The Sulphur Springs Gazette. (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 9, Ed. 1 Tuesday, February 24, 1914 Page: 4 of 8
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SHE SULPHITE SPRINGS GAZETTE, F^B., 24, 1914.
PRO CANDIDATE
PROM PAGE ONE)
many others.
Mem-
House
present in
Thomajp
lifers of the Texas Senate and
i « . ,
Representatives were
iffimbers. ^Dr. S. P. Brooks of Waco
’*
sat with the McLennan county delega-
Senator J. C. McNealus of Dal-
on the platform in the after-
Play Ball” came from
“grand-stand and bleachers” just be-
fore “Umpire” Walker came to the
form. It was a bit difficult for
to subdue the enthusiasm, but the
great crowd became silent and bowed
Dr. F. M. McConnell of
Dallas thanked the Almighty for the
_Bp£ummation of this plan of the mor-
al forces; as he prayed for the elec,
tkm of this Governor and for his suc-
eessful business administration, and
■
• ■
• -
that not only State-wide, but National
prohibition would come to pass.
There was much speech-making, all
along harmonious, get-together lines.
Cullen F. Thomas, of Dallas,
e4 as Chairman of the meeting,
made a great speech, which was
loudly applauded. Hon. A. W. Wal-
ker, of Dallas, one of the original
Otero of the elimination move-
, delivered a masterful address,
after which Mr. Ball was called to
INor.
Ball Makes Speech.
■
believe that this splendid assem-
blage will he recognized at least as
tative,” began Mr. Ball. “If
time there had been a doubt in
or minds of the people of
Tease who stand for civic righteons-
who oppose the legalized
uor that this body would not
tative that doubt has now
he repreeen
been removi
§&•**» w<
desired hut
„____removed. 1
•
"This assembly is here as a result
the primaries held all over Texas
* Saturday. The result of those
ras an unexpected and un-
practically unanimous
in favor of me as the lead-
of those who agree with me on the
USettons involved in this movement
i left this convention or con-
no other alternative than to
gttjtor its indorsement to me. It has
pparently left me no option to de-
to accept your commission.
(Great applause.)
“But before a nomination or an in-
it is sought to be tendered
before any, action may be had by
meeting I want first that every
and woman here may know that
to the redemption of this
from liquor traffic, I have views
•Cher questions and I desire them
ired of how I stand on every
portant issue that will be embod-
1in this campaign.
Voice—We know you’re right.
the good Democrats
b their preferences known
had no great cariosity to
platform on which I stand. It
bq because my friends, I have
:t for a third of a century build-
r platform before the people of
I expect not In my own success,
I take your commission I must
nothing undone which may help
your standard to’ tri-
it success In the July prima..
(Applause.)
here has ever heard me
of my record or my deeds. (A
assured him (fiat “we knew It’)
eve of this great gathering
have come efforts to poison the
of the people of Texas and de-
them as to my attitude toward
and men. I shall speak of
“Apparently
► to carry
some of these matters and will say in
passing that no doubt some of the dis-
cussion of my fidelity to my dead
friend will be explained.
“The chairman of this conventon
tried to keep faith with me, but under
the inspiration of ^his great thoughts
and eloquent periods he forgot in a
measure the precaution that I had giv-
en him not to speak too well lest this
indorsement come to me and there be
those who might fear a mistake had
been made. Let me say to you and to
the press reporters here that there
has never been a progressive, clears
constructive movement in Texas or in
the United States during my public
and private career, or a movement for
progressive or constructive legislation
for the relief of the masses of the peo-
ple that I have not been intimately
and actively identified with in behalf
of the people.
First Speech in 1887.
* “In 1887 I made my first public
campaign in this State. I am remem-
bering gratefully that in that my first
campaign, I spoke for State-wide pro-
hibition. % My detractors may hang out
their banners and say what they w’’ll
about my record, but they know that
there has never been an hour of my
political life that I have not by'voice
and veto been against the sale of li-
quor anywhere.
“I am not a one-sided man. I have
ever been ready to give my time to
Texas or to other States and to show
a becoming interest in such things as
were pregnant with potentialities for
the happiness and prosperity and gen-
eral welfare of the people.” -
Mr. Ball here went into detailed
explanation of his early conviction
that the railroads ought not to go un
controlled by the law, and told of his
discovery of unequal rat,e situations
in Texas on one of his trips to Smith
county and Anderson county manv
years ago.
“There in Tyler,” he continued, “I
first formed the acquaintance of
James S. Hogg. Before he became
Attorney General I urged upon him
the necessity of a railroad commis-
sion in this State. In Austin 1 urged
an amendment to the State Constitu-
tion that would provide for the forma-
tion of a railroad commission. With
him and another friend, the late Hon.
C. K. Bell, we together framed the
amendment that is now the constitu-
tional provision on this subject. It
was not thought undemocratic in
those days for those who favored the
railroad commission amendment to
meet in the open and organize clubs
within the party. (Great applause.)
Chicago Convention of 1893.
“Later, when William J. Bryan was
leader of the Democracy, it was not
thought wrong for the followers of
that leader and his principles to or-
ganize Bryan and Free Silver Clubs
within the party. Organizations were
formed for and against the silver is-
sue, all within the ranks of the Dem-
ocratic party, John ,H. Reagan, who
lived and died my friend, and whose
confidence I had, was chairman of the
platform committee in the Fort Worth
convention that followed the demand.
In the Chicago convention of 1893 it
was not thought undemocratic to go
before a convention and urge platform
demands.” ' «
Mr. Ball here told of the Waco con-
vention when Hogg was the candidate
of the party, and of the support that
was given to Hogg by him, when the
men who are now circulating the
slanders against him were aligned
against Hogg.
“In that campaign I stood for the
Hogg stock and bond law,” continued
the speaker. “I do not have to come
here to defend my position, for on the
front page of one of tho papers j that
published these slanders as to my at-
titude toward Hogg In the Waco con-
vention there stood out in bold letters
my record on that issue. I do not
haVe to make explanations and de-
nials, for I keep my record straight.
On the first page of the Houston Post
that contained the proceedings of the
Houston convention of 1904 you will
find that I said then to Gov. Hogg, ‘I
stood for the railroad commission be-
fore you were elected. I became con
vinced when I was a drummer on the
road and you lived in Tyler. I was
far the stock and bond law then. I am
for it now'.’
“No one in this State can say with
regard to veracity that I have ever
quarreled before a foe in politics or
that I have ever hit a blow' that was
not squarely above the belt. They
know my record and they dread it.
That’s why the liquor interests of
Texas are interested in the selection
of candidates for Governor, far the
liquor interests of this State knew
before I did what I would do. They
knew that if it costs me every dollar
I have and my life, if I feel that it is
my duty to my State to do it, I will
walk up to my fate with a song in my
heart. ,
Author of Direct Primary Bill.
“You will agree with me that if I
am not following exact lines, I am not
following the lines of least resistance^
I have never lost my interest or ceas-
ed to be informed in the matters that
concern the people of Texas. When
I was in Congress I vjas author of the
first uniform direct primary platform
ever adopted by a Texas Democratic
convention. In that same convention
(1898) I helped make the platform
that gave Texas her State banking
law. I helped Gov. Campbell, in the
face of a recalcitrant Legislature, to
secure enactment of the guaranty of
bank deposits law. I asked Gov. Col-
quitt to submit the blue sky law. He
asked me if I would get my prohibi-
tion friends in the Legislature to vote
for it. I told him I did not need to
see them, but if necessary I would
be glad to go to Austin and help get
ir through the Legislature.
“As Texas member of the Rivers
and Harbors Committee in Congress
I was active in behalf of the welfare
of the State in furthering improve-
ments of rivers and harbors. I also
kept in active touch with pending leg-
islation in Congress. I can show in
the files of the Congressional Record
where I made the first attack on the
system of interstate railroad rates.
That was done by me as one of the
Texas Representatives in Congress. I
introduced a bill in Congress to place
the products of trusts on the free list,
to deny them interstate transportation
and use of the mails, and to put their
officers into the penitentiary when
they violated the law.
“Iq 1904—after I became the attor-
ney for corporations/ (laughter)—I
wrote the plank for the Texas member
of the platform committee in the Na-
tional convention declaring for en-
largement of the powers of the Inter-
state Commerce Commission to fix
prevent re..
After my
return to Houston a member of a big
steel and hardware firm asked me to
sign a petition protesting againBt the
very plank I had helped to frame. I
told him it would embarrass me to
sign the petition under the circum-
stances. He said, ‘Don’t you repre-
a law that I urged be placed in
statute books.
"The rule down where I live is that
if there’s anybody who wants to
know anything about where I stand
on any question of public import he
ought to go straight to Tom Ball and
ask him.
“An anti-prohibition friend of . mine
in Houston is afraid that I will destroy
popular government if I get to be
Governor. (Laughter and a voice in
quiring, ‘Is it Jake?’) These are not
the fellows who are afraid I will mon-
key with the Hogg stock and bond
law. They are not the persons who
have been the particular custodians
of that law. There are some wrho fear
that I will be dangerous because I
won’t be radical enough. There are
others who feair that I will be danger-
ous because I will be too radical.
“When I get to be Governor of Tex
as—if the Lord will spare my life un-
til July primaries are over—(A voice,
‘That’s all that is needed’)—and un-
til the November election and when I
come to occupy that executive office
for which I feel that I am unfitted to
•
measure up to the expectations of my
friends who want to place me there—
I will give every tenant farmer in
Texas, every railroad magnate in Tex-
as* every owner of a home in Texas,
every man who is willing to work and
saVe and earn a home in Texas, every
anti-prohibitionist in the country, a
square deal. But I’ll hot give an inch
more. (Applause.)
‘This convention or conference
which has met here is to select a man
to bear our standard in the campaign.
desire you to bear In mind that I
have contributed in a small way to
this movement which is to strike con-
sternation to the anti-prohibitionists—
who are going to allow us to partici-
pate. 1 feel it is due to the magnam-
ity and patriotism of our chairman
that this move is a success. Cullen
Thomas has on his head the love and
gratitude of a lovjng people.”
Refers to Mayea and Lane.
Mr. Ball spoke touchingly of
patriotism of Mr. Lane and of
Mayes. He told of their ambition and
of their greatness in placing it upon
the altar of their State’s welfare. His
words were eloquent and his eulogi-
ums loving. “It is as hard for you to
deny these young men as it is to drag
me, in the evening of my life, into un-
willing public service.
“The sntis alresdy say that it is in-
evitable that Texas Is going dry. They
are asking us to give them a little
time to get the State out of the mess
they have gotten it into. I answer
them in the interest of ‘political peace
and legislative rest’ to first get this
disturbing factor out of the way. If
you’ll let us take an appeal from the
untrue verdict of 1911—a verdict with
which the people are not satisfied—
twenty-four hours after my first mes-
sage we’ll have an amendment re-
submitting the question to a vote of
THE BRAND OF QUALITY
The name “Buck’s” stands for all that’s
good in a stove.
Full line of “BucK’s” stoves at our store.
We would like to explain their merits in
detail to you.
Full Line 3 and 4 Burner Coal Oil Stoves
Perfectly safe, bake quick and use less oil.
Royal Gasoline Irons
Safe, Clean and Reliable
The Kind You Don’t Have to Pump Up.
Lightens the burden of Ironing.
Wagons and Buggies
ALUMINUM WARE
Full tine. It’s Light It Wears.
■
Jno.
Ray
Northwest Corner Square Sulphur Springs, Texas
and maintain rates and
bates and discriminations.
the people on the fourth Saturday in
July, ibi
sent the railroads?’ I said, ‘Yes, in the
courts.’
Robertson Law.
“I was also an advocate of and sug-
gested to C. K. Bell to put into his
» '
platform a demand that the great life
insurance companies doing business
in Texas should invest a reasonable
proportion of their reserves in Texas.
And yet some of them say that I will
be for repeal of the Robertson insur-
ance law. It would be embarrassing
to me to ask the Legislature to repeal
When Selecting Chairs
TTS wearing qualities
as well as its beau-
ty must be considered.
No one wants to buy
new furniture every
little while. You will
not have to if you
make your selections
here.
d^UR Murphy chairs
” are all made to
last for years and to
keep their good looks
always. You cannot
do better, if as well,
anywhere else. We
have just unloaded
another car.
Murray & Wester
15. The people may then
come to the executive office and put
their feet on the table and advise. The
people will be Invited to help run the
State Government.
A voice: “How about the women?”
“The women of Texas are willing
now to give me a power of attorney.
Notwithstanding that I happen to be-
long to the Houston Country Club,
where a member can get a drink and
pay for it, I do not indulge either
there or elsewhere. How distressing
it is to liquor people that I should be-
long to a club whose members play
golf and which sells liquor and neith-
er play the game nor drink the li-
quor!
“But you stay with me and I will
make Texas as dry as a bone.- And
you will not be able to get a drink in
any country club, ballroom or hotel.
“I want to Say that I stand with the
progressive Democrats of' Texas and
of the Nation. There will be no back-
ward track when I am looking to a
permanent and fixed land policy by
which every industrious citizen may
get a home of his own as some might
wish who want to divide right away,
but I’ll help to speed the day of land
distribution rather than of landlord-
ism.
Public School Policy.
“I expect in behalf of education to
lend my efforts to seeing that the best
Results are had in the building of our
permanent public schools, so that no
children in Texas shall be without at
least six months’ compulsory educa-
tion a year. I expect to seek counsel
of men who are interested in and un-
derstand the public school system.
“I have made up my mind that - the
idea of one great university in Texas
having all .the other institutions of
higher learning as branches under its
direct jurisdiction Is wholly imprac-
ticable. Hon. David F. Houston, Sec-
retary of Agriculture, who has been
president of both the University of
Texas and the Agricultural and Me-
chanical College, / stated to me in
Houston the other day that It seems
to him to be Impossible to effect a
.consolidation In view of the sentiment
of the people. The thing to be done
is to separate the unversity and the
A. ic M. College and give them perm-
anent, fiied and independent exist-
ence. I pledge myself to the people
and to the institutions that { will stand
to make the university a university of
the first class and provide it with
an independent support, not depend-
ent upon me or any other man as Gov-
ernor, and that the institution shall be'
taken out of politics. I pledge to the
A. & M. College that it be made a
great and independent institution in
its own field and in that it shall have
an independent support not dependent
upon the Governor and that it shall be
taken out of politics.
"I am not going to let the blind asy-
lum remain a firetrap. The power of
taxation wteely used and economically
administered can b4 made to protect
those sightless inmates.
“There will not be, if I can help it,
at the close of my first administration,
a lunatic in any county jail in Texas.”
(Applause.)
Mr. Ball outlined a policy of con-
struction for all the State institu-
tions, the normal and industrial col-
leges and the other schools.
“The first speech I recall being
made in Texas on pensions for Con-
federates was in 1890 in Madison
county, when I de<&red that it was
not sufficient to sent;’old Confeder-
ates to the home
that Texas ought
patriotism owes
low them to stay
comfort.
ustin. I said
ay the debt that
e men and al-
ome and be in
Penitentiaries and Politics.
“I pledge myself yrtth some degree
of knowledge of that institution, never
having been an inmate, hut having
lived in Huntsville for a time, that
the penitentiaries must be taken out
of politics and some system devised
by which one man shall be at the head
of the system and the penitentiaries
be controlled by a board of directors,
who shall not be subject to the action
of the Governor. These institutions
shall not be run to make money, but
they will be self-sustaining and will
be conducted on humanitarian lines,
so as to meet the dual object of pun-
ishment and reform of criminals.
“I will make a brief statement as to
my labor record. During all the time
I was in Congerss I never spoke a
word or cast a vote against measures (CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE)
advocated by responsible labor organ-
izations. I was an advocate of the.
eight-hour law. I voted for all the
people’s power laws included in , tho-
initiative, referendum and recall In
the Houston charter. I spoke in fa-
vor of these laws and spo^e, not be-
fore labor unions, but before the
Chamber of Commerce.
“We are going to save our anti-pro-
hibition friends all future worry as to
whether we shall be allowed to partic-
ipate. There will never be any future
cause for another elimination primal,
ry. The Legislature that will be elect-
ed with me will pass a law for pref-
erential primaries. There will never
be another man named for a State of-
fice in Texas by a plurality vote.
A voice—Or county.
“No, I am not going to say that; I
think I know how much I can carry.
All I want to do is to try to make ev-
ery county in Texas as happy and
prosperous as I can. I want all the
counties to have all the advantages
that the dry counties now have. I
am not going to be a dictator. I am
going to say that, despite all that ha$
been said against the Texas Legisla-
advance of
A good
prohibition Governor can take a Leg-
islature containing 60 per cent »n(%
and get through and agree on all ques-
tions except, the liquor question. A
good anti-prohibition Governor can
take a prohibition Legislature and get
along with them on all questions.”
Warehouses for Farmers.
Mr. Ball s&ld he was going to try
to work wit a plan by which the prod-
ucts of the farm may be stored in
warehouses until the fanqers owning
them are ready to sell them and to
make the certificates representing the
products the best sort of collateral
security to be had.
“I am going to run this State Gov-
ernment upon an economical basis,
but in a manner to provide for the just
needs of the situation. I do not know
whether taxes will be reduced or not;
but the people of Texas will get tneir
money’s worth out of every cent spent
by the State. I am going to put Texas
on the pa-as-you-go basis, l am going
tures, they have been in
most of the Texas Governors.
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Fanning, R. W. The Sulphur Springs Gazette. (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 9, Ed. 1 Tuesday, February 24, 1914, newspaper, February 24, 1914; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth816449/m1/4/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.