Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THE ATLANTIAN 7 1 \ \ The Official Photographer j JL Ilf v JllDUfg, THE ATLANTIAN 34^ WHITEHALL STREET dealer wants to get your money without value given. So does the burglar. And one is as good as the other. The alcoholic appetite wrecks the physical man—debases the mor al man—and destroys the economic value of the working man. These statements need no argument—every man knows them to be true. In view of this fact, how any man claiming to be a good citizen, can support such an iniquity is beyond comprehension. The writer of these lines spent years in the tropics. He went through three yellow fever and one cholera epidemic. A non-drink er, he was not sick an hour, and had no fears. But he observed that nearly every man who was a drinker of alcoholic liquors, in greater or less degree, who was attacked by these diseases died. We know the same thing to be true in pneumonia. The best radical authorities in the world have decided that alcoholic liquors have no therapeutic value. There is simply no defense that can be put up for this so-called “business;” for while it is legitimated by reason of our lack of good sense; it is no more a legitimate musiness morally speaking, than burglary is. The attitude of able business men all over the world towards the liquor-drinking habit ought to be conclusive in itself. The man who applies to a great railroad corporation for a position, especially in the operating department, has to prove that he is not a drinker of alcoholic beverages, before he has any show for a job. No railroad superintendent would think of trusting an engine to a drinking engineer if he knew it. This is getting to be the rule in nearly all large manufacturing plants—THEY WANT SOBER MEN. Then there are a lot of short-sighted men who favor this iniquity because of the supposed revenue to the state—not realizing that for every dollar of revenue derived from it by the state, it spends two dollars in chasing down and punishing through the courts the crim inals made by the liquor traffic. Competent authorities estimate that between one and a half and two billions of dollars are spent in the United States every year for alcoholic liquors. It is perfectly safe to say that the consumption is not less than fifteen dollars per capita. Assuming the average family to be four, that is sixty dollars per family. But one-half the families do not use it—and that would make a tax of one hundred and twenty dollars per family on those using it. The average income of American families is certainl not over seven hundred dollars. Now, take that one-half of the families using liquor, and take one hundred and twenty dollars per year out of their income, and it is easy to see what the effect will be. One-half of our criminals and half of our paupers are made by liquor—and this is a moderate estimate. And yet there are men claiming to be GOOD CITIZENS who will support this infernal traffic! It is a mild statement to say that “HELL IS FULL OF SUCH GOOD CITIZENS.” Looking to the future welfare of the people of Georgia, the present generation can do nothing which will so contribute to that welfare as the destruction, root and branch, of the traffic in alcoholic liquors. The Retiring Governor Before our readers receive this issue, Hoke Smith will have retired from the office of Governor of Georgia. He has been the central figure for six years past, around which has revolved as fierce a political struggle as any American State has known. Mr. Smith was one of the first men prominent in the Democratic party in our country to take up cudgels for what we how know as “Progressive Democracy.” As was to have been expected, every re actionary element in the commonwealth combined against him. Against all odds he won overwhelming victory and was able to get enacted into law many of the things for which he stood. Defeated for re-election by a narrow margin, due to an untoward condition in the financial world, with which he had nothing to do, he came back the third time and again won victory in one of the most desperate contests the State has ever known. Better than that, he found himself backed up by a Progressive Legislature. The achievements of his administration have been notable. He goes out of the office of Governor, to take the position of United States Senator, to which he has been elected; and if he bears himself as well in that position as he has done in the office of Governor, he will go down in the history of Georgia as one of the State’s greatest figures. Even within the ranks of his friends are many men who have not al ways agreed with Mr. Smith; but at least this much can be said—that at his worst he is better than his enemies’ best. The man of whom this can be said is worth while, and is entitled lo the strong support of the people whom he attempts to serve, in order that he may be made more efficient by the knowledge that be hind him is a constituency thoroughly in accord with his efforts at public betterment. The Pope Brown Rally The Joe Brown people and the Dick Russell people, having been rather vociferous, had persuaded themselves that they had a mortgage on Fulton County, and that one or the other of them would walk off with the goods with all ease. They had come to the conclusion that Fulton County was composed of just two classes of citizens—the one class wanting beer and whiskey, and that these would be for Russell; the other class wanting beer alone, and these would be for Brown. But on Friday night last at the Grand Opera House, they were rudely awakened to the fact that the highways and byways, the roads and the hedges of Fulton County are full of men who want neither beer nor whiskey, and who will make a manly and patriotic effort to snow under the agents of the Whiskey Trust and the Beer Combine. It was the finest political meeting we have ever seen in Fulton County. The Grand Opera House was packed from top to bottom with as fine an audience as we have ever seen in Atlanta. Judge George Hillyer, who presided, without making the usual attempt at showing how good a speech he could make, introduced Mr. Pope Brown, who in a brief speech of some thirty minutes showed that he was fully on to the job. He was earnest—at times somewhat humor ous—always clear, strong and plain. He strengthened every man in the house who was already on his side, and made an impression on others not already committed. Following Mr. Brown’s excellent address, the Honorable James L. Mayson, in a very brief introduction, presented to the audience the Honorable Seaborn Wright. Every Georgian knows Seaborn Wright. His reputation as an orator and as a man of statesmanlike qualities is continent wide. We have heard Mr. Wright before and knew some thing of his quality. But he rose to heights of oratory and of argu ment in that speech that we have never before heard him approach. It was simply masterly—and no man, however prejudiced he might be, could hear that speech without recognizing that it was the heart felt conviction of an honest patriot. From start to finish he grippled his audience; and before he was half-way through, except for a few irreconcilable liquorities, he had them absolutely in sympathy with him. It was a vote-making speech. It left the opposition simply with out a leg upon which to stand. After Mr. Wright concluded his argument, amid the most enthusi astic and tumultuous applause, Judge Hillyer, who had been elected President of the Fulton County Pope Brown Club, asked for a rising vote of all those who would support Mr. Pope Brown—and so far as we could see, no man remained standing. It was practically unani mous; and the great audience present so enthused is but a forecast of the victory which the adherents of Pope Brown—of sound economic principles—and of good morals, are going to win at the polls in Fulton County. The audience was as large and as representative a gathering as we have ever seen at a political meeting in Fulton County, and the temper of it was indicated by the tentative votq taken at the end. All that the friends of Pope Brown—all that the men who advocate law and order—all that the men who believe in preserving the highest civilization in Georgia have now to do is to follow up with steady work until election day, the beginning so auspiciously made on Friday night, and the Capital County of the State will line up on the side of civic righteousness.