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THE JEFFERSONIAN
Vol. 111. No. 21.
Why We Cannot Support Hoke Smith Again
The Jeffersonian is in receipt of the
following letter:
“Mt. Vernon, Ga., May 9th, 1908.
“Hon. Thos. E. Watson,
“Editor Jeffersonian,
“Thomson, Ga.
*Dear Sir:
“For the benefit of your readers in this
section, will you please publish in the
next issue of your paper the reasons why
you cannot support the Hon. Hoke
Smith in this race for Governor?
“Also state or name the unredeemed
pledges made by Gov. Smith in the last
campaign. Some of his advocates here
say: ‘Tom Watson can’t show a single
unredeemed pledge or truthfully give any
plausible reason for not advocating the
Governor’s candidacy.’ Let us have the
benefit of your information.
“Yours for right,
“(Signed.) JOHN F. HALL, M.D.
“(Don’t fail to respond to this.)” ,
We take pleasure in stating the
grounds upon which we refuse to sup
port Hoke Smith again.
First. It is well known that Mr. Wat
son has never returned to the Democ
racy, but has been standing as a con
sistent Populist ever since that party was
organized, eighteen years ago. He has
had nothing to do with Gubernatorial
campaigns, except to quietly vote for that
candidate who stood nearest to People’s
Party principles.
In 1904, when the National Democratic
Party, including the great Nebraska re
former, W. J. Bryan, fell at the feet of
Wall Street and worshipped the golden
calf with loud acclamations, Mr. Watson
thought it a sin and a shame that neither
one of the old parties dared to proclaim
the principles of Jeffersonian Democ
racy, and he consented to do that him
self, well knowing that he was leading a
hopeless cause. In the Gubernatorial
campaign which followed he made what
might be termed a treaty with certain
leaders of the Democratic Party.
We have stated how this coalition came
to be formed. We have also stated, time
and again, that Hoke Smith had nothing
in the world to do with it in the be
ginning, and simply “butted in” to reap
the benefits of it after it had got under
way and was demonstrating its irresisti
ble strength.
In the campaign of 1906, it is well
known that Mr. Watson lived up to the
letter and the spirit of his contract, and
exerted every energy to secure for Hoke
Smith the largest number of Populist
votes. Thousands of the People’s Party
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, May 21, 1908.
men were suspicious of Mr. Smith, be
cause they doubted the sincerity of his
sudden conversion. With these men Mr.
Watson labored faithfully, assuring them
that they could trust Mr. Smith. Con
sequently, we felt some responsibility in
the matter; we felt morally bound to our
friends throughout the State to do what
ever we could to have Hoke Smith’s ad
ministration live up to its contract. When
we learned, (not from Mr. Smith, but
through the newspapers,) that he had
committed himself to the increase of the
expense of our Railroad Commission, we
were surprised. Such an increase in the
offices and the expenses of government
was antagonistic to well-known Populist
principles, and we felt it due to our
friends, whom we had brought to the
support of Mr. Smith, to protest in pub
lic and in private against this unneces
sary and very considerable increase of
the burdens of our taxpayers. Mr. Smith
refused to listen to our remonstrances and
forged right ahead, paying his political
debts at the expense of the people, treb
ling the cost of the Commission, WHEN
THERE WAS NO NECESSITY ON
EARTH FOR IT. Did we have no
right to complain of being run over,
rough shod, in a matter of that sort?
Didn’t Mr. Smith owe some considera
tion to the allies who had so recently
fought his battles and helped him to win
his magnificent victory?
Second. We think that Hoke Smith
made a capital mistake in appointing to
the Board of Trustees of the University
of Georgia such men as George F. Go
ber and “Slick” Thompson. To have
such men as these selected for positions
of honor is to confuse and mislead the
minds of the young men of this State as
to what are the proper standards of
manhood. The only time that we were
ever in Judge Gober’s Circuit to try a
case before him, we were shocked to find
this Judge passing away the time dur
ing the recess of his court by gathering
a crowd of boys and young men around
him and relating to them the filthiest,
smuttiest, most demoralizing anecdotes
that we ever heard fall from human lips.
Think of a Judge of one of our higher
courts lowering himself to such a plane
as this, and using his talent to pollute
the minds of the youth who come in con
tact with him!
As to “Slick” Thompson, his nickname
tells what his character is; yet Governor
Hoke Smith, with all the State to choose
from, deliberately picked up two of the
trickiest, most notorious politicians in
this State, and virtually said to the young
men of the State University: “These are
the men that Georgia delights to honor!”
Third. We think the Governor made
a mistake in singling out Joe Brown for
disgrace when the Commission of which
he was a member was composed of
three, and when it is not capable of proof
that he was the worst of the three. Dur
ing this campaign, Governor Smith has
made every effort to muddy the waters
and to conceal the real reason why he
removed Joe Brown, leaving such a man
as Obe Stevens on the Commission. He
has pretended that he removed Brown be
cause of an insulting letter which Brown
sent, or handed, to him. We happen to
know that any such excuse is an after
thought. We heard but one speech of
Gov. Smith during the campaign of 1906.
This he delivered at Thomson. We were
sitting within a few feet of him, and
heard every word of it. We remember
distinctly his saying that if he were
elected there was one thing he was de
termined to do, and that was to remove
Joe Brown from the Railroad Commis
sion. Consequently, it was a settled pur
pose of his, long before he was inaugurat
ed, to remove Joe Brown, and the fact
that he endeavors to excuse that act by
pretending that it was based upon reasons
which arose subsequent to his inaugura
tion, proves conclusively that he is not
willing to state his actual reason for sing
ling out Joe Brown for public disgrace.
Fourth. We think the Governor did
wrong in not calling the legislature back
in extra session, when it had refused to
pass the administration measures. He
had the best excuse in the world for re
convening the legislature. The prohibi
tion bill had unexpectedly taken up the
greater portion of the session. Therefore,
he could have said: “We have not had
a sufficient time to enact the legislation
to which I am pledged. Therefore we
will have an extra session, devoted en
tirely to specific work outlined in the call
for the extra session.”
The prohibition bill being out of the
way, and the attention of the State fo
cused upon the specific measures which
the legislature was re-convening to con
sider, there is no doubt whatever that
public opinion would have put itself be
hind the legislature, and the pressure from
the home people would have been so
great that those reforms which were en
dorsed in the election of Hoke Smith
would have become obligatory upon the
majority of the legislators. In spite of
(Continued on Page Four.)
Price Five Cents.