The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1915-01-15
GOV. HOOPER.

four years Gov. Hooper will on Friday
retire from the Office Of chief execu-
tive of Tennessee. Hooper has prov
en- himself to be an executive Of rare
ability; his state papers will rank
with the best in the history Of the
state; and his administration will
take its place in the annals of Ten
nessee as one of the most progress
Bive this people has ever known. His
career as governor has been tempest
uoiis. He has worked under extraor-
binary difficulties. His four years in
office have been four years of bitter
passion; of political turmoil without
O parallel, and of internal dissentions.
BY half Of the people he has been al
most idolized, by the other half he
has been the incarnation Of every
thing that man should not be. He
has probably been the most Loyalty
admired and trusted and at the same
time the most heartily hated COVER
nor in Tennessee's history, Patterson
not even excepted.
1t is too early yet to write fair
and impartial history of Hooper's
administration. We are not yet far
enough removed from the prejudices
and passions engendered over the is
.snes that have divided the people,
but intelligent men no longer discount
Hooper's ability; they concede him
courage and force. It will not be de-
MED that he is aggressive to the point
OF pugnacity. He really loves a fight.
In fact we have often thought him to
fond Of the white light that beats
about the man who is constantly at
the front In battle array. Hooper i
Incorporating in his likes and his
hates. Bitterly as he has been hat
ed by large portion of the popula.
ton Of the state, Hooper has been
equally as intense in his feeling of re.
sentiment toward those who dared OPP
pose his will. He would have made a
great despot. He knows how to use
power, and as is always the case,
sometimes to abuse Il.
On the whole the governors ad-
ministration, under trying and ad-
verse circumstances, has been a bust
ness one. The peoples money has
not been wasted through the fault Of
the governor. His appointments, as
"A general thing have been far above
the average. Progress has marked
the administration of almost all of
the great departments Of the govern
ment. In educational and agricultu-
raj work there have been some nota-
BILE achievements In the matter of
prison reform there has been much
accomplished. In truth Gov Hooper
has probably done more to better@the
condition Of the prisoners, to direct
our penal institutions to higher and
better things, to make them perform
more nearly their true mission, than
was done by all of his predecessors
combined. The governor has used
the pardon power sparingly, but he
has insisted that the convicts were
entitled to humane consideration. He
has acted upon the idea that the state
Denitentiary had another and higher
mission than being merely a fnan-
ciAl asset of the state In other
words he has insisted that profits
from convict labor should be second
AIRY consideration in the adj
administration of our penal in
stitutions, and in this he is eter-
nally right We have long doubted
whether or not the state had the NOR
al right to use all the profits, from
the labor of convicts while their fam
flies went In want and poverty.
Unquestionably great credit is due
the governor for the growth of senti-
ment for law enforcement in Tennes-
asee. !. He has been potent factor in
mouldng sentiment that demands the
punishment of the transgressor of
the moral laws. He has rendered
great service in making permanent
f&he prohibition laws.
Like Caesar and Napoleon and
Roosevelt, his vaulting ambition, his
selfish desire to hold the footlights
all the time, proved the undoing of
the governor Had he been content
With two terms, had he not breach
cd the agreement with Crump after
he had approved 1t through his clos
est friends and advisers, he would
have retired from Office voluntarily
and not been forced out by hostile
Eote, After the Crump agreement
had been made and the governors
patronage and power largely increas.
ed, his friends appointed and elected
10 once, the back tax machine ready