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0l)e Jeffersonian
Vol. 89 Number 1
Not a Word to Take Back Concerning
the Soldiers ’ Home, Near efltlanta
APT. TIP HARBISON has been com
fortably berthed, a well-paid, chronic
office-holder, for the last thirty years.
Consequently, it is natural for him
to sympathize with the New Jersey
man who has been treating those poor
c
old Confederate soldiers so inhumanly, and
who wound up his barbarities by assaulting
one of them murderously with a stick.
In fact, there seems to be a regular ring of
politicians, in Atlanta, who are determined to
have everything their own way, and to defend
one another at all hazards.
Has not the Legislature heard ample evi
dence of the foul mismanagement of the Sol
diers’ Home?
Is there not a stenographic report of that
evidence now on file in the Capitol building?
Why was that report never acted upon ?
What powerful, mysterious and hidden in
fluence hushed that matter up?
I did not state that Force had never enlisted
in the Confederate army; and Captain Harri
son does not deny that TIE IS A NATIVE
OF NEW JERSEY.
My information is, that he was born in that
state, served in the Signal Corps during the
Civil War, and went back to his native State
afterwards.
If Captain Harrison will say that he knows
it to be a fact that Force was the dare-devil,
at Sumter, that he claims to be, I will ac
cept his statement as true; but, I wouldn’t
take Force’s word for it.
The presumption of cowardice is raised,
when a man in Force's position brutally beats
a battered old soldier, who is in his power,
AND UNDER HIS PROTECTION.
Force’s father was—l am told—a cousin to
Ben Conley, who became Scalawag (or Car
pet-bag) Governor, after Bullock ran away.
Conley induced Cousin Force to come from
New Jersey to Georgia, where he engaged—
with Conley—in the retail shoe business.
A brother of Force is said to have murdered
a man in Augusta ; and one of his sisters is
reported as being in the Sanitarium, serving
a life-term for the murder of two sisters.
Now, that is the kind of Northern family
that Dr. Amos Fox went to for his Superin
tendent of old, feeble, ailing, moneyless,
friendless relics of Lee and Johnston’s armies!
Fox himself stayed in a bomb-proof, all
during the war—so I am told—and thus we
have two of the non-combatant type lording it
over those old broken down fighters.
IT'S A SHAME!
It is a disgrace to Georgia.
With my own eyes, I saw that their rooms
were ill-kept—dirty, dismal, forlorn. From
their own lips, I got the first story of their
mistreatment.
For months I have waited, for I was most
reluctant to embroil myself further with un
worthy men in power. But no other paper
would come out on the side of those pitiable
old men; and so at last I made up my mind
to espouse their cause.
The editorial of last week had been written
Thomson, Ga., Thursday, January 5, 1911
two weeks before, and had been crowded out.
Therefore, the murderous attack which New
Jersey Force made on Confederate Few, hap
pened after my article was sent to the printers.
The fact that the outrage on Few occurred
after I had dwelt upon the unwisdom of choos
ing a Yankee to become the boss of a Reb,
proves vividly the justice of my criticism.
Captain Harrison admits that he does not
know whether Dr. Fox has been acting as pur
chasing agent. Then, he had better leave it
to some one who knows more about the man
agement of the Home than he, the Secretary
of the managing Trustees, claims to know.
How can he defend a system of which he
admits his ignorance?
My information is, that a two-horse wagon
goes from the Home to Atlanta, weekly; and
that Dr. Fox buys the supplies at the stores,
and, of course, at private sale.
The State appropriates $25,000 for the
maintenance of those Vets. I am told that
their number is now somewhat less than 100.
Surely the sum devoted to their comfortable
support is amply sufficient for the purpose.
The dining room at the Home is not kept
clean. They have only one towel a week.
They have clean sheets, once in two weeks.
THEY HAVE TO CLEAN THE SPIT
TOONS!
Those aged and trembling soldiers have to
tote the coal from the basement of the build-
oflnother Short Talk on the Tariff
EAB in mind that the Tariff is a cer
tain amount of money which is paid
at the Custom-house by whoever
brings merchandise or manufactured
products of any kind from other
countries into ours. It is proper
B
that I should modify this statement by
adding that where a citizen of this coun
try goes abroad and purchases for his own
use foreign goods, which he brings back with
him for his own personal use, he cannot get
those goods released from the Custom-house
until he pays the same duty on them which
he would have to pay, were he intending to
offer them for sale at a profit. Os course if
he purchased a suit of clothes, say in Eng
land, he would not have to pay a Custom
house duty on them if he actually was wear
ing them on his return trip home; but, w T ere
they in his trunk, or travelling bag, they
would be kept by the Custom-house officers
unless he paid the duty.
One most humiliating consequence of this
is that trunks and other receptacles for wear
ing apparel are always opened and ransacked
by Custom-house officials. Not only is every
garment worn by men subject to this de
testable search and handling, but the wearing
apparel of women and girls is made the sub
ject of espionage, of disrespectful use and
comment. It frequently happens that actual
brutality is insolently practised and the tears
of wrath and shame are brought to the eyes
ing, up the stairs to their rooms. No kindling
wood is furnished.
The beds are alive with vermin.
The spiders infest the walls.
There is not a sound man among them; yet,
these old soldiers are required to gather and
bring in from the field the vegetables grown
on the place.
The reports made to the Governor are said
to be tissues of lies. The Board meetings
are secret; and there is really no way in which
the victims of this petty and despicable
tyranny can reach the public, excepting the
one they have chosen.
My interest in the matter is humanitarian,
only.
Those Veterans fought for Dixie, when they
were young and strong: it would be unmanly
if I were to deny them their prayer, to put
their case before the people.
If the heart of old Georgia does not fire
with indignation at the way the bomb-proof
soldiers are mistreating those who went to the
firing-line and shed their blood for their coun
try, I will be much surprised.
But be that as it may, the Vets are entitled
to a hearing, and their Home should be made
the subject of a thorouqh, impartial. PUBLIC
AND SPEEDY INVESTIGATION.
And I repeat it—a New Jersey Yankee
ought not to be made the master of a lot of
helpless Bebs.
of the modest. It sometimes happens
that a woman, returning from a European
trip, is compelled to undress to her very
shift, in the presence of suspicious officials
who suspect her of hiding valuable merchan
dise in her clothing.
Under a new rule, recently made, an Ameri
can returning from a foreign tour, or residence
abroad must pay the tariff on everything that
he has in his baggage, over and above wear
ing apparel and personal ornaments valued at
SIOO. In this way our remorselessly ravenous
Trusts endeavor to shut out even one extra
suit of good clothing, one foreign-made gown,
one first-class watch, one really Oriental rug.
The practical effect of this outrageous new
rule will be, to tax everything excepting the
clothes that the traveller has on his person.
And he will probably be searched, lest he be
wearing two suits.
So afraid are our manufacturers that their
monopoly of the home market will be im
paired, that they resort to the most extreme
measures to prevent foreign manufacturers
from reaching our people, unburdened by the
additional price which the Custom-house duty
would compel the sender to charge. There is
every reason to believe that a system of es
pionage exists which calls into the service of
the manufacturers of this country, the spy
ing upon rich employees of the servants
in the household. I cannot otherwise under-
(CONTINUED ON PAGE NINE.)
Price, Five Cents