The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-01-24
SCORES TILLMAN
AND THE PRESS,
In Message to Legislature
Blease Says that ''Sena-
tors Weak Mind was
swayed by Friends"
Calls on Assembly to Pass
Law to Bride the Press.


| Columbia, s. c., Jan 16.-A bitter
attack on the editor of the State and
the press generally and a severe de-
nunciation of Senator B. R. Tillman,
is made by Governor Blease in a mes
sage transmitted to the general as
sembly today, in which he urges
some restriction to be placed on the
press, giving as a reason that the
personal reputation and even thu
good name Sof South Carolina NAV
be properly safeguarded from unwar-
ranted villifcation and assigning fur
ther that newspaper domination may
be avoidedN,, which domination the
governor sAgs, was broken in his
election. Referring to Senator Till
man, he says in part:
"It will be necessary in order that
the true situation and true. conditions
may be brought to light, that the con-
duct of no less parsonage than the
senior senator from South Carolina
may be reviewed to some extent.
ohotIci Au luVA
If that conduct be what his
friends and supporters would never
have suspected or expected of him,
| shall regret that it has been neces-
sar to shatter nidol."
The governor gives extraats from
certain letters which he ssid were
written by Senator TillmaA, during
the last campaign, promising to be
neutral as between Blease and Jones
in the race for governor andaprofess>
ing friendship for Blease.
He quotes what, he says, are copies
of kilograms which passed between
the editor of the State and it's Wash
ington correspondent in which Sem
ator Tillman was urged to give out
for publication letter he had written
to Harrison Ferguson in Spartanburg
in which Blease was scored and final
| ly this letter was printed on the eve
of the campaign.
Tlllman coming out squarely for
Jones and urging the people to repu-
diate Blease as he had in the lam
|
of South Carolina by-word and hiss
ing"
| Stabbed in Back.
The governor charged that this was
the result of a conspiracy between
the editor of the State and State
Chairman John Gary Evans, in which
Senator Tillman was led, by reason
of which he came out against the
governor on the eve of election. He
virtually charges that Tillman was
persuaded against his will in writing
the now famous letter. The governor
says that while Senator Tillman was
processing friendship for him, he was
stabbing him in the back.
Of the now famous Ferguson let
ter, in speaking of how Tillman had
pretended friendship up to the close
of the campaign, he says:
"But in the darkness of the night
the conspirators working through all
tbs time, it proved by later events,
that one of the foulest conspiracies
ever Matched in the politics of any
state was brewing. The conspirators
had not met yet because they were
personal and political enemies of the
twenty-one years standing. The jeal-
ously of mind, the heart of one, how
ever, and the deep malice against the
heart of the other at last brought
them together"
He then refers to the killing of N.
G. Gonzales by James H. Tillman, and
the bitter political and personal feud
which existed between the families.
He said that the people repudiated
and rebuked Tillman and reelected
him governor.
Reviewing the sending of certain
kilograms to Washington corre-
spondent for him to urge Tillman to
give out for publication a letter he
had written to Ferguson denouncing
Blease, the governor says of the let
ter:
Calls on Tillman.
"This foul stuff was signed B. r.
Tillman and 1 hope that before the
senator passes to the great beyond,
he will tell who was with him in
Washington when it was prepared
and why he dragged in the names
of Colonel Ibney and Hon. Sam j.