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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.