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A MILITANT WEEKLY. THE REASON COMPANY 81 Express Building. No. 7. CAUSE OF SMITH’S DEFEAT Returns sufficiently complete from every county in Georgia show conclusively the election of Hon. Joseph M. Brown and the defeat of Governor Smith. Brown wins by somethin*? over In,ooo majority, car rving a la rye number ot the small counties formerly conceded to Smith, lb* oven carried the Governor s own ward in Atlanta. Whether Mr. Smith carried [i single ward in the capital city is yet to be deter mined. Those results wen* quite unexpected and unlook ed for in view of the fact that a Democratic gov ernor has never before been denied a second term in Georgia, by the party placing him in office. That there was no man in Georgia prepared for such a result is evidenced by the tact that tin* bets over the state were two to one in favor of the governor. • The Reason dot's not believe that in the election of Mr. Brown a protest has been registered by the people against the policies of the Smith administra tion respecting the governing of corporations; neither does it put any confidence in the theory that the opposition of Mr. Watson caused the governor's defeat. If so, the two positions are contradictory, as Watson was supporting Brown in order to get done in a reform way what he had failed to have done by Smith. In other words, he was opposing Smith for his friendliness to corporations and sup porting Brown for his policies to govern them. Neither can disfranchisement of the ignorant negro be assigned as a cause of the revolt, for both Brown and Smith stand for the ratification of the disfran chisement bill. The people have spoken on both legislation to govern public utility corporations and legislation to control the electorate of the state, and their verdict has been unanimous for both. The question, then, is. why has Mr. Smith been rejected? AVas he not carrying out the will of the vc , n _ SINGLE COPY ONE EAR St.OO. 3 EIVF CENTS Savannah, Ga., June (5, 1008 BY E. LAMAR PARKER. people and endeavoring to the best of his ability to till all tin* pledges upon which he was elected? Yes and more. Wo are sure he was; there can be no doubt as to this, as for instance, his revised railroad commis sion bill, which gives to tin* members of the railroad commission the right among other rights to suspend trains on the railroads, regulate freight and passen ger tariff's and to forbid the issuance of free trans portation. As to the disfranchisement bill, there is none more drastic in tin* whole Southern states than Georgia s. In our opinion, Mr. Smith owes his defeat to the passage of tin* prohibition bill. One little indiscre tion in his inaugural address is responsible lor this drastic and undemocratic law being forced on the people. Had ho not given encouragement to the advocates of state prohibition by saving* in his ad dress that he would sign the bill if the legislature would pass it, there would have been no prohibition in Georgia and no opposition to his renomination to succeed himself. He was not elected on this issue. It was not an issue in the 190 b campaign. But it was the whole mighty issue in the campaign .just closed. The people of Georgia and of the South will stand for a great deal, but they will not stand for the interference of affairs of state by the church. Governor Smith got too (‘lost* to the church and the women and a man named Seely; for a while it began to look as if the Methodist circuit rider and the sisters of the Baptist denomination, who any-good people in their sphere, were about to capture the state government and do as they might please with it. egged on by Brother Seely, Dr. Broughton and some other fanatics. This caused the uprising; this put Hoke out and “Little Joe in. It is well. E. LAMAR PARKER, DAVID I>. DYER, Editors* Vol. 1.