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THE JEFFERSONIAN
Vol. 111. No. 32.
A Report of the Splendid 'Hally at Sabannah
An immense audience of representative citi
zens greeted Hon. Thus. E. Watson at the Sa
vannah theatre last Thursday evening. Seated
on the stage were many - friends, both from
Savannah and neighboring counties. To Hon.
David H. Clark, Chairman of the Committee
on Arrangements, is due much of the success
of the meeting. Judge D. D. Twiggs intro
duced Mr. Watson in the following eloquent
words: i
“In the great city of Paris, where we look
upon relics of conquering Romans, souvenirs
of the crusades and mementoes of the reign
of terror, mingled with the brilliancy and
splendor of that unrivaled city, there is a
famous street known as the 1 Rue de Rivoli. ’
This magnificent thoroughfare runs along the
Place de Carousal on one side. On the other
side is a semingly endless arcade, where shel
tered from the sun and rain one may drift
in the swift current of tumultuous life for
more than a mile of brilliant shops and em
poriums of trade, where spacious windows
dazzle the eye with their bewildering beauty.
On this great street, designed and laid out
Napoleon the Great as a memorial of the
battle of Rivoli, there is situated one of the
most noted book emporiums of Paris. Not
long since an American tourist entered this
place of literature and stated that he wished
to purchase the best and most reliable history
of the French people. Without hesitation he
was handed two richly bound volumes, which
proceeded to examine. He naturally expected
to find in Paris the most authentic history of
France and the work of some famous historian,
bom and educated on the banks of the Seine ?
some author in whose veins flowed Gallic blood,
whose prolific brain enriched with the fertility
of French legend and lore, like Chateaubriand,
Guizot or Lamartine, was pregnant with the
celestial fires of that classic land. Some greater
writer to the manor born, whose soul swelled
with that ‘L’Amour de la Patrie’ which dis
tinguishes the Frenchman from all other men.
But no! These massive volumes were written
by a man who has never left the shores of his
native land. They were written by an Ameri
can, a native Georgian, who was born and bred
among her old red hills and upon whose magic
tongue the fires of eloquence had been kindled
by the pine-knots of Georgia.
“The inquiring stranger turned to the title
page, and, to his amazement, saw written
there: ‘The Story of France,’ by Thomas E.
Watson. Had I stood by the side of that
stranger, and looked over his shoulder in that
far-away land, I would have been proud that
I, too, was a Georgian. The author of that
great history, and many other famous books,
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, August 6, 1908.
is the able and brilliant Georgian who will
address you tonight. A man whose retentive
mind is a storehouse of history, biography and
general literature; an orator who ranks
among the greatest in this country; a writer,
whom mature, with a lavish and prodigal hand,
has endowed with an inexhaustible wealth of
wit, humor and satire, and enriched with a
style and originality strictly his own.
Leads People Captive.
“But his tongue and pen have done far
more than to lead the people captive to the
graces of his eloquence and humor. In the
columns of his weekly and monthly Jefferso
nians he has dared to be himself. In these pub
lications he has given full flight to the wing of
fearless and independent thought, and while
not agreeing with him in some of his political
views, I do not hesitate to say that in my
judgment he is doing more than any man,
North or South, by his courageous advocacy
of the rights of the people; his ceaseless war
fare upon plutocracy, trusts, combines, the
iniquities of an oppressive tariff and other
intolerable abuses which have brought about
the concentration of enormous wealth in the
hands of the few and the impoverishment of
the common people.
“More than this, he is arousing* a wholesome
public sentiment in the interests of reform,
social, industrial, and economic, and while he
may never realize the full fruition of the
great work he is doing; the bold, fearless and
persistent tagitation of these great economic
problems, will, sooner or later, result in the
betterment of the people, and in conditions
which will at least plant the standards of
reform somewhere near the citadels of liberty
an drelief, if not upon their ramparts.
A Garden of the Gods.
“I trust that the day is not far distant,
when we shall see a more equitable distribution
of wealth among the factors engaged in its
production and when ablebodied pauperism in
this land of plenty—a veritable garden of the
gods—will be unknown and unheard of.
“The man or men who will bring this about
will do more to eliminate crime and foster
morality than all the preachers or law and
order leagues in Christendom.
“But I will not detain you. You are im
patient to listen to an abler tongue than mine,
to the great Georgian who will now address
you, the Hon. Thomas E. Watson.”
The audience testified their enthusiastic ap
preciation of the presence of the Populist lead
er by a splendid ovation. In a rapid summary
of his record, Mr. Watson reviewed his work in
the Georgia Legislature, already familiar to
our readers, and referred in particular to the
fact that Hie Populists have been fighting the
Convict Lease System in Georgia for fifteen
years.
He touched upon his bringing about the
abolishment of the Congressional bar-room, his
fight in Congress for the eight-hour law and
for the bill which compelled railroads to equip
fregiht ears with automatic couplers, and how
he secured the appropriation which made pos
sible the R. F. D. system today.
Hoke Smith and Hardwick have been pro
claiming themselves the disfranchisers of the
negroes, but it is well known that this problem
had never been solved until Mr. Watson told
Mr. Hardwick how it could be done and it was
only when the Populists lent their aid to the
measure that it went through.
“Now, there ought to be credit for all three
—Hardwick, Hoke and me,” Mr. Watson said.
He designated the 1908 platform of the
Bryanites as a mere vote-catcher, and made it
clear that Bryan and Taft were shoving each
other for a roosting place on the Roosevelt
platform and that the Bryanites should be
known as Taftites.
He then turned to the position held by the
solid South in the estimation of politicians.
Though great commercially and intellectually,
he asserted that the South is nothing political
ly, simply because of the fait that it is solid.
“Why not strike for Southern independence
by voting the Populist ticket?
“Bryan stands just exactly as much chance
of winning* as I do. Don’t worry about throw
ing away your votes in this election. If you’ve
got any to throw away you might as well
throw them my way.”
lie said Bryan wouldn’t even give the South
the empty second place, but put Tom Taggart’s
understudy, Kern, in. “He was brought up
holding chips for Tom Taggart,” he said, “a
then you Georgia prohibitionists vote for him.
Yet he’s attorney for the brewers’ combine
of his state. But Indiana might not cast her
15 votes for him and your 156 are sure, so
Kern is placed on the ticket.
He asserted that Roosevelt has been a better
friend to the South than Bryan promises by
his actions to be. The present adminstration,
he stated, has by its action in the Brownsville
matter, its acquiescence to the disfranchise
ment of the negro in the South, and the non
enforcement of the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments, shown more regard for the feel
ings of the people of the South than Bryan
has.
The negroes, he stated, are dissatisfied with
Roosevelt for this very reason, and after
(Continued on Page Twelve.)
Price Five Cents.