Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1914-03-26
SPIRIT OF WILLIAM COEBEL
ABROAD IN The Land
Moved by Stansys Eloquent Appeal Senate Passes Finn
BOI-Work of Naryrsd Governor, After Fourteen Years
Of Neglect, al Last Taken Up by Lawmakers.

A generation ago william Goebel spoke
NJ times almost In an unknown tongue
He talked OF the separation OF the DUST
ness Of transportation and production.
He demanded the rigorous and eiIectNe
regulation of common carriers; that they
should be impartial in rates to shippers
and just In the payment OF taxation to the
state To his prophetic gaze the para
mount and overweening issue OF TINS hour
was vivid and distinct
With ever increasing emphasis as a can
didate for governor and as your nominee
for that high office he declared that .ne
real issue the bottom question In the
fight, that from which public attention
should never be diverted. was whether the
laws of Kentucky should be enacted. con-
structed and executed by the people OF
Kentucky or by powerful and privileged in
terests For raising that issue he was de-
nounced as a demagogue, assailed as an
assassin. pillored by corrupt and SUD
sidized press-every detail Of his private
and pubic life perverted and distorted oy
the evil ingenuity OF envy and hate. HIS
sacred and salnted dead were dragged
| from the tomb and held up to contumely
and contempt by servile hirelinss and sal
aried slanderers. And when his malignant
| foes and their accused gold had failed 10
debauch the electorate or defeat the liked
purpose of the people, in utter desperation
they fired the black heart of murder aud
armed the assassin for the dastardly deed
that closed in darkness his great career
and covered the commonwealth with
pail Of horror and Of shame.
What were the crimes for which VIII
liam Goebel fell?
He protected the railroad commission of
Kentucky from the miners and sappers
who sought to destroy II and with lash
Of pitiless scorn drove from the corridors
of the capitol a nest Of lobbyists who had
gathered there 10 debauch the legislature
and despoil the state. He proposed to lin
It the hours of labor for an army of men
engaged in the most perilous enterprise
known to peace or war that the toiler
might commune with the family he sus-
tanned and that hundreds of men might
not be dashed TO death because some
weary wretch, driven without rest or re-
pose through the long hours Of the day
and the night fell asleep at the key or
the switch
He proposed to confer upon the engi-
| neer at the throttle the same measure OF
protection which for years the law had
secured TO the tramp upon the highway.
| He proposed to extend and enlarge the
| meager and Intellectual powers of the
| Kentucky railroad commission that II
might become an actual shield to the
shipper from extortion and to the state
from fraud and chicane.
Let impartial history looking back over
twenty years of federal legislation. say
whether William Goebel was an incen-
diary or a seer. The reforms he proposed
for a state became the goal and the mod
els for the lawmakers of a ss.tion.
This immortal pathfinder was more than
a constructive statesman He possessed
the rare and radiant gifts of invention
and Of prophecy. He not only construct
ed; ne created. He was in his day the
lonely navigator of an uncharted and an
unfathomed sea
Esch and Townsend, Hepburn and Dolli-
yer, Adamson Clark and Wilson, all at
last are treading the way blazed a gen.
GRAFTON ago by the dead William Goebei
who found in his own day no fellow In
the wilderness.
For years the progressives in both par
ties have pointed to the efficient regula-
ton and control of railways as their most
substantial achievement, and at this hour
the greatest executive in a century and
congress i'm complete accord are attempt
ing the liberation of the government and
the business Of the country from cor
porate control by enlarging the powers of
a commission authorized to regulate the
rates. supervise the capitalization. to de-
termine the value and direct the opera
tion of all carriers engaged in interstate
commerce
Statesman and political economist may
differ in their estimate of the man and
his measures, but the wise and the just
even among his adversares must concede
the sincerity of his purpose and the dis
interestedness Of his devotion to the great
cause he espoused.
Pomp and power. gain and glory-what
baubles what vanities all are they seen
through the CLASSY eyes OF death! When
''al that honor. all that wealth ere gave"
were as ashes in his cold hands. in the
midst OF the agonies of eternal dissolu-
ton, his great mission is stil before him,
and unmindful of bllghted hopes and
racking pain, OF the gathering shadows
and the chilling gloom. his great love con-
quers death and rises like a transhgura-
ton above his tomb. In husky whispers
he commands those who shall succeed
him to be brave and fearless and loyal
to the great common people," and William
Goebel is no more
Placed by his devoted countrymen at
the helm of the ship OF state, his was the
pilots conscience and the pilots sense Of
obligation. Have you ever watched the
pilot at midnight aloft at the wheel di-
recting the course OF a majestic ship
through the cleaning deep? They who
slumber on the peopled decks below may
be strangers ALL speaking an unknown
tongue. neither Of his race nor realm, but
let that ship strike the unseen rock, let il
be buffeted by raging waves and winds
till the masts are down and the decks
]
is not moved by flood or fire. He will be
burned TO a char or go down with the
ship into the abysm OF the sea before he
viii desert his post while one helpless soul
remains upon the slippery decks depend
ent upon his courage and his skin.
William Goebel through all the eventful
} years OF his public life stood like the pilot
at the wheel He knew that strength OF
his arm and felt the ship respond to his
fine control lie faced dangers more in
! sldous than hidden shoals, enemies more
ruthless than the raging storms. With an
untroubled and an unlnching gaze he
looked squarely into the grinning chops
Of death and went down like the pilot with
hand on the wheel
Nor -ments are erected 10 the living
, not the dead. We need no ''storied urn
OF animated bust" 20 redeem from oblivion
the fame OF William Goebel. His name
is engraved upon the hearts OF his coun-
trymen, and his deeds mark the proudest
and most tragic page In the history Of his
country. This Is not monument. but a
beacon. II is erected here not 10 mark
] a.. q he a 49,