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About The Columbia sentinel. (Harlem, Ga.) 1882-1924 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 1920)
Vol. 38 MR. WATSON FLAYS FOES IN SPEECH AT WASHINGTON TUESDAY. Before an immense throng of people, gath ered in a beautiful grove near the county seat of Wilkes County, Mr. 'Watson returned to the stump for the first time since his illness following his arrest at Buford. Mr. Watson used the Buford incident as an example of the constitutional violations be¬ ing practised by Woodrow Wilson and his subordinates. For an hour and a half, Mr. Watson dis¬ cussed the issues of this campaign. Beginning his address by relating his Buford experiences, he declared: “I lay in that jail all night simply because I refused to accept conditional bail. I know my legal rights, and I demanded them. The law accepts bail unconditionally, and the ef¬ forts of those Buford conspirators to deny me my legal rights filled me with anger, as it would have filled you with anger. Before a man can be legally arrested lie must be serv ed with a warrant duly issued by a Justice oi the Peace. Before God, I have not until this day seen a warrant against me. All my rights provided in the Constitution of my country were wilfully disregarded by those Buford conspirators. ’ ’ Mr. Watson then proceeded to discuss the issues involved in the campaign, outlining his position on the League of Nations, and review¬ ing the stand taken by Senator Smith and Governor Dorsey. “What will the Honorable Hugh Dorsey do if he gets to the Senate?” Whereupon a man shouted “He will not get there, Tom, 1 ? and there v. ere loud cheers. 4 4 That saves me ten minutes, then,” said Mr. Watson. “I won’t talk about him any re. ference to Hoke Smith, he said that Hoke .s admitted that he regulated the cot ton v. 1 ket. i- mpathized with the farmers in their sad s' t brought about by reason of the boll wesvi. and Senator Smith’s neglect of duty duvirjj 1 he last few weeks, resulting in a drop' of the market. He declared that it was very sad for the farmers to lose their cotton crop to the Loll weevils, and their top crop to Hoke Smith.. Anent Senator Smith’s stand on F Leagmf of Nations, he said: “‘.Hoke has been on every side of this quest!tm. He’s been for theLeague, and he’s bee;, figainst it. He’s been for reservations, and Ce’s been against them, He’s been againr.t the whole d—thing and he’s been for A. He admitted, modestly enough, that he #frote the Lodge Reservations, but he de ?•" Al that he was supporting said reservations. f£ any of you know where Hoke Smith stands on the League question, you certainly know more than Senator Smith knows. Doubtless lie would admit that himself. There is hut one way for a man to stand, and that is against the whole League proposal, because it sur¬ renders the rights that our fathers won after seven years of bitter fighting. It violates the Supreme Law of this Republic, and tramples into the dust the glorious traditions of this nation. It is an attempt to make free bora Americans slaves to Europe, which is bank¬ rupt in men and money. They want your sol¬ diers, your munitions, your money. You hear that a League is to bring eternal peace. Well, the League has been in force sometime, and there are more wars now than existed when the League was organized. No League will be able to stop wars or rumors of wars. The League idea is not a new one. It is an old idci, tried out many years ago, found to be r.'failure, and abandoned until England deci¬ ded that the tottering condition of her bank¬ rupt Empire demanded the financial assistance v f the American Republic. The American Re t ublio should not become a party to England’s selfish schemes. A nation is an aggregate of individuals. A League of warlike nations will still have the warlike characteristics of the individual members. For this nation to enter the League is to surrender the rights which y out- forefathers won through seven years of war with England. Those rights we retained until Woodrow AYilson was elected as a Demo¬ crat, but soon became an autocrat.” “If Wilson had said, when he was a candi date, that lie intended to arrest men and de¬ port them without warrant, and trial by jury, he would never have been elected. If it is sedition to say these things then clap the irons on my wrists - I am a seditionist,” declared the speaker while the vast throng roared their hearty approval. had announced that he in¬ •“If Wilson tended to conscript your sons to fight foreign wars, he would not have carried a single State. The greatest battles of history have been won by volunteers. You don’t have to conscript i! * V: i 1/ * Miillk ) - c Price $2.00 Per Year free men to fight for their country when at tacked by- an enemy. Conscription wasn’t needed in the old days and it is not needed now. If any foreign fleet ever sails for these shores, we can raise an army of twenty million men at the sound of a bugle, who will back any army Europe can send against, us.” Mr. Watson said that if the Officers’ Le gion had investigated his record, and read Iris paper, it would never accuse him of working against the interests of the private soldier. He said that lie had always c fended the pri¬ vates against the injustice and cruelty of their officers. CITES soldier’s HANGINGS. Mr. Watson repeated the statement that American soldiers were hanged at Gievres, France. 4 4 I hold in mv hand a picture of the gallows,” and there was great interest mani¬ fested by the audience as the picture was handed to the crowd for inspection. Many mothers wept. Old fathers—many of them Confederate soldiers—were moved <0 tire greatest emotion when the speaker described the soldier boy dragged from the fireside, hur¬ riedly transformed into a cog in a vast war machine, hurled across the ocean and landed in a foreign country, to meet the fate of death on a gallows by orders of the brutal officers put over him. 4 4 Did they tell you that your boy would be a victim of Gievres? I 11 the pa¬ pers you were told, each morning, how many soldiers were killed, wounded, or died from disease. Then the list followed “died from other causes. ’ thus covering the criminality practised at Gievres. 1 * Mr. Watson discussed the activity of Basil Stoekbridge and Trammell Scott. He de¬ plored the fact that “old man Stoekbridge and 1 is son, Basil, disagree over party prin ciples. The father is a Republican and the son one of the principallest democrats we have. As to Trammell Scott, that wound he received on the outskirts of Atlanta incapacitated him for active duty at the front. Scott remained back of the line, but not as far back as Per¬ shing did. W T heu the battle got hot,’Scott may have corkscrewed his way into Per filing’s million dollar dug-out. Mr. Watson declared that the efforts of the Atlanta Legion to dictate to the voters of Georgia would meet vigorous repudiation at the polls, September 8th. He said that “Ev ery one who thinks must realize the deadly danger to our Civil power, our Civil Courts, our Democratic principles, when a Military Class forms a secret organization and begins its career of military dictation to the civilian voters.” REVIEWS HIS PLATFORM. Air. Watson reviewed his platform, and outlined to his audience what he expected to do, if elected to the Senate. He pledged himself to : (1) The immediate repeal of all laws authorizing U. S. officers and spies to invade, the States, breaking info private rooms and dwellings without search warrants, arresting persons without criminal warrant , earning these persons into dungeons, refusing such persons a public and speedy trial, refusing to present tliir cases to grand-juries, refusing them their Constitutional right to trial by jury, hut trying them in secret, before an agent of the so-called Department, ot Justice, refusing them the benefit of counsel and of compulsory process to bring their own wit nesses into court; and convicting them without evidence, except that of Mitchell Palmer's paid spies. Unless these unconstitutional acts of Con¬ gress shall be repealed, no citizen of this Union will be safe from the spies, thugs,Moran- Federal rers, perjurers, and murderers of Government who announces the new doctrine, that the accused must prove his innocence. The mental dementia of AVoodrow Wilson shows itself nowhere more unmistakably than in his rage for despotic power, and his craze for keeping us technically at war, when every sane American wants peace, and knows he it- it not for Wlsoh s mulish SCHEDULE OF MR. WATSON’S SPEAKING DATES SEPTEMBER. Atlanta, Thursday, 2nd, 8 P. Al. (Auditorium-Armory.) Friday, 3rd, 11 A. M. Calhoun, (Gordon County.) em, Ga., /W&aday, September 6, f S20. obstinacy. (-) If elected, I will do niv utmost to have a jail delivery of all citizens who ■ire imprisoned ’ eeause of Wilson's autocratic in tolerance of opinions different from his own. President Wilson telegraphed his con gratulations to the French Republic, on anniversary of the d- struction, by the mob, of the French Bastille, in which arbitrary Bourbon Kings incarcerated innocent men, without warrant and without trial. He did not have mind enough to remem her the victimized Russellitcs, the victimized conscientious objectors, and the 'fietiniized Socialsts, one of whom, Eugene Debs, s still in prison because he had the bravery to tell the truth about the real causes of the Great Wa r. infify m 4 . (3) 1 will do all power to repeal these statutes which attempt to enlarge the law of treason, os defined in the Constitution of the United States. The attempts being insidiously made arc known as the Alien, Sedition, and Espionage laws; and they seek to make treasonable mere words, mere expressions of opinion, peaceable assemblage to criticise the government, and all other aets of free men and women not in accord with the official views of the White 1 louse. __ Constitution of the United . State' dhe . has but one definition for treason, and that definition cannot be changed, except by flu will of the people, pxpresssed through State Legislatures, after two-thirds of Senate and Lower House of Congress shall have proposed the amendment, and 1 nice fourths of the State Legislatures shall have r atified it. The law of treason, as defined in the Constitution, requires that the traitor shall have made war upon the United Staes. or have given aid and comfort to their enemies; and the Constitution expressly says that un less the accused makes confession of guilt in open court, he shall not be convicted, except by the testimony of turn witnesses, swearing to the same overt act. (“Act”, mind you.) (4) If you elect me your Senator, I will strive with all my might <0 return to von your personal liberties, which have been taken away from you by the despotic adminis¬ tration of Woodrow A\ilsOn. Those rights are set forth by the Supreme lew of the land, made by the Fathers, who won our liberties, by seven years of terri 1 struggle. read In the Constitution itself, you will that no man shall he punished for any crime involving moral turpitude, until after the following steps have been taken against him: An affidavit made by a citizen: a warrant is¬ sued by a Alagistrate inside the State and county where the alleged crime was commit¬ ted; the right to give bond, and a bond which shall not be excessive: the right to a speedy trial, and one which shall be public: the right to be .tried by a jury of his neighbors and his equals, in the vicinity in which the accused has lived and in which the crime is alleged to have been committed: no unusual punish¬ ment shall be inflicted upon the accused, even after the trial-jury shall have unanimously found him guilty. right face his He shall have the to accus ers, and to compulsory process to bring his own witnesses. The infamous doings of the Department of Justice, under Mitchell Palmer, the present incompetent and tyranical Attorney-General , have crowded the jails of this country with citizens, males and females, and even little children, under the Alien Ket, who were a r rested without warrant, released without com¬ pensation, or banished to Russia. (5) As is well known throughout the country, I am opposed to the League of Na¬ tions, root, and branch, with or without reser¬ vations. A woman cannot lose her innocence, and reserve it: neither can a nation surrender its Thomson, Saturday, 4th, 11 A. M. * (AIcDuffie County.) Metter, Tuesday 7th, 11 A. M. (Candler County.) Issued! Weekly I independence, and “reserve” it. I There can be no conspiracy of Presidents, ' Premiers, Kin::.-, .Mikados, arid Autocracies, j which does not over-ride and over rule every member of that League, e. cepting majority - vote England. j In spite of all interpretations and roser vat ions, (whir h can be swept such* away by a Su j promo Council in Europe), a League and such a Supreme Council will subordinate j to a secondary position everv member fiat u over which it has been made supreme. England is safe and do mini, nt, because she retains tin majority rote. Had the League been adopted when Wil¬ son first demanded it, or when if <vas first organized in London, we would now be in¬ volve,1 in Britain’s war against Russia, in the Italian war with Bulgaria, in the Grecian war against the Turkish Empire, in the English war against the Turkish Empire, in the French war against Syria, in England’s war against the Arabs on tin Red Sea and on the Euphrates. These Leaguers, who are being hoodwink¬ ed by the International bankers and bond* holders, are even now clamoring for Amer¬ ican troops to help the British and French, beat the Russians bach, when they have driven the Poles from Russia, which country the Poles invaded al the instigation of France, England and President Wilson, Flic Poles were supplied with guns, tuu n iti 0 ns, clothing ami food hi England, Francs \ and President Wilson. | Even now, the egomaniac Wilson, is j stealthily aiding Poland in everv possible wav j tfii) I am immovably opposed to Con. pulsory military training, in peace. Such training is the death of democracy, and blood-lust. (7) If elected your Senator, I pledgo myself to do all in my power to repeal what i.S> known as the franking privilege, which al¬ lows Memebers of Congress, Cabinet Officers, heads of Departments, and the President, himself, to send thousands of millions of pounds of mere junk through the mails, -with¬ out paying postage on it. (8) I will endeavor to stop the appro priation of money to publish Government pa¬ pers and. magazines. It, will l»e oue of my purposes to improve the R. F. D. service, and put the parcels post, on such a footing as that it will really com¬ pete with the express companies. At present it does not. (9) If elected to the Senate, I will do ! "W utmost to re-assert , and restore the re¬ served rights ot the 8fiat.es. Wo need a determined .leadership, which will establish the Americanism which is writ¬ ten in tli Declaration of Independence, in the 17. S. Constitution, in Washington’s Farewell Address and in the great messages and ad¬ dresses of Thos. Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Robert Toombs, Benj. Hill and Alexander H. Ste¬ phens. We do not intend to have our American lsm me bg the secret Code of those Popish rations—the Knights of Colwm bus, the Jesuits, and the young officer 1 of the American Legion. (10) I will do my utmost to have the Postmaster-General de, rived of all power to censor the mails, and to crush publications which do not meet his approval. Let every publisher be responsible to the courts, for any abuse of Free Press, but let the Postmaster-General keep his paws off. His office does not impose upon him the arduous duty of teaching a free people what, to say and print: his official duty is to see that the mails are efficiently handled; and if he does that, he will have measured np to the full expectations of the public. opinions We don’t intend to take our from the White House, or from the Post Office Department; and the sooner that idea soaks into the head of such petty tvrants as Burleson and Woodrow Wilson, the better it will be for democracy, civilization, and the happiness of mankind, everywhere. (11) We want the thousands of useless employees, the majority oi whom are negroes and Catholics, put off the pay rolls of the Government, since they have nothing now to do—-if ever they had anything to do, except, to enjoy themselves at your expense. (12) Without any authority whatsoever President Wilson loaned to European Kings and European Governments, nine thousand million dollars of your money. I oppose this unconstitutional policy. (Continued on Page Pol.'.) Itya. 47»
