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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
LETTER FROM MR. REYNOLDS, OF
ROME, GA.
Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 12, 1907.
Editor Constitution.
Dear Sir: In a report in your paper of re
cent date of an interview with Hon. Thomas
E. Watson, he was made to say: “The bonds
are untaxed and the notes pay no tax, for
while the government collects a nominal one
half of one cent tax, it is well understood that
the proceeds of this tax do not cover the
actual expenses of maintaining the currency
bureau, safe keeping the bond, engraving the
notes and supervising the operations of the
banks. ’ ’
The report of the Controller of Currency for
the year 1906, shows as follows: From 1864 to
June 30, 1906, the national banks of the
United States have paid $98,730,905.78-100 tax
on the circulation furnished them by the
United States government. The expenses of
the Banking Department at Washington for
the same time were $10,843,969.28-100. Leav
ing a net profit to the United States govern
ment from the operation of national banks of
$87,886,936.50-100.
In addition to this, for the same period, the
national banks have paid all the cost of the
redemption of notes by the United States
Treasurer, the cost of the steel plates, and the
fees for examination, which amounted to a
total of over $11,000,000.
For the verification of the above, I refer
you to page 3137, in the report of the Con
troller of Currency for the year 1906.
While on this subject, it may be well to
state that the said report also states that the
liabilities of all the national banks that have
failed since 1865, to depositors, were $170,-
236,026.
Net loss of depositors of failed national
banks, since the organization of the system,
amounts to $32,546,872. This shows that the
government could have afforded to pay all the
losses that the depositors have made from the
failures of national banks, and still had a net
profit of $55,340,061.
The object in this card is to call Mr. Wat
son’s attention to the error he makes in say
ing that the national banks are an expense to
the government, and to show that the govern
ment could guarantee and pay the losses of
depositors of failed national banks and make
a profit by so doing.
Yours very truly,
J. H. REYNOLDS.
(Note. —This is the letter which called forth
the editorial on National Banks in the last
i§sue of the Jeffersonian for 1907. We regret
that this letter got misplaced, as we were
making up the forms, and was not printed
along with the editorial. We give it place
now as a matter of justice to Mr. Reynolds.
We content ourselves with reminding our
readers that the Jeffersonian showed that
the report to which Mr. Reynolds refers does
not by any means cover all the expenses inci
dent to the national banking system.)
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
HON. JAS. L. MAYSON ANNOUNCES HIS
PLATFORM.
Douglasville, Ga., Nov. 28. —Hon. James L.
Mayson, city attorney of Atlanta, who is a
candidate for congress in the fifth district, in
opposition to Hon. L. F. Livingston, the pres
ent incumbent, announced his platform in a
speech which he made here Tuesday. Briefly
stated, the principles for which Mr. Mayson
stands are as follows:
Stands for the principles of Jeffersonian
Democracy.
Favors the enactment of a law against the
shipment of whisky into a state which has de
clared for prohibition.
The laws of a state should not be nullified
by interstate commerce regulation.
Favors an elastic currency, especially some
law which will enable the South and West to
get money to move the crops.
Opposes pauper and criminal immigrants of
Europe being brought to this country.
■tW • s 'WI
Jiir M JWMi
HON JAS. L. MAYSON.
Favors law regulating the federal courts.
The laws of a sovereign state should not be
set aside and nullified by a federal judge on
ex parte evidence.
Especially opposed to holding the Philip
pine islands, and thus cutting down expendi
tures for a large army and navy.
Money which we now spend for the main
tenance of large army and navy could be spent
on internal improvements, such a building
canals in South and West, where necessary.
Favors purity in all government affairs.
The speech of Mr. Mayson was distened to
with close attention, and it is believed that he
made many warm supporters here,
Dr. T. R. Whitley, who is also a candidate
for congress, spoke here Tuesday. He set
forth some of the principles which he advo
cated.
A public debate may oe arranged here for
the congressional candidates.
LIFT WHERE YOU STAND.
Dr. Edward Everett Hale, in delivering the
annual address before the Brooklyn Institute
of Arts and Sciences, concentrated a whole
system of political and social reform in the
single sentence of advice which he selected as
the title of his address: “Lift where you
stand,” urged the venerable speaker. “While
once a year we go cheerfully to the polls and
vote for the handful of men who are to direct
public affairs, we ought to remember all along
that we are the rulers. We are governing it
365 days in the year, or ought to be. Real
democracy demands that every man lift where
he stands.” Dr. Hale ventured the assertion
that more than half the people have not been
trained to know that they are an essential
part of the government. Practical reformers,
in the hustings,may scout the words as preach
meants of idealism, but thoughtful analysis
demonstrates that it is the most practical
and efficient reform. Government is as truly
representative of the people as is the govern
ing body. Public opinion is finally respected
in legislation and administration. In the part
played in forming public opinion the indi
vidual becomes a part and power of the gov
ernment. Dr. Hale wants the education of
the citizens begun in boyhood and girlhood,
that the individual may be right-minded as to
private and public duties, and has no fear for
the government if that is done. If every in
dividual were to lift wherever he may stand,
there would be no doubt as to raising the
standard of citizenship and government. Dr.
Hale does not minimize the duty of going to
the polls and voting aright, but urges the duty
of every-day individual living and thinking
as the essential complement.—Boston Herald.
“HOT SOUTHERN BLOOD.”
A discussion between the New York Sun
and New York World concerning Mr. Roose
velt led the latter journal to attribute the
President’s impetuosity among other things
to the “hot Southern blood coursing through
his veins.” This brought forth the following
reply from the Charlotte News and Courier:
The World will please come to order. We
protest against the reference to “hot South
ern blood.” Washington, Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, Jackson, William Henry Harrison,
Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Lincoln and Johnson were
presidents of Southern birth, and their blood
was Southern. Benjamin Harrison was of
Southern ancestry. Andrew Jackson showed
a “testy humor,” after the manner of Cas
sius, at times, and Andrew Johnson’s man
ners were not effeminate, but the language of
the World (mark, not our language) is reduc
ible to the phrase “scatter-brained fool.”
Surely it will not be said that even one of the
eleven Southerners belonged to that class.
Mr. Roosevelt is a Roosevelt.
The truly Southern type is in fact calm and
judicious. Was there ever a better poised man
than Robert E. Lee? John Marshall, Rober
B. Taney, Nathaniel Macon and many others
might be cited who were as imperturbable as
Roman lictors. All of these men were of
Southern colonial stock, as were the greater
number of those in the list of Southern presi
(Continued on Page Twelve.)