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THE ATL ANTI AN
November 1914
to resume his activities in this direction when Congress
meets in December.
Senator Smith has two tremendously strong points.
He has the ability to think and the ability to work, and
both of these he possesses in a very large degree. No
man in Congress is a harder worker, and no man in
Congress is a deeper thinker. One does not have to
agree with him always to give him credit for those quali
ties, for they are known of all men. Resulting from his
possession of these qualities, the Georgia people will
expect and demand much from him, and the Atlantian
believes that the demand will be met in the fullest meas
ure during the next six years.
Congressman Adamson.
The Hon. Charles Adamson, for many years past rep
resentative in Congress from the Fourth Georgia Dis
trict, has during his incumbency of the office gained as
much credit as any man in the Federal Congress for
his single-minded devotion to duty and the competent
way in which he has handled every task entrusted to
him. When he first entered Congress, he had the wis
dom to acknowledge to himself that he knew nothing
about the methods of that body, and was not ashamed
to buckle down to the hardest kind of work to acquire
a working knowledge of its procedure. He has grown
year by year in the esteem of his fellow-members, and
it is no disparagement of his mental qualities to say
that he is a much bigger man intellectually than when
he entered the Federal Congress. As Chairman of the
very important Inter-State Commerce Committee, which
position he has now held for several years, he has shown
a grasp of the great questions coming before that Com
mittee second to that of no man who has heretofore filled
that position. The good work which he has done is a
credit, not only to him, but to the State which he has
so faithfully represented for many years; and it is
merely stating a truism to say that if more men of his
sort were in Congress there would be much less com
plaint against Congress.
Echoes of the Senatorial Campaign
The recent Senatorial campaign in Georgia was not a
great surprise to the people of Georgia. The Bull Moose,
just thirty days prior to the election, named candidates
for both the long and short terms. The Democratic
leaders,. knowing that the “Moosers” were without or
ganization and practically without money, at first gave
but little attention to the matter, but within a couple of
weeks they became convinced that there was to be a little
fight, so the leaders got busy. No sane man, of course,
expected the Bull Moose to carry the State, but the
Democratic leaders, realizing that their own vote might
show up a very scanty total, sent out urgent calls to the
loyal Democrats to rally and cast a strong vote. Even
with that, the total vote in the State was nothing to
boast of—being about 90,000 out of a legal vote of about
270,000. Only one-third of the lawful vote in the State
was cast. This is a condition which is not creditable to
the State. When people get to the point where they are
willing to shirk their civic duties, and a failure to vote
is, in a sense, a shirking of duty, the political condition
is not one of health. Every man able to go to the polls
ought to cast his vote in every election, and we will never
get to anything like an ideal government until every man
does take his full share and do his full duty toward the
government by voting his opinions. This is said without
reference to the interests of any political party. It is
a fact that cannot be too strongly impressed upon the
people. The vote, in the Southern States, for years past,
in National and State elections, has been, to say the best
of it, contemptible. There are State elections in the Cot
ton Belt where fifteen or twenty thousand votes are poll
ed. It understood that the Primaries settle these things,
but anyone who will take the trouble to study the Pri
maries will see that not one case in fifty is a 65% vote
cast, even in the Primaries. The people who stay at
home and refuse to vote have no right to complain if
the men who are put in office by the men who do vote
don’t do to suit them, then let the fellow who is hit keep
his mouth shut.
Senator Thomas W. Hardwick.
Congressman Hardwick, after many years in the
Lower House, has been promoted as a result of the re
cent election to the United States Senate. In so far as
official experience can qualify a man to render service
to-the country, he has had that official experience, and
if he fails in any respect to measure up to the expecta
tions of the people who elected him, it will not be a fail
ure brought about by want of knowledge but by want
of wisdom and purpose.
That Senator Hardwick will enter the Upper House
with the best of resolutions no one who is acquainted
with him will doubt, and that he will make an honest
effort to carry out those resolutions no one will doubt.
It is a matter for congratulation that he is in thorough
accord with the senior Senator from Georgia, and that
these two will work together upon all public measures
of importance.
Mr. Hardwick has gained the position to which he
aspired, and which for years has been the goal of his
ambition. It now rests with him whether the people of
Georgia will have cause to be gratified at the promotion
which they have given him or whether they will have
occasion to regret it. Those who have known him best
and longest believe that he will reflect credit on the
State, and certainly all of us will join in that hope.
The Southern Railway vs Its
Employees.
The ATLANTIAN takes pleasure in commending the
courage and consideration shown by the management
of our great railway system during these last depressed
months. There has been no whining and not much talk.
The problem of meeting necessary outlay with a de
creasing income has been met boldly and fairly, but al
ways in the spirit of working the least possible hard
ship on the working force.
On the other hand, the employes have shown loyalty,
patience and fidelity to duty in a marked degree, which
entitles them to high praise.
On. both sides there has been the proper spirit, no
splitting of hairs over minor differences, and questions
which under normal conditions might provoke contro-
versy have been quietly relegated to the trash can.
All this shows that the “esprit de corps” of the South-