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THE ATLANTIAN
future) undertakes to oust him, will surely have his work cut out
for him.
Mr. Howard needs only the greater knowledge, which will come
to him as the years go by, from contact with public men in Wash
ington, and more study of the great questions always pressing for
solution, to make him one of the strongest figures in Congress.
Candidates for Governor
The woods are full of candidates for governor. The writer has
been somewhat shocked, and greatly surprised, that his own name
has not been suggested, in view of the fact that it looks now as
if every man, who has three friends, in the State, is going to be
nominated. We really can not take up the valuable space of this
journal to go into details and mention all the candidates in posse.
It is not amiss, however, to say a few words about those who are
in esse, or so near it that it is a sure thing that they will be shortly.
The Hon. Pope Brown, of Hawkinsville, is making an active can
vass. A fine, well-balanced man, courtly and of high character, of
sufficient attainment, of good ability—he would make a creditable
governor.
Judge Dick Russell, of the Court of Appeals, is a perennial can
didate—he has been a constant officeholder since he was twenty-one
years of age, and has got so in the habit that he would be very
unhappy if he could not run for an office every two years. It
strikes us that it would be in rather better taste if he would resign
the office he now holds, and quit drawing the people’s money, -while
he is traipsing around the State, trying to get another office. He
has landed on the whiskey side of this campaign—pronounces that
the prohibition law is a failure, and that he is a local optionist, and
prefers to go down in defeat, maintaining that high principle, than
to be elected by dodging. The man who is in favor of the high
principle of selling whiskey has, of course, a right to that principle
—only we wish that he would make his principle just a little bit
higher, and cut out the liquor. It is quite likely that the judge will
be indulged, by the people of Georgia, in a good trouncing for this
honest conviction of his. So mote it be.
Governor Joseph M. Brown is almost a certain candidate, and will
have a large part of the following, which he had in previous cam
paigns, for they have gotten wedded to the Brown habit. Governor
Brown is personally an inoffensive man, whose greatest claim to
place in the halls of fame rests upon his authorship of “Astyanax.”
As a candidate for governor, one is reminded of the old gentleman
who (being asked as to the condition of his health) answered, “It
might be wuss, but not much wuss.”
Speaker of the House, Holder, is also deeply perturbed (these
days) as to whether he shall announce or not. Mr. Holder is a
very clever, capable gentleman—if he could be elected, he would
probably make a good governor, but (in the light of present condi
tions) it does not really appear where he would get such a following
as would insure him a reasonable prospect of success.
Several candidates have announced, in various sections of the
State, whose names we can not now recall, and must therefore spare
any comment.
The Congressman From the
Third District
In the re-districting of the State, by the legislature, the Congress
man for the third district, Dudley M. Hughes, has been legislated
into the district now represented by Judge Bartlett, of Macon. It
is not probable that Mr. Hughes will be a candidate for election in
the district where he now lives.
These few lines are written to bear testimony to the efficiency
.and fidelity of Mr. Hughes, than whom the State of Georgia has no
more useful or valuable citizen. He has stood to his guns like a
man. We believe that he is being legislated into another district
(the only Georgia Congressman so treated) purposely, by the men
who do not want a man of Mr. Hughes’ independence of character
in the Congress. Elements, that are now trying to secure the control
of Georgia, do not need a man like Dudley Hughes—he is a little too
independent—to his credit be it said.
The Atlanta Baggage and
Cab Company
The Atlanta Baggage and Cab Company has turned over a new
leaf, and it tvas time. Perhaps no public service corporation has
ever been more savagely criticized than this company. Its directors
have at last grown wise, and put in charge as president and general
manager, W. C. Wilson, once a telegraph operator and assistant
stationmaster of the Union depot; one of the most active men in
the city. Mr. Wilson has put all of his energy into this new posi
tion, and is winning in every direction golden opinions for the effi
ciency of the service which his company is now rendering.
A close investigation will show that, in nine cases out of ten, the
complaints and criticisms leveled at public service corporations, are
due to their failure to give the public the service for which the pub
lic pays. In this case, the man and the occasion have met, and it is
not at all probable that there will be any more complaint as to the
Atlanta Baggage and Cab Company.
The Congressman From the
Fourth District
It is strictly within the truth to say that no man in the Congress
of the United States has grown more steadily in the esteem of his
fellow-members, and the people, than has Judge Adamson. He
went to Washington fourteen years ago, an unknown man—during
these fourteen years, Judge Adamson has been consistent, steady, un
obtrusive, persistent, and while he has not tried to set the woods on
fire, he has hammered away on the job as steadily as any man in
the Congress. During the sessions, he has stayed in his place, and
not (as so many Congressmen do) drawn the salary and spent his
time galivanting about the country. He has steadily risen until, at
the end of the last session, he was the ranking member of the min
ority on the Great Interstate Commerce Committee, which has grown
to be one of the most important in the House. It naturally followed
that, when the Democrats came into power, he was made chairman of
the committee—and in that position (which is now not an easy one)
he has acquitted himself most creditably; and is now one of the
recognized strong men of the Georgia delegation.
Judge Adamson’s Democracy is without shadow or variableness
of turning. What the party has declared in its conventions, he
stands for in the House. It is a great pity that some men, who pose
as leaders, could not take a leaf out of his book.
A Great Improvement
R. T. Pace, Supt. at the Terminal Station, has announced the per
fection of arrangements, whereby the public can (without delay or
inconvenience) obtain passes to attend parting friends to trains.
This had become a cause of such general complaint that the railroad
commissioners took the matter in hand, and for once the railroads,
instead of fighting for delay (wiiich is the usual habit) gave Mr.
Pace a free hand; and that gentleman has at once taken steps to
meet the public need.
The railroads are to be complimented upon their giving a good
officer liberty; and the good officer is to be complimented for the
promptness with which he used that liberty. Let us be friends.