Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-08-25

ola man anu tElSu 10 lilil,Out an = >ON'N
about Cole Blease from him. l asked
him what kind of fellow he was and the
old man looked at me and said, "Sor
he would take the shoes off his feet tC
help a needy person." How true
have found that statement to be! lr
the greatest financial distress l was
ever in, the darkest tunnel / evel
passed through Cole L. Blease came tc
my rescue and helped build bridge
over which l could march. emancipat-
ed and free.
No man could say anything about
Cole L. Blpase that would knock the
varnish off the back door Of my faith
in him. l have associated with him
have been in his home almost every
month for eleven years. have done
business with him. have sat In his
room talking with him until 2 O'Clock
in the morning, and have yet to see
the first thing in his life that is moi
compatible with gentleman.
He. was one Of the greatest legisla-
tors that ever stood on the floor of the
general assembly and would have made
this state one Of its greatest COVER
nors had he not been handicapped by
a pin headed, peanut brain set oi
three karat, partisan Legislators, and
bounded. misrepresented and malign-
ed him through prejudiced newspapers
| don't see how man with his tenn
permanent and kind heart has lived un-
der the awful abuse, slander and lies
heaped upon him for several years as
corporation newspapers with hirelins
editors and tin horn, pie counter, word
heeling, sewer rat politicians, We'd with
each other in slandering, impugning
and vomiting out their gangrene upon
him. They make me think of buz-
zard that sails over the beautiful fields,
orchards and vineyards. After a while
| II finds something that is black, putre-
| fled and foul smelling and it lights
upon it and begins to pull and pull and
pull. A lot of the South Carolina
human vultures when they couldn't
find anything black and rotten in this
mans life tried to make the public
think they had. Like the buzzard they
flew over, the kind heart, good traits
and many virtues and lit on some littn
Inconsistency of his boyhood days or
some little mistake or imperfection
of his political career (and everything
humanity does is painted with imper-
fection) and they have pulled, pulled,
pulled, and magnified, and Pharisee-
like have strained at gnat and swal-
lowed a camel. They flew over the
fact that he was poor struggling boy
who worked his way through college
and who stood at his dying fathers
bed and promised that one day he
would be governor of South Carolina.
They flew over the fact that New
berry county elected him for every
office he ever asked for and that for
years me was in the legislature and
state senate, that that good old aris-
tocratic city of Newberry made him
mayor by an overwhelming majority.
They sailed over the fact that when
South Carolina had voted for prohi-
bition and they were trying to give
us the state dispensary instead, that
it was Cole L. Blease who stood on the
floors of the general assembly and
fought for prohibition. He was local
optionist but the people of this state
had asked for prohibition and he argu-
ed it was not right to give them a
stone when they asked for bread so he
stood and preached that we ought TO
have prohibition because the majority
of the people wanted it. They have
also sailed over the fact that when the
poor cotton mill people Of South Caro-
lima were working from six o'clock in
the morning to six in the evening in
poorly ventilated mills and were being
commercialized and fed into the
machines Of industry to grind out
dividends, when the bone and sinew
and the life blood of poor little pale
faced. enemic, overworked children
were being capitalized, then it was
that Blease worked and fought until
better conditions and shorter hours
were given to the mill people.
They sailed over the fact that Blease
worked for the betterment of the rural
schools, for the welfare of our old
soldiers and better pay for our under
paid school teachers. They. flew over
the fact that Blease worked and
preached for lower taxes and had the
will and nerve to veto useless and eX-
travagant appropriations and if our
general assembly had listened to
Blease there would not have been
thousands Of dollars of unpaid taxes
today in South Carolina.
You can fool all the people some Of
the time, you can fool some of the peo-
pie all the time. but you cannot fool
all the people all the time. 1t mas
dawned on our people that taxes have
doubled and tripled just as Blease
prophesed they would under the
Cooper Manning administration, and
unless economy and business efficiency
| iI, hrnnuhf hon, on Rpnnrio1 offD irS