawing
once for all into Drivate life