The Newark journal., 1916-08-17

their prosperity but there are other people who would de- stroy the Throne upon which God Almighty sits if they could not have their way.
 l want to say to you my friends that it becomes neces- sary at times to change those occupying high positions, to change officers, even judges of courts sometimes, and 1 think the time is drawing near when we will have some changes-at least, l am going to advocate that we do, and when the time does come l am going to tell the people about it. There are many things that the plain peo- pie of this state are in the dark on. think 1 win write an ar tlcle in the near future in which l intend to give history of certain conditions and the way certain interests work. l came to Little Rock comparatively a stranger. 1 tried to make you an honest officer and because l would not yield to certain in- fluences 1 have been bounded and hammered, with all man. nef of criticism and Villifica- tlon, but this has not deterred me from the straight and mar row path of duty, notwith- standing the fact that when 1
 go out of the Governors office 1 will be a much poorer man
 than when 1 came in. Some of
 the things 1 have done to call upon my head the wrath and
 condemnation of this bunch
 was in the passage of the state
 wide prohibition law, the veto- ing of the famous Hot Springs
 race horse gambling bill, which meant the destruction of many and many young men and wo- men, and in vetoing the ap- propriations made by the last legislature.
 l have been criticised severe ly on account of the granting
 of pardons. 1 have granted pardons and will continue to
 do so as long as 1 am Cover
 nor. l can say to you truthfully with nearly double the pen population to contend with,
 have granted fewer pardons
 than any of my predecessors for twenty years back. This is not idle talk but the records in the Secretary of States office, where every pardon granted is recorded, will bear me out in this statement.
 There is an old thing in Lit tie Rock, which is neither ot the masculine gender or the feminine gender nor of the neuter gender, but it is of the oldest, commonest of the com mon gender, known as the Ar kansas Gazette. It has been as unfair in the news items with reference to pardons as any thing could be, always fixing it Tn a way that would leave the people under the wrong inn pression or in doubt, but when l adopted the policy of having applications published in the Arkansas Democrat, it fell ov- CT on it's back and just bawled and baWled-but what did it amount to? It is true I have pardoned quite a number of people out of the penitentiary and l say to you candidly and sincerely that when 1 can see my way clear where merit and justice justifies it, the greatest pleasure l get out of the Gov ernor's office is in granting some poor fellow a pardon, sending him back to his home, his destitute family and giving him new opportunities in life; and let me make this statement to you, that of those whom I have pardoned, only one has been returned to the peniten- tlary for a subsequent offense. If that be true, eliminating the human side, 1 have done the state great service in reliev- ing 1t of the burdens of caring for these men, to say nothing of the fact that l have melted the hearts of mothers, wives, brothers and sisters and poor poor innocent babes. When I go out of the Governors office this pleasure will not cease, for as l go out over the state and