The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-07-06

'iiS III the second primary in 1914
ana in 1916 and so announced mvselt
In the press of the State Immediately
atter the result of the first primary
was known. The effort. therefore r.
aiign me with Mr.. Blease is too ridi.
cuious to merit serious thought.
The statement furnished me bv w.
j. Cormack to show how I came into
possession of the Aull letter is as fol
lows:
Although vocationally and person
ally 1 am disinclined to he invo,ved
IN political controversy of anv
KIND yet, in the interest of truth and
to keep the record straight foe,
constrained to make the following
statement
In his address to the "People of
South Carolina" published this morn
ing, former Senator John Lowndes
McLaurin unintentionally wronged
both Robert A. Cooper of Laurens
and Col. John K. Aull of Columbia.
when he assumed that the Aull letter
on which he based his statement, was
handed Mr.. Cooper by it's author. It
was not. Mr.. Cooper received the let
ter from me. When 1 read Senator
McLaurin's published article this
morning, / Immediately rang him up
from Columbia on long distance tele-
phone and informed him of the cir
cumstances under which Mr.. Cooper
got the letter. They were:
Shortly before the opening of the
itinerary for State offices, Mr.. Cooper
was in my office at Columbia discuss
ing the coming campaign. 1 Incl
dentally told him of the Aull letter, a
copy of which 1 let him read When
received it was released" for publi-
lation by the author and was then
public property and is now. For that
reason l gave Mr.. Cooper a copy.
The circumstances leading up to my
possession of signed copy Of the
Aull letter, which 1 still hold, were:
During the session of the last gen.
eral assembly the Anderson Tribune
contained the following:
''Asleep at the Switch?"
who? All of the newspaper re-
portersi of The State, The News and
Courier and the Charleston American
when the Hon. w. w. Moore and the
would-be Hon. Henry r. Thompson
had a fight in the adjutant generals
office, or if not asleep they were too
cowardly to publish the fight If it
had been a fight between some good
men it would have been published in
big headlines, so why hide it for the
two quarter backs?"
Parenthetically, 1 might state that
the causes of the suppression. of the
alleged fisticuff were: First, it was of
doubtful news value, the publication
of which would have necessitated a
statement from the participants; Sec
ond, heralding it to the world would
have menaced a policy of State which
was Pnd is of paramount benefit and
safety to the people of South Caro-
lima. and perhaps would have opened
an interminable controversy of little
news value, of doubtful interest to the
people and Of probable embarrass-
ment to the principals; and, third,
the matter was thoroughly consider
ed at conference between Governor
Manning. the reporters of the Colum-
bia papers and the correspondents of
the out of town papers, at which it
was deemed wise to let the matter re-
main quiescent. Mr.. Aull, being cog
nizant of these facts and knowing the
underlying causes of suppression was
very indignant at the STORY" which
appeared in The Tribune. He wrote
a refutatiOn of it, sending the letter
to the editor and publisher Of The
Tribune, furnishing signed copies of it
to F. III. McMaster of the Columbia
State, Governor Richard /. Manning
and me. 1t was released for immedi-
/ ate publication, but the newspapers
for various reasons, decided not to use
it. The letter signed by Mr. Aull fol-
lows:
Columbia, S. c., Jan. 25, 1918.
"Col. V. B. Cheshire,
Editor Tribune,
anderson, S. G.
Dear Vic This letter is for pub
licatiOn only upon the day the legis-
islature adjourns, if you will regard
anything in confidence. If you do not,
| personally do not care.