The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1918-06-27
BleaSe and the Issue

BieaSe and the Issue.
News and Courier:
Ihere has rarely been a more nit
iful exhibition in South Carolina mol
iticS than the effort of Cole l.. Blease
10 wriggie out of and explain the
speech which he made at Filbert ON
August 2. 1917, four months after
this country had been at war with
germany. or course, he tries to un
load on the newspaper man who re-
ported him; but as luck had it the
newspaper man in this particular in
stance did not happen to be the staff
representative of any paper belong
Ing 10 that section of the press which
ne mas long been SO fond of denounc-
ing. IL was James u. Grist who COW
cred the Filbert meeting and no one
who knows him will question for a
moment either his honesty, his fair
ness or his competency.
Nor will Mr.. BLease venture to COM
PAIN that the Yorkville ENQUIRER
which published James CRISIS re-
port In full has ever treated hin with
other than fairness. The best he can
90 Is to say that the reporterwas not
stenographer and left out part of
what he said. What Mr.. Blease now
says he said is that if his soul was
70 De lost he did not care what kind
OF America we have after he is dead
ana gone. 1t has taken him upwards
OF year to offer even this correc-
tlon-and what lame one it is
"hen 1t is brought forward. Com
pare II with what James Grist at
'hat time quoted him as saying:
stlll say that there is no need
1or this country to go to war with
Germany and peace could be had
now. Oh. good people, you don't
realize what it means. Wait until
you pick up the paper and read the
casualty list. They talk about a fire.,
America. 1 don't care what kind of
America it is after am dead and
gone, neithtG does your boy whom
your are sending to war"
when one gets down to it the onlv
dlfference which appears between
what Coley says he said and what Mr.
Grist reported him as saying is the
qualifying class which Coley now
throws in about losing his soul. How
much of a difference that is, and
what effect it should have on the
net result. those who are Interested
In splitting hairs can work out for
themselves. The substantial question
wnlch thu voters of South Carolina
nave to determine is what sort of
support Mr.. Blease could be counted
upon, If sent to Washington to give
10 president Wilson in the waging of
the war. That question he has an
swered pretty completely and most
convincingly. His attitude toward
Mr.. Wilson and his opinion of the
PRESIDENTS leadership in connection
with the war was set forth in his
speech at Pomaria last July. He will
not deny his words as officially re-
corded in his chief newspaper or
gan at the time. Here is what he
said:
1t has been published of late in
the anti-reform press that 1 and the
party to which 1 belong are outcasts
In the political world Just now. but
want to say to you SO far as | am
personally concerned that | would
rather be an outcast in the ewes of
woodrow Wilson. and a follower of
Jesus Christ, than to be a follower
of Woodrow Wilson and an outcast
from Jesus Christ, and that | would
much prefer being waterboy in
heaven. listening throughout eterni-
" TO the chant of angels, than to be
tne commander-in-ch of all the
forces of hell forever, hearing ONLY
the music of the cracking of coal.
and the lashing of the blazes and the
shrleks OF the damned. l was oppos-
ed 10 this war. Had l been a United
States Senator or Congressman
would have voted against it, and be-
neVe rellgiously. as firmly as 1 be-
neVe that there is God in heaven,
that in the final judgment day ev-
cry American citizen who is killed in
this war off American soil will he
charged against the President of the
united States and the members of
the congress of the United States
VINO voted for it. as an unwarrapted
sacrifice in the sight of Almighty
God. of fresh American manhood.
The News and Courier apologies
10 It's readers for printing so horrible
statement as TIE foregoing in it's
columns. Not otherwise, however
can 1t bring before them what this
man. a candidate for the high office
or United States Senator, really
stands for on this great issue of the
times and of all time. This was where
we stood four months after America
was at war with Germany, This ia