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PAGE TWO Public Opinion Throughout the Union GOVERNOR HUGHES AFTER GAMBLERS. Governor Hughes of New York has under taken the greatest work of his career. He has begun the fight that has for its object the breaking up of race track gambling in New York City. His annual message to the Leg islature contains his recommendations for the passage of laws that will prohibit betting on the races, and already the powerful race-track pool has raised money to fight the passage of all measures that may be introduced. There is $11,000,000 invested in race tracks in New York, and $50,000,000 in horseflesh. There are a number of men engaged in the business of horse-racing who count their for tunes by the millions. All of these forces will be against the Governor, because the stop ping of the betting on the races means stop ping the races. The only thing that makes these races profit able, in spite of the enormous cost of the business, is the opportunity it gives men to gamble without being held up to public dis grace. It is the fashion to bet on the races, and no one feels ashamed to do this improper and immoral act because it is one of those evils that are winked at. It is a courageous thing for Governor Hughes to do, and a patriotic attempt to break up this pernicious practice of betting on the races. Gambling at the race track is responsible for as much human misery as any great evil that I know of. It leads to disappointment, to poverty, to ruin, to crime. It causes the downfall of men and women who are led by its fascination to commit indiscretions and then crimes in the hope of retrieving fortunes lost at' the race track. I have seen forty-two thousand people gath ered under one inclosure at one of these tracks, and of the forty-two thousand, more than two-thirds of them laid wagers. If Governor Hughes succeeds in stopping the race track evil, he will build himself a monument that will last long after marble shafts have crumbled away.—The Jacksonville Sun. LETTER NO. I.—CIVILIZATION. North Robinson, 0., Dee. 2, 1907. My Dear Sir: I am in deep sympathy with the Southern people. I think they are a noble race of men and women. I am in no way tinctured with that bitterness of feeling existing between some of the people in different sections of our great country. I am glad we are one in many; and that here ostensibly all men and women and children are free. Though this may not be absolutely true, the sentiment and principle are right. And it is our mission— mine and yours and every other American citizen’s —to try to make it so in fact. How shall this be accomplished? 1. By an ade quate education. 2. By an equitable distri bution of land among all the people. 3. By 4k THE JEFFERSONIAN. industry, helpfulness,.honesty and economy in all the family of the republic. 4. By a just financial system. 5. By the absolute prohibi tion of the manufacture, sale and use of ar dent spirits as a beverage, permitting their use only in extreme medicinal cases, in the arts and sciences. 6. By the propagation of the purest principles of the Christian religion as taught in the books of the Old and the New Testaments. 7. By forbearance with each oth er in Christian charity. The Negro problem I will discuss in a future letter. Yours most truly, JOHN VINTON POTTS. HON. T. W. HARDWICK. The Dawson News, referring to the commit tee appointments given by Mr. John Sharpe Williams to Hon. T. W. Hardwick and in re ply to The Herald’s comment on the same, says that “Mr. Hardwick has been treated as if he were a joke,” and that “The Tenth dis trict has heretofore been fortunate in having a congressman who was not looked on away from home in that light.” This is not only unkind and unjust, but it is untrue and inspired by enmity. Perhaps our dear contemporary, in taking its cue from greater sinners than itself, does not recognize this? The matter having been brought to its attention and presented in its true light, The News will no doubt set itself right. It is not true that the Tenth district has heretofore been represented *in congress by men who have been treated by the party boss es in that body as they deserved. The Tenth district is noted for the able men it has sent to congress, men too great to be mere pup pets to be pulled by the wire working bosses, and for this reason they were punished as John Sharpe Williams has punished Tom Hardwick. Alex. Stephens was one of these. Tom Watson was another, and there were still others. Their offense was holding the interests of their constituents above the petty schemes of the party bosses, and for this they were treated, as Hardwick has been treated, as if they were" 4 ‘a joke,” as our dear contemporary is pleased to express it. Mr. Hardwick had a better committee ap pointment in the last congress than has been given him now. Was he less “a joke” then than he is now? Has he done anything since then to make him more of “a joke”? If not, did not the riper experience of two years’ service entitle him to a better appointment, instead of the lower one given him? But the real truth is known to all. Mr. Williams, because Mr. Hardwick was a man, and dared to exercise his own judgment when it differed from the schemes of Williams, re venged himself by giving Mr. Hardwick ap pointment on a committee which is kept only to enable the party bosses to furnish offending members. An injury to one is the concern of all. A Georgia congressman cannot be injured with out the entire state being made to suffer there by. When Mr. Williams, to revenge himself on Mr. Hardwick for having dared to oppose him, gave him an inferior committee appoint ment, the press of the whole state should have denounced him for such petty, puny, puerile perversion of his prerogative as minority lead er. Instead of that, there were some Georgia papers who actually rejoiced at this injustice and damage done their state by this man un worthy of, because unfit for, leadership. And this because Mr. Hardwick was and is a supporter of Hoke Smith a supporter of Governor Smith; in other words, because he is with the people. For this reason these papers not only condone the injury an unfit leader has done their state out of a feeling of personal revenge, but they jubilate over it. Shame on such partisanism.— Augusta Her ald. “ INFORMATION DESIRED. St. Peter, Minn., Oct. 4,1907. Dear Sir: Some of the Republican newspa pers and such so-called Democrats as Mr. Bel mont, after careful deliberation, no doubt, have announced that Gov. Johnson, of this state, is a “conservative radical”! Now this is a new species of politician in this part of the country, and some of the Governor’s friends are apparently alarmed lest the “con servative radical” belongs to a tribe more bloodthirsty even than a populist. Various ones have asked me what a “conservative radical” really is, and I am “up a tree,” so to speak. Os course, I will admit that I have a private opinion on the subject, but fearing those asking me for information wouldn’t believe me if I told them, I earnestly trust that you may find room in The Weekly Jeffer sonian to give us your interpretation of the political term or appellation of “conserva tive radical.” It is my impression that the ‘ ‘ conservative radical ” is a politician who grows more luxuriously, if not exclusively, in the neighborhood of Wall Street, and usually feeds and fattens on falsehood and decep tion. If I am wrong, I would like to be cor rected. Yours for information, DEACON DONHAM. (Note: “Conservative radical” is too much for me. I shouldn’t wonder if Conservative radical bore the same relation to genuine reform that Clearing House Certificates do to “Sound Money. ’ ’ Any candidate selected by Wall Street is a good man to let alone. —T. E. W.) ANNOUNCEMENT. To the Voters of the Northern Judicial Cir cuit: I announce my candidacy for the office of Solicitor-General of the Northern Judicial Circuit, subject to the primary to be held for that purpose. I assure you that I will appre ciate your support. L. D. M’GREGOR.