NOTES ON GEORGIA POLITICS. J
/ T' HE L. &N. Railroad is playing the same
subtle game it played in the conquest of
Kentucky and Tennessee, in which campaigns
.Governor Goebel and Senator Carmack were
foully assassinated by L. & N. partisans.
The President of the L. & N. admits that
his books show the expenditure of millions, to
create or control public opinion in those con
quered States; &W he refuses to tell the U. S.
Government who got the money.
In this refusal, the daily papers, and the
public men who got the money, are strongly
in favor of silence on the part of President
Milton Smith.
The L. & N. Railroad is determined to shark
our State Road, and if you will exercise your
memory a little, you will be able to see certain
men in their true light.
When Gov. Harris opened his campaign
for re-election, did he say that he was opposed
to the sale of the State Road?
He did not! On the contrary, he meandered
around for weeks, telling the people that there
was much to be said on both sides. He kept
this non-committal line during the whole time
that the Macon Telegraph, Bill Burwell, and
other Harris supporters were strongly ad
vocating the sale to the L. & N.
Not until Dorsey entered the race, declaring
against either selling, or paralleling, did Har
ris cease his ambiguous talk.
The Harris supporters right now are work
ing to change public sentiment, on that sub
ject. Every few days, The Telegraph prints
long articles which are presumably paid for
by the L. & N.
Are any of the Dorsey supporters doing
this ?
Not one!
Hamp McWhorter, Clayt. Robson, and
Bosh Felder are the king-bee lobbyists of
Georgia, with railroad reputations reaching
back for many years.
Neither Felder. Robson, nor McWhorter
would take trouble to deny their relations to
the great interlocked corporations which dic
tate so much of our legislation, and control
so many of our elections.
Now, who are those three King-bee lobbyists
and wire-pullers supporting in this campaign?
Not Dorsey !
A blind man can see, that Harris and Pot
tle are practically hunting in couples,. Me-
Whorte r being for Harris first, and Pottle
second; while Robson is for Pottle first, and
Harris second.
Both are opposed to Dorsey!
At the last of a Legislature, when so many
slick tricks by old hands can be worked on
the members from the country, who was it
that tried to slip in an amendment giving a
Committee the right to privately sell the most
valuable asset owned by the State?
It was Bill Burwell.
Is Burwell for Dorsey? “Not so that you
could notice it.”
I
It is a cheeky thing for the Ilarris-Pottle
combination to publish a statement that Dor
sey belongs to the L. & N. Railroad, because
Dorsey formerly belonged to a firm of lawyers
Which did a corporation practice.
Let’s see about Col. Nat.:
Several years ago the Macon and Northern
Railroad went to the bad, and Col. Nat., who
was Attorney for the bondholders, was ap
pointed Receiver. The Central of Georgia
wanted the Macon & Northern, as badly—
almost —as the L. & N. now wants the W. & A.
But the Seaboard also coveted the bankrupt
line of which Col. Nat. had been made legal
bosr
THE JEFFERSONIAN
Through a deal made with Col. Nat. and his
bondholding clients, the Central R. R. got the
Macon & Northern—the line which runs from
Macon to Athens.
A responsible lawyer of Col. Nat’s home
town informs me that the Central R. R. was
so pleased with his conduct as Receiver, that
it made a contract with him, giving him, for
life, the Attorneyship for the Macon & North
ern branch, and that every summer he was to
have a private Pullman car, free, to convey
him and his family to their summer home in
East Tennessee.
I know that he was using a private Pull
man, free of charge, because I came across
that fact during a controversy with the late
Charles Pendleton, then Editor of The Tele
graph.
Col. Harris was lawyer for the railroads
and Secretary of The Telegraph Company, at
the same time, and I commented upon this
connection which the paper had with the cor
porations, through Nat. Harris.
No denial was made by either Harris or
Pendleton.
When the old man entered the race for gov
ernor, giving out the idea that he only wanted
one term, and tendering to Hamp McWhor
ter his resignation as R. R. lawyer, I thought
it fair to assume that his former relations
with corporations would not unduly influence
him as Chief Executive. Consequently I sup
ported him freely, and earnestly, defending
him on the very point of his former employ
ment by railroads.
If it be true, as stated, that his son is now
the railroad lawyer in Macon, the fact would
warrant the supposition that Hamp Mc-
Whorter is holding the Colonel’s old place
open for him; and that Nathaniel will again
be Hamp’s appointee, after next June.
There’s nothing like throwing an anchor to
windward, you know. The Atlanta Chamber
of Commerce, and the Northern corporations
entrenched there, will take care of Col. Nat.
Asa Candler is director in a big railroad
which belongs to the L. & N.
Asa is also director of the Democratic State
machinery, through his Coca-Cola advertis
ing agent, St. Elmo Massengale.
Asa is likewise Mayor of Atlanta, wherein
the L. & N. have Union Depot and other pat
riotic designs.
Asa holds a mortgage of four million dol
lars on every taxable thing in Georgia, includ
ing your watch, your shot-gun, and your wife's
wash-pot.
This mortgage does not cover Coca-Cola,
because Coca-Cola belongs to Asa, and is not
a taxable thing.
Murphy Candler is a member of the W.
& A. Commission which will come into contact
with the L. & N. sharks.
Murphy is also Railroad Commissioner,
and is running again.
So far as the Candler's are concerned, here
is what you might call a truly rural situation.
Is Asa Candler supporting Dorsey?
Is St. Elmo Massengale for Dorsey?
As Guy Clopton says, in the Gainesville
Herald, the Atlanta papers and capitalists
and politicians that are fighting Dorsey
hardest, are the Buy-a-Bale swindlers, the
men who wanted to dictate to the farmer how
many acres he should plant in cotton, the
politicians who wanted to put a direct Federal
tax on cotton, and who antagonized the
County-unit plan which is the salvation of
country counties.
Gov. Harris owed his election to County
unit advocates, and to the County-unit plan;
but, just as he went over to the enemy on
everything else, he deserted us on that also,
and vetoed the Neill bill.
Mrs. Nelms requests me to publish the fol
lowing letter from herself to Mr. Pottle:
Atlanta, Ga., August 21, 1916.
Mr. Joseph E. Pottle,
Dear Sir: You have been quoted repeatedly in
various newspapers as having referred in your
political speeches to me and my family and my
misfortunes, and as having attempted to arouse
sympathy for me with that recitation in order to
excite prejudice against Mr. Hugh M. Dorsey, can
didate for governor.
You are quoted as blaming Mr. Dorsey for hav
ing accepted employment by me; as representing
that he took a mortgage on my home to insure
his fee; as representing him to be a man who
would take a “widow’s mite’’ for work he ought
to have done without charge or ought not to have
done at all —which, I am unable to determine
from reports of your speeches.
The facts of this matter are, that I employed
Mr. Horsey of my own volition to represent the
sheriff of Bexar County, Texas, before the Su
preme Court at Washington in resisting an appeal
by Mr. and Mrs. Victor E. Innes on their petition
for habeas corpus. The governor of Texas had de
clined or neglected to see that the sheriff of Bexar
County was so represented. It therefore became
necessary for me, the mother of the two girls
who were murdered and the one most at interest,
to see that this representation was made.
I had the right to employ Mr. Dorsey for tliis
private and personal service, and he had the right
to accept that employment. The amount of the
fee I agreed to pay him for this work is a matter
of private contract between him and myself.
I have no objection to his making it known,
but I see no reason why I should inform you of it.
Further, the method of payment of that fee also
was a matter of private contract between us, with
which I think you are not concerned. If the news
papers have correctly quoted you as saying that
I mortgaged my home to insure its payment to
Mr. Dorsey, you either are misinformed or negli
gent of the truth.
With due reference to you and whatever you
may consider the necessities of your efforts against
Mr. Dorsey’s integrity and fitness for the office of
governor, permit me to say that in my opinion
you have violated good taste and have shown
utter disregard of my sensibilities by bringing my
name and my great griefs into your selfish politi
cal discourses. This is to ask that you show me
hereafter the courtesy of refraining from any di
rect or indirect mention of me in your public
speeches.
Let me add, in order that you may know my
mental attitude toward you, that my former in
difference toward your campaign for governor
has been converted into a positive dislike by your
very insincere and totally inexcusable efforts to
arouse prejudice against Mr. Dorsey by appealing
for sympathy for me.
Yours very truly,
MRS. JNO. W. NELMS.
Those who remember how the attorneys of
Leo Frank urged the U. S. Supreme Court
to hand down its decision, without waiting
the customary length of time, will also re
member how the hearing before the Prison
Commission was “speeded up,” and given pre
cedence of other cases of long standing.
My recollection is, that the arguments be
fore the Commission were suddenly cut short,
in order that the case might go at once to
Governor Slaton.
In all of the voluminous literature of that
hot period, last year, I do not remember any
complaint being made on account of the case
being brought to Slaton; but, on the contrary,
much comment was provoked by the evident
haste of Frank's lawyers to get it before him.
I know of one member of the Atlanta bar
who urged Slaton to let the case go to his suc
cessor, because Slaton’s legal partnership
with Frank’s lawyers.
Furthermore, I have been told, within the
last few days, of a Superior Court Judge, re
lated to Slaton, who strongly protested against
his taking jurisdiction in a case where he was
also attorney for the defendant.
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