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PAGE TWO
'Public Opinion Throughout the Union j
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE RAIL
ROADS.
The Interstate Commerce Commis
sion has just issued its bulletin of
accidents on the railroads of the Unit
ed States during the year ended on
June 30 last. It shows that the to
tal casualties were 81,286, and that of
this number an even 5,000 were killed,
and 76,286 injured. These figures in
clude only accidents to passengers
and trainmen, and to make up the
sum total of the railroad victims there
must still be added all those who
were killed and injured on the cross
ings and on the tracks, which brings
the ghastly record to over 100,000.
This is truly appalling. But there
is one feature in connection with this
butchery which is still more unpleas
ant to contemplate. This is the in
crease in casualties. According to
these official figures this increase of
casualties during the year amounted
to 10,352, of which the number of
the killed increased 775, and the
number of injured 9,577.
Truly this is a horrible record. The
increase in railroad mileage during
tbe year was inconsiderable, com
pared with the increase in casualties.
The increase in slaughter was not due
to greater travel. On the same roala
and the same mileage the casualtie?
increased by nearly 10,000, an in
crease of nearly 11 ner cent, which
shows that they were operated with
greater indifference to the safety of
trainmen and passengers. This con
clusion is still more c. i viucingiy
borne out in the number cf the killed,
which increased during tic year from
4,225 to 5,000, or an increase of
nearly 15 per cent. Upon no other
hypothesis can this increased slaugh
ter on the same roads he explained
except that the roadbeds, tracks and
rolling stock were keps in a state of
inferior efficiency. In order to save
maintenance and operating expenses
the railroads resorted to greatei
slaughter. And this economizing of
expense was the resu't of trying to
pay greater dividends. Gi eater divi
dends were declared all right, but at
the cost, as the official fig «ies collect
ed by the government bureau show,
of 775 people killed and 9,577 in
jured.
Just think of these figures! Au
gusta, with its suburbs, contains a
population of about 50,000. The
slaughter of the railroads in one year
in passengers and railway men alone
is nearly as large as the population
of two cities like Augusta, with all
their suburbs, white and colored. In
less than eight years the railroads kill
more people than lived in Augusta
when the last census was taken, and
the increase alone in the number that
was killed last year is greater than
the entire population of over one-half
of the towns in our state.
It is a sickening record of slaugh
ter. Something must be done to
check it. This is now being done in
our state, as the recent order shows
which was issued by the Railroad
Commission to railroads, to begin im
mediately repairing the meet dilapi-
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
dated parts of their tracks. Let the
good work go on. —Augusta Herald.
READ THE WATSON PUBLICA
TIONS.
The editor of the Soliphone is a
great admirer of Tom Watson and
advises his young friends who want
to develop within themselves the spir
it of patriotism to read his two publi
cations, the Watson Jeffersonian,
weekly, and the Jeffersonian Maga
zine, monthly. These two publica
tions deal with the issues of the day
from a purely nonpartisan standpoint.
They are not the exponents of any
party, the apostle of any creed or
mouthpiece of any man or set of men.
They are Tom Watson; simple, force
ful, defiant and masterful. They
throw the light on all subjects with
which the people have to deal; they
expose fraud wherever found and
from whatever source it may come.
They are the defenders of the masses
against the classes, of the oppressed
against the oppressor, of the weak
against the strong.
In our younger days when we re
garded opposition to the democratic
party as treason to the flag, we
joined in the wholesale ridicule that
characterized the press of therSouth
in its attitude toward Tom Watson,
but in later years we have been study
ing the man and reading from his pen
and we are frank to say that as a
writer he has no equal in the country.
His mental grasp of great questions
of state is as comprehensive as that
of any other man, either in public or
private life and his style of expression
is peculiarly his own. At times he is
spectacular and picturesque and at
other times persuasive, eloquent and
poetic. He is at times the roaring
cataract and at other times as placid
as the summer zephyrs that fan his
cheeks in his Georgia home; but
whatever his mood, he is always Tom
Watson, broad in his grasp of the
question treated, unique in his style
of expression and utterly defiant of
any force that may oppose him. That
is Tom Watson. And, the pity is,
that there are not more of him.
Young man, if you want to be the
student of a brilliant and powerful
writer, who calls a spade a spade, just
send and get Tom Watson’s two pa
pers. Write him at Thomson, Ga.,
for sample copies. The mechanical
work on both publications is done at
Atlanta, but the editorial office is at
Mr. Watson’s home town, Thomson.
By the way, did you know that
Tom Watson’s life of Napoleon is
considered, even by Frenchmen, to be
the best life of the “Little Corsican’’
that was ever written? It’s a fact,
and his “Story of France,” his life
of Jefferson and his great war story,
“Bethany,” are considered master
pieces of English production.—The
Daily Soliphone.
Mr. Bryan has told us what he
thinks of The Average Man. In «
little more than a year from now
“The Average Man” will age in -how
us what he thinks of Mr. Bryan.—
The People’s Paper.
FINANCIAL SITUATION AND
THE REMEDY.
The rascality of the Wall Street
robbers and New York banks is
no doubt responsible in part for the
present crisis. But back of this is
a much greater cause and that is the
reduced volume of money in circula
tion. In the last decade more than
a billion of dollars has been perma
nently exported from the United
States. The silly women who marry
broken-down princelings have taken
$160,000,000 to Europe, the govern
ment has expended a billion in the
Philippine misadventure, and mil
lions on Cuba and the Panama canal,
while private capitalists have invest
ed millions in Mexico, South America
7 A
and other countries. These tremen
dous leakages have reduced the vol
ume of money at home until we now
have not more than half what we
need for our immense and ever-ex
panding business. We need an ad
dition to the circulating medium of
not less than a billon of dollars. Con
gress, on assembling, should at once
make provision for an issue of not
less than $500,000,000 of treasury
notes, receivable for all public dues.
Our extravagant government is now
costing the people nearly a billion
dollars a year. Part of this could
be paid in treasury notes and collect
ed back under the various forms of
taxation. Thomas Jefferson, at the
very origin of the government, said:
“No better money could be known
than treasury notes, bottomed on tax
es.” Like a weaver’s shuttle, they
go out on the obligations of the gov
ernment and come back to the treas
ury in the collection of taxes under
the various revenue laws.
Os course, everything that adds to
the circulation will afford some re
lief, but our bank-controlled govern
ment always goes at it in the wrong
way. What sense or justice is there
in issuing treasuiy certificates to run
only one year, and bearing three per
cent interest ? Why not issue treas
ury notes, without interest, to run
twenty years —as long as the bank
notes run? The United States fur
nishes the national banks currency
without interest which they have the
use of twenty years, and which the
banks can loan to the people at what
ever rate of usury they see proper
to exact. Why this injustice to the
great body of the people? Why not
issue currency directly to all of the
people in the form of treasury notes,
which can be paid out on the obliga
tions of the government and collect
ed back in taxes, as Thomas Jeffer
son said should be done?
This has been done from time to
time from the very origin of the gov
ernment, as occasion demanded ft.
Let everybody write our senators
and representatives in Congress and
press this reasonable demand. We
must have at least $500,000,000 of
money added to the present volume
if a permanent panic is averted.
E. L. DOHONEY.
Paris, Texts, Nov. 20,100 T.
THE DAWN AND THE DAY.
There is a new light in the east.
The brightest day in all the history
of the red man’s land has dawned.
From the skies of the receding night
a hardy band of pioneers, builders
of an empire, have plucked the
brightest star and with brave hands
and patriotic hearts pinned it to the
azure field of Old Glory.
In imperishable letters a new name
has been inscribed upon the banner
of freedom, a name synonymous with
success, with beauty, grandeur, pa
triotism, fidelity, prosperity, loyalty
and love of home. A name crooned
ns a lullaby in the bygone days when
sitting in the growing twilight of the
boundless prairies the Indian mother
from her tepee watched the shadows
lengthen into night and put her little
ones to sleep. A game interwoven in
the matchless history of marvelous
things accomplished by those who
dared to put their blood and brain
and brawn into the contest and win a
victory where defeat seemed most
certain. A name now heard along
the arteries of commerce, in the busy
marts of trade and wherever beats
the nation’s throbbing heart of in
dustry: OKLAHOMA.
But yesterday we were a million
and half political orphans, misunder
stood, misgoverned and mistreated.
Today we stand erect, clothed with
the full panoply of American citizen
ship in all things the equal in fact as
in name, of the proudest people of
the nation. But yesterday to all the
other states we were as strangers.
Today we have entered into our in
heritance and wear upon our brow
the full-flowered wreath of American
manhood and take our place in Co
lumbia’s household as the most fav
ored of all nation’s children. But
yesterday the long range government
by appointment, by political favor
ites, by telegraph and by misinforma
tion was the rule.
Today we begin a new era with the
ideal government of the immortal Lin
coln, a government of the people, for
the people and by the people. Look
ing down the darkening shadows of
the past wi-th its obstacles overcome,
its disappointments outlived, its ob
structions to advancement swept
aside by the energy, determination
and ambition of our people, we turn
with confidence to the future, proud
of the record of yesterday, master
ful in the strength of today and meet
the future, secure in the belief that
tomorrow will bring to us but addi
tional triumphs in life’s battle. In
this the hour of our emancipation
when peans of joy are ascending
throughout the land, when the clang
of the political shackles falling from
the arms of freemen makes won
drous music for the patriots who
fought in freedom’s cause, it is but
meet that we should pause and give
to those who led the van a fervent
“God Bless You,” and tell them
they have builded better than they
knew in giving to posterity the great
est commonwealth the nation ever
welcomed into the sisterhood o&
rtatw.-* Muskojee Phoenix. J