The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1914-07-24

Beckham, mere STRIPPING at the time,
just past the age CT eligibility for the
governorship
The assassination Of Goebel was the
climax of a great political contest Not
in modern American history anywhere
was there a more heroic or tragic
struggle. That it left it's sting is evi.
denced by the fact that it is difficult
to wean a Kentuckian from his dis
relish of the subject.
Every one will remember how Goe-
bel fought so valiantly against the po-
litically entrenched Louisville & Nash
vile Railroad-of how he was sworn
in as governor on his death bed, and
died with words of pardon for his en-
emies on his lips.
Goebel, who was the pioneer pro-
gressive Of the South-he was the
pioneer of railroad rate regulation in
the cOuntry-waS the most maligned
and misunderstood character in Amer
lean history. He fought his way bit
terly through prejudices strong enough
to deter most men, and waged war
against the old aristocracy of Ken
lucky and the Louisville & Nashville
r. ri in of 10 mo
1t was left to .Beckham, as the sue
cessor OF Goebel, TO smooth out the
wrinkled front of this issue. He fol-
lowed the even tenor of his way, Meth
er compromising nor bullying, but do
ing all things with an even-tempered
justice which won the people of Ken
! lucky, and reconciled the enemies of
Goebel
Beckham comes of gentle stock. His
mother has occupied the Executive
Mansion at Frankfort both as daughter
and mother of a governor An uncle,
ex-senator Yulee, of Florida, entered
Beckham in the Central University at
Richmond, Ky; but Senator Yulee
shortly afterwards dying, young Beck
/. ham, then seventeen, was compelled to
leave college to look after the farm
of his widowed mother. Meanwhile he
I taught school.
Beckham did not falter in the poll
OF !, iol1
ed. He got through the law advocated
by Goebel, allowing the State Railroad
Commission TO regulate rates. Under
! his administration Kentucky's new
capitol was built. He showed courage
| in this Others had recommends a
{ new capitol, but no governor cared to
put the power of his administration
behind it, because Louisville, on the
one side, and Lexington, on the other
| both coveted the honor of the capitol
He collected from the Federal Gov
eminent an old war debt of $1,000, 900
He secured legislation fixing a max
imnm price for school books. He es
tablished two normal schools, and he
heightened the school term in the
country districts from five to six
months.
But it was in a bitter struggle fol
the supremacy of the law that Beck
ham ran against Judge Ben Lindsey's
Beast" He believes that the law
should keep pace with the growth
of public sentiment, and that when
enacted it should be enforced.
The South, geographically the most
beautiful section of the country, has
had it's hurts and it's heart-aches
which it has borne without sentimental
appeal, and with heroic SOUL It's PEG
pie are graphing with everything that
stands in the present way of it's wei
fare. One of these evils is the liquor
traffic, which has been peculiarly
wretched and sinister in it's effects on
the South.
If you travel through certain por
tons of the South, you will rarely pick
up local paper which does not
descant on some tragedy that can be
traced, directly or remotely, to strong
drink. So the anti-liquor crusade is