The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1916-10-19
MKELLAR TAKES A RAP
AT BEN W. HOOPER

the level to which the Republicans
are trying to. reduce the state cam
paign, the Hon. X. D. Mcclellan, the
Democratic nominee for the Unitec
States Senate, did have a few perth
nent remarks to make last night
about the repeated charge that he lis
a part of the Crump machine"
"Mr. Hooper says l am the creature
of the Crump machine" said Con-
gresham Mcclellan. mo one in Ten
nesse knows better than MI. Hooper
that this statement has no foundation
in fact.
But what were Mr.. Hooper's rela-
tons with the Crump machine when
he was governor? What is his rec
ord on the subject?
at is a matter of common knowl-
edge that in both of tn Legislative
sessions of 1911 and 1913 the Hooper
forces and the Crump forces lined up
together. They fought side by side.
During all of Mr.. Hooper's first term
there was perfect accord between the
Two forces, and liquor was sold in
Memphis all that time; and no law
enforcement measures wee passed.
MIR. Hooper was a peculiar prOhi-
bitionist and law enforcer in those
days. He was obliged to know that
liquors were being openly sold in all
the large cities, and yet, during his
first two years, he did absolutely
nothing so far as the record shows,
to stop the open saloon. Then came
the general session of 1913. Again
Mr.. Hooper's and Mr.. Crump's forces
were in perfect harmony, Mr.. Hoop
er lined up all his prohibition forces
in the House for Mr.. Stanton, Mr..
Crump's candidate for speaker; yet
no one could say that Mr.. Stanton
was a prohibitionist. Later on in the
session Mr.. Hooper and Crump fell
out, and then came a renewed and
long-delayed zeal on the part of Mr..
Hooper for law enforcement.
Every well-informed person in
tennessee knows that these are the
facts. What understanding or agree
ment, if any, existed, between these
two political machines l do not know
for | was not in the confidence of
either; but | am going to submit what
Congressman Sam r. Sells, Mr.. Hoop
er's political friend and supporter in
East Tennessee, said last February
about it:
HE says that | am not his friend
and that | would not as national COM
mitteeman, give him support in his
race for the senate. He knows that
such an accuatison is false. He knows
that in every one of his campaigns l
have been his friend and warm sup
porter, and | tried in every legiti-
mate, way to awaken the interest of
Republicans who had grown luke
warm because of his neglect of his
own party as governor.
mot once but 20 times or more
the legislative sessions of 1911
and 1913, at his behest and that of
his friends. l left my work in Wash
ington to hasten to his aid in Nash
vile, when it vas thought that l
might be of service to him and the
principles of the party which he was
supposed to represent. At his insti-
CATION | helped organize and finance
the ~filibusters which he himself had
planned, and the responsibility for
which he publicly disclaimed through
press afterward. Nor did | ever
waver in my loyalty until | was call
ed into a conference at the Maxwell
House with Hooper present, to APP
prove the infamous deal with Crump
in which, for sundry and various rea-
on the part of Crump and Hoop
er, all efforts ON our part to secure
he enactment of the law enforcement
to close the saloons of Mem
phis were to be abandoned. Hooper
remembers that | denounced the deal,
left the meeting and came out of
Nashville on the first train, never to
thereafter during the session
Of the legislature
Il do not charge that there was
any agreement. | do not know what
facts are about it. | can only
give you what Sells said about it. If
Sells is mistaken that is a question
veracity between hi mand Hooper.
wholly independent of agreements,
However, everybody knows that the
trump machine and the Hooper ma
'hine worked as one during about
wo years and a half of Hooper's adj
Illustration"