Newspaper Page Text
THE
i Jeffersonian
k A to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian
Government.
|K published by
THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON
Editors and Proprietors
Austell Building, Atlanta, Ga.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE - . $i oo PER TEAR.
Advertising Rates Furnished on Application.
Enlfrtd at Printer, Atlanta, Ga., January 11, IQO7, at irctnd clan mail mattrr
ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1907
Gob. Vardaman of Mississippi.
To realize how false may be the impression
made upon your mind by newspaper misrep
resentation, you have but to know, as he really
is,”Tamer K. Vardaman, Governor of Missis-
’ •yofous ’
ir
ifySf* will listen to the talk of his enemies,
you wiy think him a very bad man indeed—
a sort of Catiline-Cade-Tillman combination.
According- to the average Northern editor and
jSoJiJir.iati, Vardaman is an uncouth, lawless
ari(?ib n > whose only distinctive characteris
rJß|tasf trc d of the negro.
*fIMBK-self, have been so venomously libeled
bjJHR* newspapers that, whenever I hear them
un‘ite in abusing some public man, my first
impulse is to believe that he is doing things to
Me Gang, and that The Gang is trying to
cnish him.
That was my opinion, in advance, about
r ardaman—and that, I now find, is the fact.
He has been fighting the organized gang of
plunderers who, in Mississippi, have been loot
ing the convict system, who wanted to deliver
the timber lands of the state to millionaire
corporations, and WHO WANTED TO EX
EMPT MONEY FROM TAXATION,
Think of that, will you?
Think of a gang which would deliberately
tax a poor man’s farm, which might be mort
gaged to half its value, and yet exempt the
rich man’s money which, of course, represents
a surplus!
Well. Vardaman has fought The Gang on
things like these and has whipped it.
Therefore, The Gang hates him.
Personally, James K. Vardaman is a splen
did specimen of manhood. Tall, strongly
built, deep-chested, erect as an Indian chief,
bull-necked, his fine, open countenance clean
shaven; bis grey-brown eyes glowing with
animation as he talks—this Southern leader of
forty-five strikes me as one of the men to
whom our Future will owe much.
He thinks for himself, and is not afraid to
say what he believes.
He has convictions; better still he has noble
purposes; better still, he is a man of the peo
ple ; better still, he does things that need to be
done.
Uncultured?
Why, Vardaman can ciuote more of the best
stuff that’s to be found in our best books than
any public man of my acquaintance. He will
quote you the finest poetry, verse after verse,
for hour after hour.
There isn’t a literary topic you can start up,
there isn’t a social, economic, or political ques
tion that can be mentioned upon which he will
WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
not say something which prJ&es tjj,at he has
studied it, read the literature olyrMftXnd come
to a definite conclusion.
Semi-barbarian? II
Why, Governor Vardaman is uSßMtleman
to the finger tips.
And, in hospitality; he is a Prince of the
Blood.
Self-respecting and, therefore, commanding
respect, Gov. Vardaman is one of the most
easily affable and courtly men of the day.
But the final test of every man is the home
life.
What is he in his home?
What is he at his own fireside —off the pub
lic stage, where the crowd looks on the play?
What is he to wife, and child —and to chos
en friends?
And it is this test which reveals the true
beautv and innate worth of Vardaman’s char
acter —for his Home-life is ideal.
He came into my room, in the morning,
while I was still in bed, and—half-dressed —
GOV. VARDAMAN,
Os Mississippi.
his long, black hair clustering upon his leon
ine head, and flowing down that bull-neck of
his —began to quote poetry.
Among others, he mentioned the hump
backed English poet, Henley, who was denied
the Laureateship because he was not Ortho
dox; and who in defiant scorn flung out those
lines which Jell so much to those who can
comprehend.
Recited in Vardaman’s sonorous and sym
pathetic voice, the words thrilled me through
and through—for I felt as though I had found
a twin-brother who was speaking to me from
over the Big Water:
Out of the night that shelters me
Black as a pit, from pole to pole,
I thank whatever God there be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced or cried aloud;
Beneath the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but not bowed.
However strait may be the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my Fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Lon Libihd&f&tfaibie Jordan ’s
Partner.
For seventeen years the farmers of the At
lanta (Ga.) District have kept Lon Living
ston in Congress.
For seventeen years the corporations have
been using for their own purposes, the Con
gressman whom the farmers elected.
Not a single thing has he done that makes
the condition of the farmers better than it was
when he first won the office. His opportun
ity was great, and he could have done much.
He has not only done nothing for the agricul
tural classes, but he has not even tried.
Think of what this man might have done for
the farmer during this seventeen years in
which they have kept him in office had he
wanted to serve them—with anything more
substantial than lip service.
Had he but given to the farmer half the
zeal he gave to the Southern Railway Com
pany, how much brighter might have been the
home and life of every farmer in the South!
Recently, indeed, he has become loud in
his declaration against cotton Future Gamb
ling-.
But the evil was as great ten years ago as
now; why then, has Livingston not applied
for his “Fraud Order” before this?
Because there was no Farmers’ Union
movement to dupe, mislead and betray, as he
duped, misled and betrayed the Farmers’
Alliance. He and McCune sold out the Farm
ers’ Alliance to the Wall Street Railroaders
led by Pat Calhoun, and he now wants to aid
Harvie Jordan and Joe Hoadley in queering
the great reform movement which the real
farmers have again set on foot.
It is my firm and settled conviction that I
have never known a more abandoned knave
than Lon Livingston. The truth isn’t in
him.
Honesty and sincerity are alien to his char
acter.
«
He revels in double-dealing; he is rotten to
the core; and he is besides, that most disgust
ing of all bad men —an aged libertine.
That such a disreputable and notoriously
evil man should have so long held a place in
National Councils, is a proof of the power of
self-seeking corporations over political ma
chines.
* * n
Co-operation.
Its power is irresistible, and the agricultural
classes must have it.
If they co-operate, all the powers of evil
cannot defeat their just demands.
But—carefully study the meaning of that
word Co-operate.
You cannot co-operate with a man who
wants to do something different from what
vou want to do.
You can’t co-operate with a man whose
purpose is different from yours.
To successfully co-operate with others it
is necessary that there should be mutualitv of
interest.
To successfully co-operate it is absolutely
essential that the lines along which all parties
march shall be parallel lines.