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BLEASE FIRES OPENING GUN IN HIS CAMPAIGN Bit; CROWD HEARS HIS VDDRESS IN GREENVILLE. Defines His Position on Whiskey Question and Discusses Other important Issues. Special to The Herald and News. Greenville, Oct. 4.?The State campaign of 1916 was launched at Dukeland park, near this city, on Saturday, when the opening gun was tired by Former Governor Cole. L. Blease, who definitely announced his candidacy for governor. i nai uie wuissev quesuuu will again be an issue, as the result of the recent prohibition election, was made evident by Mr. Blease's declaration that local option would be one of the planks in the platform upon which he would base his candidacy. He defined his position on this question clearly and at seme length. He f&vcrs county local option as between prohibition, county dispensaries and license under the constitutional restrictions. He did not want any one to leave the grounds with the false impression, ne said, tnai oy license ne meant a return to the old bar-room system, because he would fight any such return with all the strength he possessed. What he meant by a license evstem, if the majority of the white voters of a county preferred it to prohibition or county dispensary, was a license to operate a dispensary, under dispensary restrictions, ana with a provision that if the holder of a license violated the law, upon conviction his license should be revoked and he should be sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the State penitentiary without th*> alternative of a fine. He would leave to the various counties, by majority ?vote of their white men, to choose as between the license system, prohibition and county dispensary system. The former governor discussed the State warehouse system, taxation. State printing and other important matters. A big crowd numering several thousand were out to hear him. A Greenville newspaper conservatively ^estimated the crowd at from 3,000 to 4,000. Mr. Blease began his address by thanking the people of Greenville and surrounding counties for coming out to hear him. He cordially greeted his friends, and expressed his heartfelt appreciation of what they had done for him in the past. He congratulated the people of South -Carolina upon the present outlook for an era of prosperity, based upon the price of cotton. The price, he said, was due to no one man or set of men; it was not due to the national administration, nor was it due to the State administration; it was due entirely, as every sensible man knew, to the demand at this time caused by the short crop throughout the South. He predicted that cotton would yet bring a better price. Taking up the warehouse system, he discussed it fully, explaining it in detail and saying, "Let no man fool you; had it not been for Jonn U McLaurin and the extra session of the legislature called by me, you would never have had any warehouse system. There are those today who are clamoring for it, and endeavoring to ruo up against it, and saying, 'I am with you,' who at heart were opposed to it and fought it. McLaurin conceived the scheme, and had he not been in the senate it would never have become a law. Therefore if you want to give credit to whom credit is due, give it to John L. McLaurin as being the father of the system, and to Cole. L. Blease for calling the extra session of the legislature which made it possible for it to become a law. The work of McLaurin in the senate in that extra session called by me gave the relief you liave today through your warehouse system?facilities for holding your ont+rvn anH securing money on it at 6 per cent. Do not be fooled by those "who are now saying they are in favor of it and want it to succeed. It is succeeding and is doing its work, and it needs no wet nurses." Referring to the matter of the printing for the State, he said he noticed that a committee was now running around doing much investigating, and that some people were endeavoring to claim all the crdeit for this agitation, but he desired to call the attention of the people to the fact that in messages to the general assembly while he was governor he called attention to this species or' graft and demanded cf the legislature that they take some action. 7n this connection he read portions of his message to the general assembly, in which h< -howed how this money was wasted. In one message he said: ' Pick un your message of the governor. ar.d see in index, Reports. Vol. 1. Annual Message. and Xos. 2. 3. balance left out. making it appear "hat there were only :hn-e. Thes^ ]m*ssases should he priiitf-d in the Jo :rnal f tha Spnato and House. and not; \ ??????mmmmm?? \\t% ? f printed elsewhere. Look in the same | volume, under circulars, and table of < i rates of railroads, express rate, rules, ; | etc., reports of township commission I ers of Sulli.an's Island, returns of in' surance companies, corporation license i f&c-c ate- qti.-I mnnv nthpr mifh useless ' - 1 I matters. And even if they were useful, J j these reports are only sent to the i members of the house and senate, and ] not teen by the public; and. gentlej men, without meaning any reflection, 1 j doubt, seriously if any of you have ever iead them. So why snould they be; printed, at the expense of the people?! i i i (Here manv other specific instances of I 1 " .1 waste and extravagance in printing, items were called attention to in the j .'message, which continued): Just go; j on. gentlemen, and read these three j I volumes, and if there is anything in j : them except to add to printers' bills, j I please be kind enough to let me know J where it is. This deficit (referring to j deficit in public printing item for j which legislature had made an extra j I appropriation) is but a deficit of graft' j of the worst nature, and surelv you ' ! ' ! are not going to sit up mere auu suu-i, i1 i mit to it, without at least examining 1 it. It is absolutely absurd and ridic-j ulous. I call your attention to it.' I can do no more, except to ask you to ! jhelp me by sustaining my veto." The question of taxation was next! ! taken up for discussion by the former' I .governor, who scored the legislature' i for the establishment of useless offices! 1 I at its last session, and said that some j of them should be abolished. He also j scored the legislature for trying to! deceive the people by leaving the State j levy the same, and then going outsid-11 3 /N* 1 lA,riAo fnr nnm/vCD^ 1 <Xlit! 1-Licl fvill g spt^iai ici ico iui jjui j which were included in the State levy i of'the year before, particularly the i pensions?thus endeavoring to mislead the people by saying that taxes had not been raised, when they were 1 higher than they had.ever been under' a Democratic administration. .tie men lurnea nis auenuuii xo wuai i he termed the unfair assessments! which are now being undertaken to be : levied against the bank6, the railroads, the cotton mills and other corporations, and said that the present tax ; commission was the most tyrannical I i body that had been established in j South Carolina since the days of Re-j publicanism. He was no corporation j I man, lie said, as hi? record proved, | but he favored giving them a fair deal, which they were not getting now from . this tax board. It was onty a subter-1 fuge. anyway, he urged, for the farmer! and the laboring man would finally be the sufferer; the hue and cry was, i levy your tax, the corporations pay the ; most of it, but as a matter of fact, i every sensible man knew that at last j the consumer paid all the taxes, and. that. wh?i the railroads lost money,' "I when the cotton mills lost money, ui* | when other corporations lost money,! the first man to be hit was the employe, whose wages were reduced or, who was cut off entirely in order to I reduce the force. This clap-trap, he, said, had fooled people long enough, j and he felt sure by this time they had caught on to it. Taking up the question of lawless-1 j ne?s, he said that the newspapers had i 1 reported' fourteen criminal assaults in j I the State since he had left the govo T? z'*/-\ r? /-3 nflrDr hnfAro i CI ii"Vl III V CL I vx Jixv^ ? v-i. wcivi \^ , equalled in the same length cf time? j and that during his whole term of of- j fice of four years there was not an average of one assault a year. He said the solicitors and the sher-j iffs were complaining of lawlessness ! all over the State, and that even some of the judges had gone to speaking of' it in their charges to the grand juries. ! He then sarcastically said, "And Cole, j Blease is not in the governor's office i I for it to be laid on him." "And out of j all this I would have you understand, i .f_ii - - * ?.-ii. .11 ii.:. i ~ ... 1 ? _ ? ! i xeiiow citizens, vvim an mis lavw^ss-j I ness, and with all this great crime, they have not as yet been able to lay! one single act of it to any one of j Blease s seventeen hundred paroled ! convicts." "1 now approach that great ques- j i tinn ' coid \Tr "whirh hf)<? RA ( ?'? I i long agitated our people, and which I j was in hopes would be eliminated from the campaign next summer, but which we had just as well face, for we are up against it, and there is no use to dodge. And I today announce to you j that I am a candidate for governor in ! 1916?not a personal candidate, but the candidate of my people. Men throughout the entire State have insisted upon j may making the race, and when I have j mentioned various gentlemen whom I , j thought our party could put up and agree upon, our people have not been;, jable to asrree upon anv of them, and! 1 i ] final decision was that \ was the man; ( 'to make the race for what is known as i ' the 'Biea.se faction' in this. State/' The former governor, in a joking i ! way. said that a son Herman had to!.'! I i ; him the other day that his candidacy 1 for governor had already had one goo I' !effect? that it had put the price of! J co*ton up. because those who were op- j posed to him had *o put it up to have i. j scmethins: to point to?that there was I I nothing ei?e. "Personallv. I have no ambition to < ? go back in the governor's office." he said. "I have served my two terms, and am perfectly satisfied to stay in retirement, but as my people have made the demand upon me, 1 will be in the race and 1 will be elected, un less there is a great change among the people?1 do not care whether the> put up the so-called Game Cock from Sumter, the Shanghai from Greenwood, the Coc-k Robin from Lauren?, or any other man. "Now, as to the whiskey question: i Knew that the people of South Carolina did not want the county dispensary system; they ha.e never been pleased with it, and never would have been. On the 12th day of February, 1907, on the floor of the State senate (this you will find on page 501, Senate .Journal of that year) in recording my reasons for voting against the county dispensary system, 1 said: 'I do not believe that the people of South .Carolina are in favor of such a system as this bill will give them, and believe that when they have the opportunity to speak that they will not endorse the action that this legislature is about to take.' That was more than eight years ago; yet the very first opportunity that the people of the State had they verified my prediction an voted this system -out of existence. 1 stated at Filbert, in a conversation, that I was not interested in the whiskey election, and had absolutely nothing to do with it, and I stated in an interview to the paper that the only reason that I disliked to see the matter agitated at this time was because the whiskey question had been eliminated practically from our State politics, and that if the State went proniDition ai mis Lime il uicam. that this quesion would be thrown into the campaign of 1916, and in all probability would be the paramount issue. "In view of this position, I now state to you what my platform will be on that question: "First, under no conditions or circumstances would I ever agree to the reinstatement of the old bar-room system: I will fight as long as I live against ever having in South Carolina a bar-room, a place into which young men could be lured to take the social drink; where music boxes are kept playing in order to entice them; where pictures of nude women are hanging upon the walls; where free lunch is served at the counter; where the click of the billiard ball and the rattle of the poker chip are all used to lure them in, to the destruction of their bodies and the damnation of their souls. And I do not want any man 1 ? ?? ^ t'not R1 dq to leave uere iiuw ,<mvi oa; favors a license system for bar-rooms, for no man hates the bar-room worse than I do; no man knows its evils better than I do, or would fight against it harder. "But, fellow citizens, I believe in local self-government. I started on that platform when I was first elected to the legislature in 1890, and have stood on that platform through my career in the house and senate and as governor. You have your local school taxes; you have your local compulsory school law; you have your local road laws, and other local laws in reference to the shooting of game, hunting of deer, and things of this kind, and to carry out that great principle of Democracy I am in favor of leaving to each county in Sou :i Carolina the question as to whether that county will have prohibition; and if a majority of the white people want it, let them have it. If the majority of the people of another county want the county dispensary system as "it is now run, and the majority of the white people of that county vote for it, let them have ? Alionlflcf^n r\r it; ll anoiaer cuuuy?vucuwu v* Columbia, to illustrate?wants a license system, under our present constitutional restrictions, and a majority of their white people vote for it, let them have it. When I say license system, gentlemen, I mean this: License the individual to run a dispensary? not a bar-room?and force him into a strict observance of the law; that is, not one drop of whiskey shall be sold between sundown and sunup, not less than one-half pint shall be sold, not a single drop shall be drunk on the premises, none shall be sold to minors or inebriates, and not one drop shall be sold on credit, so as not to encourage those without money to go into debt to drink, thereby destroying that which should go to their families; and allowing no man to have his dispensary connected with any grocery business, any restaurant, or any places of amusement of any kind, shape or form; but requiring the very strictest observance of the present dispensary law. And if any man holding a license shall in any manner, shape or form violate this law, upon conviction hi.- license shall be immediately revoked. he shall never be licensed again ii.r, oj.?'1 ^ nHippfT Ill I 111? OUin% ami i*e outui ^ in the State penitentiary to servo 2 srnt^nce without The alternative of a fine. This, fellow citizens, is true D"'mccrac" . ns laid down by Thomas Tefferson and the great Democrats who founded this government, and it is the Democracy of the Democratic party of today, and by it we should stand New Oak I Condensed Speci Model "32 Body?Five-passenger touring enger roadster. Motor?Oakland'Northway, si Frame?Pressed steel. Front Axle?I-beam, drop fo Rear Axle?Full-floating, one Springs?Front, Semi-elliptic quarters elliptic, underslung. Cooling?Circulating, centrifui Oiling?Circulating splash sy; on dash. i Carburetor?Marvel. Clutch?Cone-type, ball-beari Transmission-Sliding gear, s I Starting, Lighting and Ign ! Storage Battery?Willard. I )rive?Hotchkiss. Brakes?Sen-ice, external coi gency, internal expanding. Steering Gear?Irreversible steering wheel. Control?Center, ball type, le Wheels?Artillery cype, demo Tires?32x3^, non-skid on re; Wheelbase?no inches. Gasoline System?Oakland-5 System, gasoline tank in rear I i Call and ask Newbe: C. L. WATKINS, Manage | I or fall." | Ln concluding, Mr. Blease stated that; in his campaign he wanted the support, of all sood citizens who believed in | ! government by the people and for the j i people; that he welcomed to his sup-; port every white man who believed in j the principles upon which his platform j was bas-ed. He said he knew of men ; who had never before supported him j who 'had now seen, by contrast, what j an administration in sympathy with the great masses of the people, doing justice by rich and poor, laborer and capitalist, individual and corporation, meant for the welfare of all the people of the State, and who would rally to his support in the campaign next summer. He had no resentment, he said, against any man or set of men because of political differences; his fight was for the people, and he welcomed to the ranks all believers in honest and economic government and the principles of Jeffersonian Democracy as applied to present-day conditions in Soutn | Carolina. There were many, he said, who had seen the light in recent months, and he would be glad to have them feel free to write him or discuss matters with him, in the great cause of the people, as represented by the majority of the people of South I ^xvhrv hnr? chosen him their : leader in the fight. ?ES?. The wisest saying of all was that1 the only true wisdom lay in not thinking that one knew what one did no: ( know.?Cicero. i Don't parade your trouble before the unsympathetic, world. Bury them as ad::g docs an old bone, and growl if j anyone trios to dig them up. "Did your watch stop when you dropped it on the floor?" "Sure; you didn't think it would go ; on through, did you?" I ' 1 land Six 1 F. O. B. Factory ~ 1 . fnmn.i" ?"','w~m ..^,v>- I L j wm i riMi n roaa "Sturdy as the Oa fications * Tank Capacity? Equipment?One ter, gasoline gai demountable riri .. , shield, electric 1 x c> in er. ligbt and instru brackets, electr rged. , . . - . driving compart bearing. _ TX , Kear, inree- Roomjness arLC gal pump and fan R'din9 Comf? stem, sight feed Comfortably W driving compai room, even for ng release shoe, neau is deep ai elective type. seat measuring ITION?Remy. jons and UpholS giving real con . ,. The trimming i ntracting; emer- 0 leather. type, 17-inch Great Strengtl With Light W ft-hand drive. construction W ratable rim. p]ified jn ^ weighs less tl: means for the 3 IC Well L \ (Jtuuiui I great tire and for Demonstrat display at the rrv Mot sr. Savoy Hotel Building. HONOR SHIPS IN THE NAVY Michigan Wins the Much-Prized Com- < bined Merit Pennant, < The American navy's battle effi- ] ciency pennant for combined merit in 3 gunnery and engineering in the battle- ] ship class for the past year has been < awarded to the Michigan, commanded i by ,Capt. Albert P. Niblack. The Pat- i terson, commanded by Laeut. ?1. jk. 1 Stark, won the similar pennant for the < destroyer class, and the K-8, under i command of J. 'W. Lewis, won that for < the submarines. 3 The battleship trophy for excellence 1 in gunnery was awarded the Georgia, < Capt. R. 'E'. Coonitz, while that for the ] destroyer class went to the Patterson and for the submarine class to the K-8. j Commendatory letters will be sent i to the commanding officers by Presi- < dent Wilson. i Lieut. Anson Merrick, U. S. N., for- ] I merly of Walhalla. is one of the offi- '< cers on board the Michigan. ( ? < No. 666 This it a prescription prepared especially i for MALARIA or CHILLS & FEVER. ; Five or six doses will break any case, and . if taken then as a tonic the Fever will not return. It acts on the liver better tfcan Calomel and does not gripe or sicken. 25e f i UftlnriA fir PhiliA ft Cmior mmaua ui unsiso ? rowci | Prescription No. 666 is prepared'especially for MALARIA or CHILLS & FEVER, j 1 Five or six doses will break any case, and ; $ if taken then as a tonic the Fever will not ' return. It acts on the liver better than : Calomel end does not gripe or sicken. 25c i i1 Invigorating to tfte Fase and Sickly The Old Standard ^ener^l strer.jfihe: ingf tonic. GROVE S TASTELESS chill TONIC, drives out MaJ^ria.eiiriche leblood.andbuilds jpthesys- . ?- : -t t.j cr- 1 !e*.n A *rue tor c -rur acuiii ra.^u. j 00 I I luuei ol i n i I I ffiBIHHIHWifc -Gasoline 12 gallons, Oil, 1 gal. -man top, Stewart speedome3ge, robe rail, foot rail, extra a, clear vision divided windleadlights with dimmers, tail .ment board light, license tag ic horn, rubber floor mat in ment, tools, etc. ! The Oakland Six will rt seat five passengers j. ? 3; amuui cruwumg. ?uc rtment has plenty of leg a tall man. The ton- . id extra wide, the rear f 46 inches. The cush- J itery are deep and soft, ^ ifort to the passengers. s genuine machine-buffed t The Oakland prineight ciple of stardy ith light weight is exem; new model. The car lan 2100 pounds, which owner, low upkeep cost, gasoline mileage. inn r ai1 nn ' IVile VWA V** ^ ' j or Co., Newberry, S. C. =n >o Luck at l41L He was a Canadian and lie wore a 'nwiAral's strings, savs the New York 1 Evening News. There he sat snugly iu i sheltered part of his trench in that little corner of Belgium and played poker with a quartet of his comrades. Luck was against him. He had lost ibout everything he had to lose when it the very height of the game?just ifter the dealer had done his "west and tvorst?a shell came through the roof )f the shelter, passing between the Caladian's long, lean legs' (luckily with3ut hitting him), and buried itself larmlessly in the soft earth. The others of the party leaped up in not inexcusable baste and fled from thee place, but the Canadian did not move. The disturbance brought the com pany commander on the run. "What's up?" eays- he. ''Well, sir," says the 1 Canadian, "that there shell drops in-on is and when it don't explode at once [ judge it is pretty safe not to go off it all. So I just set where I am. The cursed luck of it is that I ben playm' iway here all mornin' drawin' rotten ?ards and losin' my shirt, and here iust as I holds the first four of a kind :hat's gladdened my eyes since necior 1 vas a pup?and kings at that, sir?>at J hat identical moment there comes this ^ pifflin' German turnip and the other J 'ellows beats it." 1 He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes 4 vhich ignorance produces.?Johnson. m Tho fool hen cackles joyously o-ver he pgg that may be flestined to furnish cme man with an omelet. A Chinese philosopher says there is m ounce of wisdom at the root of ev>ry gray hair. 4 ^ Deliberate long before doing what t's impossible to undo. ?