The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1914-03-26
SPIRIT OF WILLIAM COEBEL
ABROAD IN THE LAND
Moved by StanIeys Eloquent Appeal Senate Passes Finn
BIl-Wolk Of Martyred Governor After Fourteen Years
of Neglect at Last Taken Up by Lawmakers.

proportions outlined against the SKY.
A generation ago William Goebel spoke
at times almost in an unknown tongue.
He talked of the separation of the BUSH
ness of transportation and production
He demanded the rigorous and effective
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 this hour
was vivid and distinct.
With ever increasing emphasis as can
didate for governor and as your nominee
for that high office he declared that the
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, pilloried by corrupt and sub
sidized press-every detail of his private
and public life perverted and distorted by
| the evil ingenuity of envy and hate. His
sacred and sainted dead were dragged
| from the tomb and held up to contumely
and contempt by servile hirelings and sal
/ aried slanderers. And when his malignant
/ foes and their accurSed gold had failed 10
/ debauch the electorate or defeat the fixed
! purpose of the people, in utter desperation
|
| 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 We're the crimes for which Will
liam GOebel fell?
He protected the railroad commission of
! Kentucky from the miners and sappers
who sought to destroy it and with a lash
/ of pitiless scorn drove from the corridors
/ of the capitol nest of lobbyists who had
/ gathered there to 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 it
might become an actual shield to the
shipper from extortion and to the state
from fraud and chicane.
| 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 nation.
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; he 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 Goebel
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 century and
congress in complete accord are attempt
ing the liberation of the government and
the business of the country from cor
porate control by charging the powers of
| a commission authorized to regulate the
| rates, supervise the capitalization, to de-
termine the value and direct the opera
ton 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 adversaries must concede
the sincerity of his purpose and the dis
linterestedness 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
"all that honor, all that wealth ere gave"
were as ashes in his cold hands, in the
midst of the agOnies of eternal dissolu-
tion his great mission is still before him.
and, unmndful of blighted hopes ana
racking pain, of the gathering shadows
and the chilling gloom, his great love con-
quers death and rises like a transfigura-
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 d.
recting the course of a ma jestic 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 it
he buffeted by raging waves and winds
till the masts are down and the decks
awash or licked by hungry flame the pilot
is not moved by flood or fire. He viii be
burned to a char or 20 down with the
ship into the abySm of the sea before he
will desert his post while one helpless soul
remains upon the slppery decks depend
ant upon his courage and his skill.
William Coehel through al the eYentfu!
years Of his public lie stood Ike the pilot
NJ the wheel lie knew that strength of
his arm and fc't the ship respond to his
fine control He faced DANGERS more in
s.lious than hidden shoals, enemies more
ruthless than the racing storms. With an
untroubled and an unlinchinS gaze he
looked squarely into the ErinninG chops
Of death and went down like the pilot with
hand on the wheel
Monuments are erected to the living,
not the dead. We need no ''storied urn
or animated bust" to 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 a monument, but
beacon. 1t is erected here not to mark
the resting place of the dead, but to direct
and inspire the onward march Of the liv
ing. He fell like sentinel in front Of the
capitol of the commonwealth. defending
the sanctity of its courts and the indie
pendence of its legislative assemblies. and
this inspiring figure, that in DEATH as In
: life, he still shall stand an eternal sentry,
sternly challenging fraud and corruption.