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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.