The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 64

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

against Earle B. Mayfield.218 On the 10th of September, Colonel
Milner answered this letter, declining to make the race for
any public office. In Bailey's answer to Milner's letter is found
the statement friends today give as his main reason for re-
fusing to run for the governorship. This reason was financial.
Milner knew that the race for governor would be costly, and
he knew, too, that alone he could not finance the campaign.
He was unwilling to allow his friends to "arrange the money
angle" because he was opposed to putting himself in a posi-
tion that would obligate him to dispense favors afterwards if
he should win. "When you declare that you have not the money
to use, nor would you be willing to use it if you had it as has
been done in our recent campaigns, you evoke a very cordial
agreement on my part," wrote Bailey on September 16, 1913.219
The following concise statement of Milner's appeal to the
public as a candidate for the governorship is found in the
same letter:
When our mutual friend, Gordon Russell, was here
in the summer, we talked about you, and he was very
anxious to see you make the race for Governor, though
he told me he did not expect you to do so, because
you did not feel able to meet the expenses of a cam-
paign. I said to Russell very frankly that if none of
my friends were now candidates for Governor, and
all of them would permit me to select a man for that
race, I would unhesitatingly name you for reasons
which would not imply any reflection on any of my
other friends. In the first place, I do not know of an-
other man in the state who could come so near elimi-
nating the prohibition issue from our State politics.
Of course, no man could completely eliminate it, but
I believe your candidacy would, at least, prevent it
from becoming the dominant question; and I believe
that, because you are an anti-prohibitionist on prin-
ciple, and a prohibitionist in practice. In other words,
if everybody conducted themselves as you do, the
liquor business would die for the lack of patronage.
Another advantage you would have is that you have
never aided in making the prohibition question the
paramount issue in any of our campaigns and, conse-
quently, the thoughtful democrats of the state would
21sJ. W. Bailey to R. T. Milner, September 2, 1913; R. T. Milner Port-
folio, University of Texas Archives.
21JJ. W. Bailey to R. T. Milner, September 16, 1913; R. T. Milner Port-
folio, University of Texas Archives.

64