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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