The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1920-01-17
Mr.. Parker, Please Answer.

RI address Caddo audiences and
ask Shreveport citizens to vote
for him. But though the cam
paign is within less than a week
of it's close and has been gong
on for more than three months,
he is still a Sphinx as to nearly
all the vital questions which have
been addressed to him.
Only as to the Board of Affairs
and that on one occasion has he
broken his silence, and this he
has done only because Col. Slubbs
and Mr.. 'Aswell have been sym
pathetically interpreting h e
feelings of the country people
with respect to the oppressive
manner in which Gov. Peasants
Board has exercised it's authority
under the original act OF 1916
and the much more offensive act
Of 1918. Yet even as to the Board
of Affairs Mr.. Parker's views
have been marked alike by va
gueness and unintelllgence and
no one really can tell what, II
elected, he would do to remedy
existing conditions.
| During the present campaign
The Times has scrupulously re-
Trained from personalities in deal
lag with Mr.. Parker. 1t has
discussed his variegated political
record and expressed very frank
IL it's utter lack of faith in his
capacity to fill the executive
chair without infiicting upon the
state four years of turmoil in
which nothing constructive
would be accomplished. This is
legitimate criticism Of his candi-
dacy. This is criticism of which
| neither he nor his friends can
iustifably complain.
But notwithstanding the fact
| that we have pitched the cam
paign of this high plane, Mr..
Parker has seemed to prefer to
appeal to the passions and pre-
ildices Of the country people on
the single irrelevant issue OF what
sort of government the people OF
New Orleans would rather have,
and he has Ignored practically all
the matters in which the people
of North Louisiana and the state
in general are much more deeply
interested than whether or not
Mr.. Parker and the choice crew
of discredited ringsters he has
gathered about him can over.
throw the City Organization and
; capture the city offices and pa.
tronage there.
: His city ring" issue has fail.
ed. The people of North Louisi'
! ana have come to recognize thai
. | q state ring is much nearer *
them than a ring of the city O
; New Orleans, and in the past few
weeks he is blind who does no
appreciate that Mr.. Parker
. North Louisiana strength is slip
ping away from him because thu
people of North Louisiana hav'
q grown weary Of the old stalking
! horse, and much more critica
questions are Involved in thi
primary.
I Why then should not Mr.. Park
: err take the occasion of his fina
: appearance before a Shreveport
i audience to be frank with tn
6 people whose suffrage he is seek
:. ing and not studiously evade tn
;. questions which, through Tn
q Times, they have sought to hav
re him answer
J. Why should he not say whetf
i er he still believes the Democrs
: Tic party is a menace to Louis
ana, claiming as he does, that h
N has not changed any of his view
" Of four years ago?
- Why should he not say whetl
= er he is for the short ballot, whic
= would give the governor tn
s right to appoint all state Officer
lie now elected by the people an
" invest him with the powers of
! Prussian Plutocrat?
Why should he not say whetF
sc er he is still for the destructio
4 of the white primary. as he VIZ
when he went to Baton Rouge
1912 to buttonhole legislators
We support his scheme of non-part
O. san elections which would brir
- the negro back into electorate?
" Why should he not give tt
reason why, after telling Il
farmers four years ago he wou
4 L I