The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1918-08-21
COLE l.. BLEASE
SPOKE HERE MONDAY
Large Crowd Heard Him In Front Of
the Court House and Gave Him
Generous Applause.

Large crowd Heard Him In Front of
the Court House and Gave Him
Generous Applause.
Il have never denied opposed this
war and never expect to deny it,,
said EX-Gov. Cole l.. Blease early in
his speech delivered at I.aurens Mon
day afternoon in referring to the
charge that he has been disloyal and
in explaining his position as to the
war with 1900 years OF teaching in
the churches and Sunday schools" it
seemed to him that the diplomats of
the nations could have gotten together
and arbitrated to avoid war but con-
gress had voted for war. AS proof of
his loyalty he had bought $2,650 worth
Of Liberty Bonds, all the savings
stamps he could afford, had let the
government have Al acres Of land, and
a siN-room house at Camp Jackson
Red Cros and had twice offered to raise
4 regiment but had been turned down
by Adj. Gen. CrOwdcr at the nStiga-
tion Of that red headed pcckcrwoad"
who occupies the governors chair in
Columbia AS for his speeches at Po-
maria and Filbcrt he had no apologies
to make.
The crowd which heard Ex.-Gov.
l}leasc was considerably larger than
the crowd which heard the senatorial
candidates on the Sth. In the crowd
were many from outside of IIaurcns
some coming from as far away as
Saluda county. Newberry had a dele
cation, as did Anderson, Greervillc,
Spartanburg and Greenwood counties
For lack Of space in The court house.
the meeting was held outside Blnasc
supporters were evidently pleased with
the enthusiasm for their leader and
Dial supporters express: III ,rLms2iyes
as being satisfied with the ;,ay. : few
observations, however,. might serve to
indicatr t.ie temper o. ',lu .ruwd The
speaker arrived on the trdin from
Ncwbcrry and drove in a transfer to
and went alone to the Office of w. r.
Richcy, Esq. Remaining in Mr.
Richey's office until the time of speak
ing, he was escorted by Mr.. Richey
and Two otner gentlemen to the south
side 0! the court house. where The
crowd stood around awaiting him As
he walked up on the steps several men
yelled "fIurrah for Collie" There was
no other perceptiblc demonstration ex-
cept handshakes and personal saluta.
tions. Going into the court house and
coming out again after 1t was decided
to hold the meeting outside, Mr.. Blease
was introduced by a Mr.. Putnam from
the upper part Of the county whom
few people seemed to know. Mr.. Put
nam introduced the speaker as "one
Of the most prominent men in the
State and the next United States SEN
ator". Mr.. Blcase arose to speak
amid silence from the audience. His
first applause came when he referred
to Mr.. Dial as the "ipccac" which his
opponents had to swallow after the
death Of Senator Tillman. His ad-
dress was punctuated with applause
from time to time. He spoke about 35
minutes. He was generously applaud
ed at the close Of his speech. He was
not borne away from the meeting on
the shoulders OF his friends.
Mr.. Blease's speech was along the
same lines as his other recent speech
es. He charged that the state cxecu-
tive committee tried to open the pri-
maries in order to let somebody else
in the race besides him and Mr.. Dial
but finding that they could not do it
they" decided to take their "ipecac"
and support Mr.. Dial. Not finding any
thing else to use against him, his op-
ponents charged him with disloyalty
and this he answered as pointed out
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