The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-07-05

ton, my name was constantly being
rung in, and I knew that the charge
to be made, and which had been
made, that I had played any double
part, or had anything to do with any
Washington conference, or any bolt
from the party, was absolutely and
unequivocally false, and I was get
ting tired of being drawn into the
political mess which Senator Nc
Laurin was stirring in the pot which
he always has handy, it seems, down
in Marlboro. In order to put both
Senator McLauriu and The Tribune
on notice, I wrote the editor of The
Tribune, about the time I calculated
Senator McLaurin was to start for
Charlotte to give out his great poll.
teal annunciation, and told Ches-
hire that I thought it would be
better for him to come to Columbia
and, make certain statements face to
face rather than to be publishing
them from long range, and also
warned him that "none of the news
paper men involved is subsidized by
q candidate for governor, as you
are, and none of them is supporting
a man, who, in the face of his pre-
vious record, went to Washington,
after the campaign of 1915, and Of
fered to carry the State 'Republi-
cam if $1,000 for each county was
put up by the Republican commit
tee." 81, {
That's all I said, and it was in a
letter to Cheshire, in which I did
not mention the name of McLaurin
nor of Capers, nor did I say any
thing about any correspondence be-
tween McLaurin and Capers, Of
which I learned only this morning.
AS the matter in controversy was
the incident here in Columbia, with
regard to which the newspaper con
ference had taken place in the Office
of Governor Manning's secretary,
participated in by the News and
Courier and State representatives ;
and myself, and at which Governor
Manning stated what he felt would
be the injury resulting to South
Carolina if the fsticuff should be
published at that time-in which T.
Agreed furnished a copy Of the
letter to the city editor of The State
the Columbia representative Of the
News and Courier, and to Governor
Manning. 1t was from one Of these
sources that Mr.. Cooper must have
secured the copy Of the letter and
not from me.
Had Mr.. McLaurin requested a
copy Of the letter, I would have
gladly furnished it to him, and he
would have saved MI. Capers a
search of his files and saved himself
all that far-fetched rigmarole about
letters to Mr.. Capers, dictated to me;
and the originals of whcih he says
he destroyed, in order that Blease
might be led into a trap through me-.
That is about all there is to the
whole matter. MI. Capers' state
ment to "my dear Mac" as to any
overtures made by me is absolutely
false. Mr.. McLaurin's statement
that I was excepting Blease inform
ed" as to anything going on in Mr..
McLaurin's office is also absolutely
untrue. AS I say, in view of later
developments, I have no doubt that
Senator McLaurin was e~ndeavoring
to use me as a tool; but he succeed
ed only in so far as securing from
me the best work of which I was
capable for him and the State ware
house system.
As to any change in my attitude
on account of McLaurin's frequent
changes of position in the guberna-
torial race of 1916, that is simply
an evidence of the senaotr's imagi-
nation which too often leads him to
believe that those who are trying to
serve him have some double purpose
My recollection of the senator's pc.
sition in. the race is that he wrote
Mr.. Blease urging that the Blease