To The Voters of Arkansas
From The Daily Tribune, Jonesboro, Ark.
Believing that when a man offers for public office,
especially for the exalted position of governor of our
great state, the people are entitled to know what man
ner of man he is. Believing that no man should be
considered in connection with the governorship of our
state unless his private character is unimpeachable
and his reputation stainless, we deem it ou rduty to
call the attention of the citizenship of our state to thd
facts hereinafter set out concerning L. C. Smith, can
didate for governor in the coming primary election.
In the first place we beg to remind the voters that
this man Smith is the same man who in the campaign;
two years ago for the same office based his candidacy*
almost solely upon his support of the whiskey interest,
and who advocated the repeal of the state wide pro
hibition law as his principal claim for support. This
question having been overwhelminly decided against
him in that election, he is now contending that the
whiskey question has no place in the present contest.
We submit that if he should be elected it would furw
nish tremendous encouragement to the hangers on and
supporters of the infamous liquor traffic, and in all
probability would result in another contest upon that
question.
We now believe that it is our duty to say to the
{people that this man Smith has three living wives. His
first wife whom he married on November 18th, 1875,
bore him several children.Secured a divorce from
upon a complaint the 18th day of February, 1910, in.
which she alleges his cruelty and infidelity. Copy of
the decree can be found on pages 157 and 158, Chan-*,
cry Record M of the Records of Arkansas County.
In the suit for divorce brought by his first wife, in
the complaint, plaintiff made the following allegations
as to her conduct and the conduct of the defendant:
“It is with a measure of pardonable pride that
she can and does point to 34 years of her mar
ried life and association with the defendant and
her family and that during all that time she
lived every day and hour of it a life of consecrat
ed devotion to her husband and children, enduring
with patient forbearance, perfect meekness and
silence all of the toils, strifes, hardships and sor
rows incident to the home life, bearing with
Christian fortitude, as best she could, many in
dignities and experiences of deep humiliation
brought into her life and into her heart and
home by the needless, unnecessary unprovoked
and uncalled for acts and conduct of the defend
ant.”
And again she alleges that defendant was guilty
= of:
“Practicing in many ways, deliberately and
purposely, a systematic course of immortality
publicly and privatly, and on many occasions re
cently, before bringing of this suit, abusing and
insulting the plaintiff, grossly humiliating her
and causing her to feel keenly a sense of humilia
tion and shame, rendering her life and her condi
tion unbearable and intolerable in the extreme.”
She further alleges as follows:
“During the past several months before the
filing of this complaint the defendant has grown
to be absolutely unmindful of his duties to the
H. M. COOLEY
W. R. PENIX
W. R. STUCK
J. W. GHOLSON
J. R. GREGSON
L. ELLISON
Adv.
plaintiff and has repeatedly, in the most cruel and
heartless manner, abused and insulted the plain
tiff, not only at home, in the privacy of the home,
but for several months before the filing of the
complaint has given and paid marked attention
to another woman in the town and community
where they live, meeting with her at other places
outside of the community, publicly and privately,
finally by his own words that he had made his ar
rangements to live with said woman and not the
plaintiff and that he did not care any more for the
plaintiff, but that he did care for the other woman
and by his numerous acts and deeds and studied
and persistant course of conduct towards the
plaintiff from his very presence and in numerous
and nameless ways wounding her feelings and
humiliating her, bringing sorrow into her heart
and life, until she has finally determined that she
can no longer live or abide with him as her hus
band.M
Thereafter he was again married and his second
wife, Ida M. Smith, secured a divorce on Nov. 2nd,
1917, and a decree for alimony in the sum of$10,509.
25. This decree is of Record in Chancery Record Q,
page 91, of the Records of Arkansas County, Arkan
sas. Thereafter the following appeared in the Ark
ansas Democrat:
Former Candidate for Governor Weds.
Judge L. C. Smith and Miss Lottie Montgomery
married Dec. 22nd near Hamburg.—To New Orleans
on Honeymoon.
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“Pine Bluff, Jan. 22nd. —(Special)—News has
reached here that Judge L. C. Smith of DeWitt,
late candidate for governor, and who will proba
bly be a candidate for the same office again, was
married near Hamburg, Ashley County, to Miss
Lottie Montgomery, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M.
W. Montgomery, by the Rev. J. M. Estelle, Sun
day, December 23rd, 1917. Judge Smith and his
bride left for a honeymoon trip to New Orleans.”
We again want to call attention to the fact that
this peaceful citizen has been twice convicted by a
jury upon the charges of carrying a pistol, as appears
"*■ in Criminal Record Bf page 31 and 170 Arkansas
County, Arkansas. These facts can be confirmed by
securing copies from Q. D. LaForgus, Circuit Clerk of
Arkansas County.
We have certified copies of the court records in
these cases, which we will be glad to show to any per
son calling for the same. We understand that if we
should misrepresent the facts in a statement like this
we would be guilty of libel, and we invite the closesti
investigation as to the truth of the above charges.
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We submit that it would be the greatest calamity
that has ever befallen the State of Arkansas for the
whiskey forces to again obtain control of the state, and
in view of the record made by this man in his last cam
paign and in his past life, we ask one and all to join
in repudiating the man who has been guilty of such
conduct, and yet he still has the effrontery to offer
himself for the highest position in our gift. We again
submit that it is an insult to the intelligence of the
good people of the State of Arkansas.
E. L. WESTBROOKE
A. L. MALONE
A. E. LOCKHART
C. J. CHAPIN
ARCHER WHEATLEY
G. W. CULBERHOUSE
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