Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1917-11-15

| or harm the country. Has II not been
somewhat humillating to you to see our
popular senator giving utteranve to
words that have subjected him to crlti-
cism and censure from one end Of the
nation to the other? And that. too. with
/ nothing to gain by It?
| AS most Of you are aware, have been
personal and political friend Of Senator
Vardaman fer a number Of years-I have
| supported him when it meant a loss Of
| friends and patronage to me on the one
| hand-and / have no apologies to make
for 1t. Our speaker Of today has given
him hearty support in the past, also. We
both did 1t no doubt because we thought
he believed in the principles that we did,
and / am not here to say that this was
not the case at that time. But do say
that as much as regretted to disagree
with Senator Vardaman, / am for my
country before any man. and could not
endorse the senator in some OF his utter
Ances and acts on the war question.
Neither could stand by anyone who
would pursue such course. We all re-
gret to disagree with our friends, and as
Lincoln once said, we must stand by our
friends when they are right, stand by
them as long as they are right, but we
must part from them when they go
wrong. 1 know that Senator Vardaman
was wrong in some of his utterances, as
no good could come from them to any
ono, unless 1t was the enemy.
But l am not here to criticize Senator
Vardaman, for hate to think that he
would be guilty OF anything that would
subject him to censure; neither am /
hare n AT1l0CizA ha
is necessary, the speaker who is to ad-
dress you is more capable Of doing SO
than l am.
wish to refer briefly to the distin-
guished statesman who is to speak to
you. While still a young man, his in
fluence has broadencd until he has al
ready become national figure, due large
ly to his brilliant mind, splendid attain
ments, devotion to duty and magnificent
record as an official While a small boy
and at the age of years, with a wild
owed mother. had to begin the strugsaes
Of this life. With determination and grit
he diligently pursued his studies until he
had finished the course in college after
which he taught school for time. A
citizen of Newton, who lived in Green
county at that time, asked Prof. Trawick,
well-known educator, to send them
Harrison was recommended for the place
was elected and gave such good service
that he won the esteem Of the people of
that locality. He later studied law and
at tho age OF "a made the race against
several stronS opponents Tor district at
torney, was elected and served with abil,
ity for five and half years. He then
made the race for congress-. was elected,
and has been filling that position with
distinction for the past seven years. He
could have been reelected without oppo-
sition to that office, had he seen fit, but
so great was the demand for him to enter
the race for United States senator that
he felt it was his duty to accede TO these
appeals, and he made the sacrifice OF
certainty for en- uncertainty, with the
hopes that he might be promoted to a
position in which he could better serve
his country and state. He is to speak to
you today in the interest OF his candi-
dacy and. if he should be elected next
year, he will serve you with ability, and !
do not believe he will ever be guilty of
any words or deeds that will be the source
of humiliation to his constituency.
Many things detrimental to the char |
acter of a number of our public men
have been said IN the press and by the
people generally, some of which were not
true and some perhaps were true. But
I want to say that have never yet seen |
anything in print OF heard anyone say |
1nything reflecttng on the character of
Pat Harrison. This speaks very highly |
OF his untaxnlshed character and integ- |
rity.
My friends I take pleasure in introduce
ing to you Hon. Pat Harrison, represent |
atfve of the largest congressional distriJ
in Mississippi.