The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-07-19
Said of Stahlman.

We are publishing the following
extract from Governor Rye's speecl
at Chattanooga, the opening of tn,
Governors campaign for the U. S
Senate. This has reference altogeth
er to the record of e. B. Stahlman
editor and owner of the Nashvill,
Banner, and the Governor has in
corporated it in his speech for ths
reason that Mr.. Stahlman is support.
ing Mr.. Shields thru the Banner fol
the Senate. According to Governor
Rye, the Congressional Record
which should be an accurate record
of the Senate and House proceedings,
has covered up or eliminated that
part Of the record which shows Mr..
Stahlman to be an enemy alien. AS
far as Mr.. Stahlman is personally
concerned it is very small matter.
He is of German birth, pro German
in sympathy and outspoken until
conditions forced him into the back
ground. He is not even capable of
running a true American newspaper,
much less Democratic paper. And
as far as the latter is concerned he
has never proposed to conduct
Democratic paper. Many years ago
he was the chief political lobbyist of
the Louisville & Nashville r. r. Co.
He held the fortunes of Nashville in
the palm of his hand. 1t was COM
mon knowledge in Nashville that any
citizen could get pass from Mr..
Stahlman to travel on any of his
lines and others fraternizing.
Years after this Mr.. Stahlman got
mixed up as lobbyist in Congress
at Washington in the collection of
war claim of some 100000 for the
Methodist Church South. According
to Senator Bate and others Mr.. Stahl-
man was pledged not to participate
personally in this claim. Senator
Bate refused to proceed with the
matter until this Pledge was made by
Mr.. Stahlman. But tho result was
that Mr.. Stahlman received as COM
pensation for his work about one
third of the claim, or about $133,000.
This enabled him afterwards to be-
come owner of the Banner and to
further his insatiate ambition to in
fiuence and control everything
around him. This is the Stahlman
who is supporting Senator Shields, a
Democrat, for the United States
what for, most anyone could lay a |
guess. The Congressional Record,
which has been made to whitewash
Mr.. Stahlman, is said to be ranked |
by the Senator for political purposes. |
In other words, he is using the mails, |
postage free, for his personal cam
paign.
Now word about Governor Rye. |
There has been good deal said /
about his inability to fill the impor-
tant Office of Senator of the United |
otdICos VI OOuAoC IL Will u6
stood that much of this is gratuitous.
1t is offered not so much to bemoan
the decadence of craftsmanship as it
is to exhibit a nervous anxiety about
the election of Mr. Shields. Gov
ernor Rye was what is known as a
regular, and he is still somewhat
hated for that reason, but
he happened to be regular who
proved his sincerity when he pledged
to do everything in his power for
law enforcement. Many of the old
whisky regulars followed him, think
Ing. as has been usual with many
candidates, that he would disregard
his platform pledges, but they were
treated to one of the Invest shake ups
he whisky people in the State have
sver experienced. The lawless ele-
nent Of Memphis was especially