GOVERNOR, 1905
feeling that it was due to Gobin, his work and desert that I should put him in command. Miller was sadly disappointed, but showed the traits which gave him his strength. He had had trouble with his wife, leading to much gossip around his home, but had finally secured a divorce and a new spouse. He had arranged to take the present wife over to Alsace to introduce her to his people there and all he asked was that I should postpone the blow and let him wear his uniform and have the dignity of his position through the summer. To this suggestion I was glad to assent. It was a really painful duty, but it was performed.
One morning I went into my office and found lying on my table applications for charters for twenty-nine water companies awaiting approval. It was a manifestation in the concrete of one of the very great and growing evils of our development, the insidious grasping by commercialism, following the course of the Church in the ancient time, of the necessities of life as a means of profit. I at once sent a special message to the assembly, recommending that it take away from water companies the right of eminent domain. Such an act was passed and during the entire remainder of my term not more than three or four water companies were chartered.
Among the visitors who were entertained at the executive mansion was General Fitzhugh Lee of Virginia, a nephew of General Robert E. Lee, and himself a distinguished figure in the War of the Rebellion and the war with Spain. Among my predilections is a sympathetic feeling for Virginia and the Virginians. Lee, a stout, robust and affable man, stayed over night with me and we became quite chummy. He had come to urge participation by the state in the forthcoming Jamestown Exposition, and he and I both made addresses at a meeting held in the Capitol. The result was that the legislature made an appropriation of $100,000 and arranged to take part in the exposition. Lee telegraphed to me: “I
