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More Trouble for Us Fool Dem
ocrats in Georgia*
I N a moment of mental aberration, we Demo
** crats of Georgia decided that we loved
Coca-Cola better than beer or bitters.
Therefore, we imported a Westerner, a
peripatetic philosopher named Eichelberger,
to co-operate with our own matchless Bosh
Felder; and, following the lead of this Castor
and Pollux brotherhood, we drove out all
manner of tipple, including persimmon beer,
home-made wine, home-made peach-and
lioney, home-made cherry bounce, and home
made brandy cherries.
To insure the rigidly righteous enforce
ment of the law, we authorized the minions
of the law to bust open the front door, search
grandfather’s clock, and grandmother's frock,
and every other possible hiding-place which
might secrete bug-juice.
But Coca-Cola was the Sacred Cow. Coca-
Cola was the Holy of Holies. Coca-Cola
was the Boss Joss of the inner sanctuary; and
'Asa Candler was its high-priest, and Saint
Elmo Massengale was its herald, its bugle, its
clarion, its trumpet, its haut-boy, its tom-tom,
its brass-band, and its torchlight procession.
Consequently, we Democrats, after having
abolished all drinks except Coca-Cola and
similar hog-wash, placed Saint Elmo in con
trol of our machinery, external and internal.
His drink is the only drink that we are
allowed to drink, unless we content ourselves
with red lemonade and pot-liquor—and the
State insists upon inspecting the pot.
His gentle hand, gentle but firm, holds our
external machinery; and so it happens that
we Democrats are bottled up, as it were, by
Saint Elmo and Coca-Cola.
That's one reason I suppose, that no Geor
gia Democrat was allowed a chance to vote
in a Presidential primary, although the Bal
timore platform promised us that- privilege.
Not a single man in Georgia has voted for
the nomination of Woodrow Wilson, for a
second term: yet, that noble patriot and truly
great statesman, James It. Gray, heads the
Georgia delegation to the National convention.
See what too much Coca-Cola has done for
us already!
In the meantime, Asa Candler is buying
up all the earth, in and around Atlanta ; and
if this thing keeps on, Asa will be landlord
to us all, and we’ll have to pay rent for the
air we breathe.
However, what I started out to do was to
call your attention to the way Saint Elmo
and n ear-saint Asa Candler side-stepped the
Harrison Narcotic law—the terribly cruel and
useless law that inflicts untold agony upon
unfortunates, and grossly insults every hon
est doctor, apothecary, druggist, and phar
macist.
In a. published address to the Drug trade
and to all who may be concerned in the
Public Health and Morals, J. Leyden White,
of Washington, D. C., makes the following
statement:
The National Association of Retail Druggists
influenced certain changes, but there was one
passage that remained in the bill, and it is now
in the law. It is to be found at the end of Section
V, the words being:
“The provisions of this Act shall not apply to
(flecocainized cocoa leaves or preparations made
therefrom, or to other preparations of cocoa leaves
Which do not contain cocaine.”
This provision was placed in the Harrfson nar
cotic law solely for the benefit of the Coca-Cola
Company, of Atlanta, Georgia, for whom Mr.
Brokmeyer was, and to the best of my knowledge
Mill is, attorney. It was placed there with the
knowledge of Dr. Hamilton Wright, at the instiga
tion and largely through the influence of Mr.
|3rokmeyer, with whom Dr. Wright was on terms
pf intimacy during most of the time that the
latter gentleman was an employee of the Depart
ment of State.
In view of Mr. Brokmeyer’s criticisms of the
officials now in charge of the administration of
the Harrison narcotic law, it may be stated that
THE JEFFERSONIAN
Dr. Wright recently was, and I believe still is, an
applicant for position of technical expert in direct
connection with the enforcement of the Harrison
narcotic law.
So far as I have been able to learn from skilled
chemists, the only product from dec’ocainized
cocoa leaves, which the exemption at the end of
Section 6 would affect, is known as “Merchandise
No. 5,” a secret preparation produced only at
one chemical plant in New Jersey, the entire out
put being controlled and taken by the Coca-Cola
Company and used in the manufacture of Coda-
Cola.
What “Merchandise No. 5” may—or may not —-
be I shall take up later, but, regardless of that,
the words I have quoted from the law are a
“joker” for the benefit of one corporation.
That corporation claims that "Merchandise No.
5” is used exclusively for “flavor.” Accepting
that statement for the sake of argument, we are
faced with the fact that one of the gravest and
most important of laws —one of the most vital
and ethically revolutionary enactments of the
American Congress—carries a “joker” to preserve
the taste of a so-called “soft drink!”
On the other hand, if “Merchandise No. 5”
imparts a narcotic effect —a coc’aine effect to those
who imbibe it through Coca-Cola—it then,
through the last sentence of Section 6, be
comes the only narcotic whose distribution is
not restricted under the Harrison law. In this
event, the Harrison narcotic law becomes a busi
ness asset for the Coca-Cola Company; this
“joker” then operates directly to the advantage
of the said company and gives it a monoply in
“dope,”
If we admit, for purposes of discussion, that
“Merchandise No. 5” does only impart a flavor,
and that the active principle of Coda-Cola is to be
found in caffein or some other habit-forming
drug, then the “joker” still, though indirectly,
protects the distribution of a habit-forming drink.
Whatever the exact operation of this “joker”
may be, Eugene C. Brokmeyer, attorney for the
National Association of Retail Druggists, as at
torney for the Coca-Cola Company, is the man
most responsible for putting it there.
James F. Finneran, of Boston, Chairman of
the Executive Committee of the National Associa
tion of Retail Druggists, is the man most re
sponsible for the engagement of Mr. Brokmeyer,
attorney for the Coca-Cola Company, as attorney
for the National Association of Retail Druggists.
Why might the Coca-Cola Company deem it
important to have one of its attorneys acting as
attorney and Washington representative for the
National Association- of Retail Druggists?
Before the laws forbade, Coca-Cola was made
with cocoa leaves with all the cocaine left in.
Why this persistenc’e in the use of cocoa leaves?
Why the labor, cost and risk of putting jokers
in the Harrison law, to exempt “Merchandise No.
5,” if not necessary to protect Coca-Cola from
classification as a narcotic drug?
Although today the druggists dispense a large
amount of Coca-Cola it is but a minor part of
the total output. Numerous fountains in candy,
cigar and stationery stores sell quantities, and
the industry of bottling it has become enormous.
Bottling plants are scattered over the country,
and from these it is going through grocery and
general stores into the homes in case lots. It is
penetrating to the farms and mines in remote
sections, and the cumulative effects of its use
have been undoubtedly vastly increased through
Consumption from bottles in the home, as com
pared with sales by the glass in drug stores.
I have referred to the claim of its defenders
that “Coca-Cola is just like coffee.”
Then why do thousands go direct from the
breakfast coffee to drink glass after glass of
Coca-Cola at a fountain? Why do they not stop
at restaurants for more coffee?
If it is “just like coffee” why do other thou
sands of coffee drinkers use it in their homes,
not only between meals but at the table with
coffee?
If it is “just like coffee” how is it that nearly
every town or neighborhood has those who are
openly known as “Coca-Cola dopes,” who drink
from five to twenty glasses or bottles per day,
when among coffee habitues not one in hundreds
drink five cups per day?
Study the situation for a moment, and you
will see its meaning.
Coca-Cola lawyers, lobbyists, press-agents,
&c., have buncoed Congress and secured an
exemption from the Harrison law, which
knocks out drinks and drugs far less injurious
than Coca-Cola.
Thus it has a monopoly in one direction.
Then it penalizes all such drinks as beer,
wine, whiskey, &c., hut escapes the law itself,
although it is far more' injurious than either
beer, wine, or whiskey.
Thus it secures a monopoly in another di-
rection, for it is an undeniable fact that ft
considerable portion of the human race has
always used stimulants of one kind or an
other, and the natural presumption is, that
human nature will aways Lie the same.
If the man who wants “dope" can't get any
other, he buys Coca-Cola.
If a man who wants a stimulant can't get
any other, he buys Coca-Cola.
So, there you are: Coca-Cola reaps a har
vest of golden ducats when all other dopes
are driven out; and it reaps another, when
all other stimulants are driven out.
The Methodist church can't move against
Coca-Cola, because Asa is the brother of our
Bishop, and Asa gives us a million dollars
for our religious college.
The Baptist church can't move against
Coca-Cola, because we're “poor and mean
with it.’’ and we have no organization except
the Southern .Baptist Association, and that
is down with a severe “summer complaint,’’
on account of the distant- heathen who reside
in Cathay. Nippon, Oceanica, Terra del hue
go, and other remote vineyards, where the
liarvest is ripe and the reapers few.
The Democratic party can't move against
Coca-Cola, because Saint Elmo sits at the
head of the table, and we can't think of
assailing the only Saint we Democrats are
able to exhibit.
So, you see, when you take it up one side
and down the other, we Georgia Democrats
have played h—ll, and lots of it.
And, what's more, we ain't done.
As Clark Howell truly says, “the cam
paign is young yet.’’
HUGH DORSEY’S SUCCESSOR
IN THE SOLICITORSHIP.
John A. Boykin, One of Leo
Frank’s Lawyers, Wants it.
'T'HE following letter should be read and
1 considered by every voter in the Atlanta
circuit, of which Hugh Dorsey is Solicitor-
General, for the writer of the letter is a can
didate for the office:
Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 13, 1915.
Dear Sir: I thank you from the bottom <>f my
heart for article appearing in Sunday’s and to
day’s issue of The Chronicle. Your courage is
SUBLIME. All honest Georgians should honor
you for the work you are doing to combat and
counteract the forces of evil set in motion by
THAT ARCH-FIEND, TOM WATSON.
I rejoice and thank God that we have one
Georgian brave and brainy enough to present the
side of truth, and who can so ably present THE
FACTS THAT WILL CLEAR THE NAME OF
JOHN M. SLATON, AS TRUE AND HONEST .V
MAN AS EVER LIVED, from that charge of cor
ruption in his official act as Governor. You
should be supported by every honest Georgian.
I am with you ’till the end. Your editorial is
convincing. It has been read and favorably re
ceived here.
With best wishes, Yours truly,
JOHN A. BOYKIN.
The 4th Degree Oath of the
Knights of Columbus.”
O meet the bluff and the falsehoods of
those Americans who have foresworn
loyal principles, and have become oath-bound
subjects of a foreign power, I have carefully
prepared the above-named pamphlet.
The men who take that oath are traitors
to our Government, and spies in our camp.
They arc armed and drilled, as military
men, and kept in readiness to use their steel
swords, and their up-to-date rifles against
their fellow citizens.
This question of Popery is the most impor
tant question now facing the people of
America.
Get my pamphlet, and study the facts for
yourselves. Priced ten cents.
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