Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1922-06-15
coal BLAZE" ON STUMP.
Henry Ford's Paper Prints Story
About Former Governor.

WccAty pdpeT puDllSneu Dy IleuTE
Ford, in its issue of June 3,
prints the following special arti-
Gle about Cole l.. Blease, former
governor Of South Carolina, who
has announced that he will be
candidate in the Democratic pri-
mary this summer for Il third
term, as chief executive of tie
State. An interesting feature OF
the article is the lack of in iorIua-
tion displayed by the writer rela-
tive to South Carolina affairs IN
general and the Democratic pri-
mary in particular
AS, the boys in the woolhat dis
trict would put it, Coal Blaze s.
hat Is in the ring and all doubt
about the gubernatorial cam-
paign being pink tea affair in
South Carolina this autumn has
passed. AS we write that the
Hon. Cole Livingston Blease is
again in the battle zone, with a
third term in the governorship as
hls goal, the mauve syringia
lends its fragrance to the zeph-
yrs of spring and the ringing i'll
donations Of the one gallus vot-
ers of the commonwealth, who
are for Blease first, last and all
the time.
The Blease boom came up
with the crocus, but it failed to
pass out with the pussy willow.
1t hangs on like high taxes and
red mud in the Piedmont sec
ton, because Mr.. Blease, known
from the mountain tops of Dark
Corners to the sands of the sea
at Charleston, as the stormy
petrel of politics." never has yet
shown the white feather. He is
rs foad of a political battle as
a bulldog, and ne never quits un-
til his jaws are pried or his
friends succeed in carrying him
to higher channels.
when Mr.. Blease, then, serving
his second term as governor, re-
signed that Office in 1915, he had
the stage set for him to step into
the United States senate, but it
proved even for an expert politi-
clan and ar-statesman, as he
was at that time, case of too
many cooks spelling the broth.
And so, instead of going to the
senate, Mr.. Blease resumed the
practice of law in Columbia. In
matters Of criminal Jurisprudence
there are few lawyers of the cap
itol city that know the law as he
knows it, and still even fewer
who can approximately match
his wits ut the bar when it comes
to wringing a verdict from IA
jury.
| Mr.. Blease began his political
career, as far as State estimation
is concerned, in 1896, when he
became presidential elector, but
he had been member of the
South Carolina house of represen-
tatives and speaker pro TEN of
that body from Newberry county
even before that campaign. AS a
presidential eiector he soon won
popularity on the stump. He has
been in Office most Of the time
since he was licensed to practice
law, except during the last dec
ade, having, been mayor Of his
city, representative of his county
and district in the South Carolina
house and senate, and twice gov
ernor Of the State. He is can
didate, he says, now, not because
it will satisfy any personal ambi.
tion, but because his friends in.
sist OH his saving the State.
| And when the picturesque III
dividual whom the loyal Blease-
ties refer to as Coal Blaze, or
just plain Cooley gets on the
hustings, We are ready to inform
the six or eight aspiring getlemen
who also have their hats in the
gubernatorial ring, they will
know they have been IN fight
when the smokescreen lifts next
November. For be it known that
the Hon. Cole Livingston Blease
is the equal of the late Repre-
/ I...knx.,, /.xn..x,,N sUxL. Al