The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1915-06-04
THE QUESTIONS THE VOTERS WILL ASK.

An Exchange saws: What the voters want to know about the
candidates may be summed up thusly: Is he honestf Is he capa
ble9 Can he show a clean record in public and private lfe?'
Surely these requirements r. not unreasonable. They are
scarcely more than one would ask if he should be about to employ
a hog-drover. And yet are all our people demanding such quahh-
cations? Let US see. and in considering the question let US reverse
the order of the questions. And we want to say before proceeding
that we do not raise a question as to any mans record for the un-
worthy purpose of merely proving it bad but We ar inshgated to
question by what we regard as a grave menace to the welfare and to
the dignity OF Mississippi.
record is defined thus. in part: "A public document; the known
facts in a persons life; an authentic o official account of facts or
proceedings" Unhapply the record. the public documents, show
among other facts in the career of one candidate for Governor that
while he was a member of the State Senate, being accused Of brb-
cry, was the object of proceedings in impeachment and escaped ex-
pulsion from that body by the narrowest possible margin. In other
words there were many senators who voting upon their oaths de-
clared him guilty. Is this a clean record? In another case he ad.
mitted receiving a bride to cast his vote IS senator, and the money
a given into his hand. 1t is usually thought that a n honest man
will resent as the most unbearablc insult any attempt to eve APP
proach his honor with an attempt to purchase. The record contains
the unquestioned history of the bride, but is mute a to any act Of
resentment of the insult. Is this a clean record OF either a public
officer or a decent man?
In yet another transaction of bribery the presumption OF gull,
W a o strong that the Grand Jury found a true bill. Is that a clean
record? 1t is true that the trial jury returned a verdict of not guilty
but it did not leave a "cean record such as our contemporary says,
and which we hope, the people will demand. Bear in mind we are
oresentino only the public record and ask if it shows a clean bill of
moral health? Il seems to US that this individual should be kept in
moral quarantine for some time-say 40 years.
SIS he honest?' Honesty is not mere abstinence from stealing
a dollar. or a hog, or any other thing of value. Honesty is that
deep-laid principle of the heart and mind which keeps a man from
DENYING an error if he has committed it, or from claiming a virtue if
he has it not. OF imputng to others the sins Of his own commits
sion or of charging other men with causing his distress when he has
been merely the victim Of his own folly. And yet we find this man
going up and down the state proclaiming himself the peoples friend
.hen no SINGLE act. o sequence of acts of his life, except the act OF
assertion, shows him to have one single thought or sentiment i
common with the people, or with men who work. Is this honesty
We find him grievousy wanting in judgment, getting into al
sortso of unseemly trouble and then charging the inevitable result O
his folly to persecution by the Governor. Is this honest? Isl ever
manly? We think there is somewhere lurking in our memory
phrase something about playing the baby act"
Is he capable? intellectually we would say yes, if his intellec
va influenced by principle, but if the record pertaining to the two
other questions which our exchange says the people will ask, Is h
honest. and can he show a clean record, shall be answered we thnl
they must, negatively, he is not capable. No man whose heart ant
brain art not honest; no man the record of whose life is not clean
capable of being the peoples leader, and Governor of Mississippi.
We have not heard one single cogent reason why this ma
should receive the peoples vote; the only thing he can advance
that he wants it, but he seems to have already coveted too muc
that was not his. There seems to be a universal doubt. a state 20
nvrrhonism, in the public mind as to the mans integrity and We