Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-07-05
finished their check. and however

part in that conference except as al
innocent onlooker who did not evel
know there was going to be con
ference, and the records down here IL
the State house will show that 1t wa!
very few days afterward that
ceased to draw a salary from the stat'
warehouse system. And my disap
proval OF that conference was th'
cause Of my resignation.
have never given Mr.. Cooper an!
political letter at the request Of Dir
Blease or any one else: nor have
ever furnished him with any letter a
all in any Of his campaign for COVER
nor. From the inception Of this cam
paign l have seen him only once Oh
twice, when we have spoken in pass.
ing. He has not mentioned his race
to me, nor have mentioned the cam.
lpaign to him. either directly or indi'
rectly.
1t seems to be necessary that
give q brief recital Of the reasons
which actuated me In writing a letter
to the editor of the Anderson Tribune
in January Of this year. which seems
to have aroused the ire OF Mr.. Nc
Laurin, and brought about the con-
fession as to how he was trying to
use everybody connected with him
for his own personal political ambi-
tion.
During the session of the general
assembly just passed there was a fist
cuff between q state official and n
military officer which was really
more amusing than serious. AT the
request OF Governor Manning. who
urged 1t as a war measure OF con
Germ to the state at the particular
time. the newspapers did not publish
1t, and / agreed not to mention II
because I was appealed to upon the
proposition that 1t might interfere
with the securing of funds necessary
to equip the home militia. which was
an organization for the protection OF
the homes Of the state during the alb
sence OF the National Guard ut the
front. Rightly or wrongly | yielded to
the appeal and said nothing about 1t.
Nobody had been seriously hurt. any
way A bloody nose comprised about
the entire casualty list.
The Anderson Tribune heard Of the
affair and undertook to take the news
paper correspondents of Columbia to
task for suppresslng the news.
would have paid no attention to this,
except for the fact that l had been
noticing that the Tribune was pub
fishing a good deal Of inspired stuff,
which l was convinced was based up
on financial considerations. had
learned the inside of how its editor
had secured the so-called endorse
ment" OF Senator McLaurin for gov
ernor by certain members Of the An
derson delegation. Even that did not
affect me, because l didn't care. But
along with all these other things
1rwas- constantly recEisirhg rhg s.tfurrfftepr
OF Senator McLaurin's assertion thai
while was his secretary he had used
me as q tool to get other people into
traps. and that he was going tt
SHOW up" certain things. and tel
how q certain politician had used mt
in an attempt to get money to boil
the Democratic party, and how he was
going to raise merry political cair
generally, in all OF which | was to b'
the goat. Then | heard that he was
down in Bennettsville laboriously pre-.
pairing what he considered was the
greatest political announcement in thu
history OF South Carolina, which wa.
forever to retire Blease and Tillmar
into oblivion, and that when he finish.
ed 1t he was going to Charlotte an'
give 1t to the press. That also die
not affect me, but In all these state
ments that were coming to me on au'
thority which / did not question m,
name was constantly being rung In
and l knew that the charge TO b'
made, and which had been made, tina
had played any double part, or hat
anything to do with any Washington
conference, or any bolt from the par
Ity, was absolutely and uncquivocall,
false, and was getting tired of being
drawn into the political mess which
Senator McLaurin was stirring in thu
pot which he always has handy. i
seems, down In Marlboro. In order Il
put both Senator McLaurin and th'
Tribune on notice, wrote the edito
of the Tribune about the time calcu
lated Senator McLaurin was to star
for Charlotte to give out his great po
liticaI a,.nunciation and told Cheshir,
that l thought 1t would be better 70
him to come to Columbia and maxi
certain statements face to face rathe
than to be publishing them from lonl
range, and also warned him tina
none of the newspaper men involved
Is subsidized by candidate for gov
erDor. as you are, and none of then
Is supporting q man who. in the face
of his previous record, went to Wash
ington, after the campaign OF 1916
and offered to carry the state Re
publican If $1,000 for each county wa'
put up by the Republican committee
That's all I said. and 1t was In 6
letter to Cheshire, in which did moi
mention the name Of McLaurin nor o.
Capers, nor did I say anything about
any correspondence between McLaurir
and Capers, Of which 1 learned onl,
,his morning. AS the matter in cor
troversy was the incident here In Co.
lumbia, with regard to which the
newspaper conference had taken place
In the office of Governor Manning's
secretary. participated in by the News
and Courier and State representative
and myself. and at which Governor
Manning stated what he felt would
be the injury resulting to South Caro-
lima II the fistcuff should be publish
ed at the time-in which / agreed
I furnished a copy Of the letter to the
city editor OF the State. the Columbia
representative Of the News and Cou-