high office I hold, and the assaults on the chivalry and integrity of my people. You have the positive proof supporting those denials, and you should rejoice with me that once more honor and virtue have been able to withstand the black hand assaults of infamy and shame.

THE BURNS GANG.

That you may have further information, however, that the newspapers of your State have knowingly withheld from you, I am going to tell you something of William J. Burns and his cohorts. This newspaper combination has attempted to make you believe that Burns and those who work for him, are hightoned gentlemen, although they had information to the contrary. The reputations of these hirelings may perhaps be unknown to you, but they are known to me, and it is my duty to tell you what kind of cattle they are. Since it became known that the Burns crowd was hounding me down, letters and telegrams have come to me from various sections of the continent giving me information of the dirty methods of this detective agency. Without consuming much time about the records and reputations of this gang, I wish to call to your attention the fact that they have been denounced by two of the most prominent men in the United States-President William H. Taft and Hon. George W. Wickersham, Attorney General of the United States. This denunciation of Burns and his coworkers was due to the fact that it was proved to the department of the Attorney General of the United States that one Willard N. Jones had been unjustly convicted of crime by false testimony presented to a Court by Burns and his men, and that the jury returning the verdict of conviction had been packed by these infamous scoundrels. President Taft pardoned Jones on the showing made to him. Mr. Wickersham, in recommending that the President grant the pardon, stated that he had been unable to get Burns and his assistants to come before him to explain, deny or justify their conduct. In concluding his report, the Attorney General wrote as follows: "The course of the Executive, however, seems to me to be clear, and that is, he cannot countenance the methods employed in the prosecution of these cases by requiring an enforcement of the sentence imposed in the Jones case." If you care to read the whole report of the Attorney General on the Jones, case, I suppose you can get a copy of it from his office in the city of Washington. The whole matter is set out in the American Federationist, a magazine published by the American Federation of Labor, in the issue of the present month, at page

537, in an article from the pen of Samuel Gompers, editor of that magazine, who is president of the American Federation of Labor -and Mr. Gompers is the brave man who, fighting the battles for the laboring men of America, has stood firm and true, even going to the point of being sentenced to jail for a contempt of an august Court. In commenting on the conduct of Burns in the Jones case, Mr. Gompers said: "Thus is fully established the fact, in Burns' own handwriting, that he has proved himself to stand as the worst type of private detectives which he so illuminatingly describes." A copy of that magazine can likely be obtained by addressing the magazine company at 801 G street, N. W., Washington, D. C., and enclosing 10 cents-unless all the copies have been exhausted by the general demand all over the country to read of the wickedness of a reprobate.

OTHER FUTURE CHARGES AND PROOFS.

Since the Augusta meetings have ended and the Felder committee failed so miserably in their efforts to connect me with wrongdoing, statements from Felder, and insinuations from other sources almost equally as bad, have from time to time appeared in the newspapers that other disclosures and charges would be laid against me later. These slanderers evidently did not stop to consider before making these announcements, for this is a frank confession from them that so far they have shown absolutely nothing. But regardless of what they think of their failures of the past, let them proceed with their malicious work. Knowing the men engaged in this unclean alliance, having knowledge of the little regard for honesty, truth or character they possess, having ample proof of their ability to get finances. for their corrupt work, I shall not be surprised if they go into some avenue of pollution and bring forth some poor, miserable being in the shape of a human being who is willing, for the sake of a few paltry dollars, to further steep his or her soul in infamy. And they may, in their desperate efforts to get rid of me, assail and attack those kindred and friends dear to me. Such other foul falsehood as they shall send forth shall be answered by me, if answer be deemed necessary, whenever they are made. Of course, you know, as I know, what is the reason for the continuous making of these announcements, and for the reason of the Felder committee to continue its sessions. They desire to keep my friends defending me, to keep me defending myself, while the issues of the campaign are being clouded. Those issues are the records of the life and labors of Ira B. Jones as a legislator and a judge-and the fight I am making for the interests of the

people against extravagance in their government, against the rule of the self-serving corporations, and against the right of the newspaper trust to invade the sanctity of your homes. I shall not be swerved from my purpose, and Judge Jones, his campaign manager, Felder, and the five ardent Jones men on the Dispensary Investigating Committee, had just as well open their eyes to this fact.

WATCH THE NEWSPAPERS.

For about three days the daily newspapers carried the accounts given them by Felder and his committee. I can not say that they did not receive compensation therefor, but I am confident that not one of them can show where the amount that came to itif any did come—was entered on its books as cash for legitimate advertising. Perhaps you, like me, are anxious to see the manner in which they shall treat this statement of mine. I demand of them not for myself, but in the name of decent journalism and for the good of the State-that they display this as prominently as they did the foul stuff of Felder. If they refuse, and I dare them to do so, once again their dirty practices shall be made clear to you! Likely they shall do, as they have so often done, only publish communications from me upon the payment of 10 cents per printed line. If they charge a penny for this, then I shall have the undoubted proof that they are co-conspirators with Felder and Burns to get from honest people their money. I tell you frankly that I make these demands so that if they do publish this, and publish it prominently and without charge, that I shall have accomplished one purpose at last-and that is to teach these editors one small lesson in the ethics of journalism.

IN CONCLUSION.

A number of my friends have told me that they do not see how I can endure, and for several years past have endured, the outrageous and unwarranted attacks that have been made on me, attacks which are always, and have been always, unsupported by proof. Surely no man in recent years has been so unjustly assailed as I have been. I admit that it has been a fight with myself to undergo all this persecution with calmness and patience. But I have realized that "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." And I have ever had within me the consciousness that my heart has been set on doing good for my people, that my soul has been free, that the God of justice is with me and that my people are giving me their confidence.

And I am constantly reminded that those men who stand up for the rights of the people are always assailed on every hand.

History-the history not only of our own State, but of the nation-records this. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of American Independence, Christian man that he was, was charged with being an infidel. Andrew Jackson, born in South Carolina, a man of the common people, had brought against him the foul charge of adultery. John C. Calhoun, another of your distinguished sons, had laid against him by his enemies the gross charge of immorality. When every effort to blacken the name of Abraham Lincoln had failed, the political buzzards endeavored to cast reflection upon the virtue of his mother. You white-haired men of '76 will recall how the scalawags and carpetbaggers constantly spoke slander against the name of your beloved Hampton. It is fresh in your minds how Benjamin R. Tillman was charged by a few unprincipled men with being a tax-dodger and grafter. But what has been the result in all the instances referred to? The one man now living, whom I have referred to, sits in the highest councils of your nation, while those who attempted to besmirch his reputation are, living almost in obscurity. Those great men, now dead, whose names I have mentioned, have their names written on the brightest pages of their country's history; the names of their slanderers are forgotten! But in their lives I have learned a lesson-and that is this, that with all their greatness and goodness they could not escape the scorpion tongue of slander and the vile pen of calumny. And since they had to undergo for the sake of their people and their people's causes these tests of manhood-how may I, so weak when compared to them in ability, even if as bold as they in the defense of the liberties of my people, escape? I can not expect it for my character and reputation-ah, my life, too, perhaps— stand in the way of the rule of selfish interests! I must be sacrificed by these interests because I stand for your freedom and independence—and the desire is not only to rid South Carolina of my political influence, but, in getting rid of me, to send a warning to others, even some of your sons of the future, that they must bow to the wills and caprices of those who oppose the desires of that class of men who seek to oppress the people.

But naught that can be said or done, so long as I shall live, will prevent me from going on in the fight I have been making for your rights—and I believe that in this battle I have the hopes, the assistance and the prayers of a great majority of the white men and women of South Carolina.

MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNOR.

Mr. JNO. K. AULL, Secretary to the Governor, presented the following:

MESSAGE NO. 4.

State of South Carolina, Executive Department.

Gentlemen of the General Assembly:

In my annual message, submitted to your bodies on January 14th, I called your attention to the urgent need of some restriction upon the newspapers and newspaper editors and reporters in South Carolina, in order that personal reputations, and even the good name of South Carolina, may be properly safeguarded from unwarranted villification, and in order to avert the danger of newspaper domination of our politics and policies in the future-a domination. which, after having continued for several years, was only thrown off recently.

Very respectfully,

COLE. L. BLEASE,

Governor.

Received as information.

REPORT PRESENTED.

State of South Carolina, Executive Department.

By the Secretary of State.

Gentlemen of the General Assembly:

Under and pursuant to the provisions of Section 642, Code of 1912, I have the honor to transmit herewith a tabulated statement of the votes cast at an election held on December 31, 1912, in accordance with the proclamation issued by the Governor in the matter of annexation of a part of Lexington county to Richland county. The tabulation as made by the County Board of Canvassers for Lexington county shows:

Respectfully submitted, this the 16th day of January, 1913.

Received as information.

R. M. McCOWN,

Secretary of State.