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WATSON'S EDIT ORIALS President Phinizy ’s Letter. It gave The Jeffersonian pleasure to publish last week the letter of the Hon. Jacob Phin izy, president of the Georgia railroad. That Mr. Phinizy is quite earnest in his de fense of the present management of the great property over which he holds a nominal con trol, cannot be doubted. He believes that all is well. Like the Italian road commissioners in Onida’s “Village Commune,” who were al most jostled and bumped and jolted to death in traveling up to town, but who adopted with alacrity and without debate the resolution of the superintendent that the roads were in ex cellent condition, President Phinizy stands loyally by the mismanagement of Mister Colo nel Scott, although it would seem, from news paper accounts, that Mr. Phinizy and his nephew, Mr. Bowdre Phinizy, were incom moded and delayed by a Georgia railroad wreck while on their way to the trial of the case before the commission in Atlanta. To agree with Mr. Phinizy in his contention that the Georgia railroad is well managed and is in good condition, would either compel us to shut our eyes to the physical facts, or to en dorse the doctrine that good management is to be judged solely by the dividends earned. If it be good management to run the Geor gia railroad for no other purpose than to pile up millions for a gang of greedy, unscrupu lous, lawless rascals in New York, then the Georgia railroad has been well managed. It has done that. No one disputes the fact. But if, on the other hand, good management consists in conscientious recognition of the DUTIES OF A COMMON CARRIER, and the faithful discharge of those duties, then The Jeffersonian stands ready to meet all com ers in any forum, and to maintain that the management of Mister Colonel Scott has been a discredit to all who are responsible for it. Air. Phinizy cannot want us to forget what we ourselves have experienced. Pie does not expect us to forget what we have seen and felt. There is no need of any wrangle to prove that the schedule contracts of the Georgia rail road are constantly violated. Have not thou sands of the patrons of the road been inconven ienced, damaged, put to extra and unnecessary expense in traveling, because of this contin ual violation of schedule contracts? Has not the freight business of the cor poration been wretchedly handled? Have not the merchants, from Augusta to Atlanta, been seriously incommoded, aggravated and injured by reason of the non-delivery of goods within a reasonable time? As to the matter of rotten cross ties, The Jeffersonian KNOWS that it can make legal proof of the statement which it has publish ed. We have talked with the witnesses; we are familiar with the facts; we can vouch for the good character of our informants. The rotten cross ties were there, just-as we said; loose spikes were pulled out with the naked fingers, just as we said; old ties, on being re moved from their place in the road bed, did fall to pieces from sheer rottenness; and at least one rotten cross tie did catch fire, on the main line, and was merrily burning itself away when seen and put out by a drummer who happened to be traveling along the dirt road. That wrecks have been caused by these faulty WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN A Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian ‘Theory of Government. PUBLISHED BY THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON, Editors and Proprietors Temple Court Building, Atlanta, Ga. ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1907. conditions in the road, The Jeffersonian firmly believes. We have been so informed by re sponsible persons who witnessed some of these wrecks and who described the physical con ditions attending them. As to the lack of de cent accommodations for passengers at the stations between Atlanta and Augusta, the. facts speak for themselves. There is not an up-to-date waiting room along the whole line of the Georgia railroad. There is not a single toilet room, so far as we have ever heard. We know that, as a rule, the passenger stations are not supplied with these necessaries. In Atlanta they are provided; in Augusta they are provided; elsewhere they are not pro vided. Why? The reason for their existence in the two large cities applies as forcibly to the towns along the line. Why supply the necessaries at one place, and not at another? The waiting rooms are not kept open at night. Passengers for the night trains are given no accommodations at all. They must stand or squat around in the dark. If the weather is bad, it makes no difference. The wind, the rain, the sleet, the snow—all these the unsheltered patron of the Georgia railroad must endure. The waiting room is there; the lamp is there in its bracket; but the present management of the Georgia railroad is so in fernally mean that the door of the waiting room is kept locked at night, for fear that ten cents' worth of oil might be wasted. So morbidly anxious are our local corporation managers to please their New York Masters with ever increasing net earnings that the health and the comfort of the patrons of the road go for nothing. Maj. Cumming and Mr. Phinizy would feel greatly outraged, no doubt, if their wives and daughters were exposed to inclement weather and were thus thrown upon beds of sickness by road, which denied them the shelter of its wait ing room at night. Having had just that to hap the niggardly inhumanity of the Georgia rail pen to my own daughter at Thomson, I have some feeling in the matter —the more so as I know that the same thing is liable to happen to any patron of the road at any time. Three or four years ago, I lectured at Madi son. Wishing to take the midnight train home, my host drove me down to the depot. A rain storm was on. The waiting room of the Georgia railroad was locked. No light about the depot at all. There I stood in the driving rain, with no shelter whatever. Fortu nately, I caught a glint of the light from the private office of the night telegraph operator, and was given his courteous permission to come in out of the storm. My guests, leaving my home at night for At lanta, have experienced the same luxurious treatment. Only, at Thomson, they do not even find a night operator’s private office to which they can appeal. Whether my guest be Senator Tillman. John Temple Graves, or some other celebrity, makes no difference. We roost around in the dark, unsheltered, until the train comes. And now that it requires a dozen prophets to fore tell when the train will come, our enjoyment of the situation is so keen that I could wish SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: SI.OO PER TEAR Advertising Rates Furnished on Application. Entered at Petteffice, Atlanta, Ga., January U.iqoj, at tecand clan mail matter. Maj. Cumming and Mr. Phinizy would honor me with a similar visit, in order that they, like wise, might be initiated into the subtle de lights of taking the midnight train on their blamed old road. P. S.—lt seems that The Jeffersonian was mistaken in saying that Mister Colonel Scott is a man of northern birth, and it is equally clear that Mr. Phinizy is somewhat hazy con cerning Scott’s politics. Our information is that Scott is a Republican. As to his being a southern man, that only makes the case worse. A southern man who bends all his energies to the task of helping a gang of northern spec ulators to plunder the south, does not stand high in the good graces of The Jeffersonian. * * n Teaching the Parrot. Watch the Man who is teaching the Bird. The man is a Corporation Lawyer and the bird is a Judicial Parrot. The parrot knows many words that have already been taught him by the man, and can say them so that all can understand and admire; but his trainer wants to teach him another word. This word is “Confiscatory.” It is a newly coined word, and a lengthy word, and it gags the parrot a little, but don’t you be uneasy: the parrot will learn the word. And when it gets so that it can say “Confiscatory” as glib ly as its trainer, the corporation kings who own both the bird and trainer, will be ex ceedingly pleased. Why do the owners of the Trainer want him to teach the Bird the new term “Confiscatory”? Because the Government says the Public Roads shall be open to the public at 2 cents per mile. Those who are in possession of our Public Roads claim that if the people are al lowed to travel on their Public Roads at 2 cents per mile those who are in possession will not make any net profit out of the carriage. But how do they know? The carriages now go back and forth half-full, and sometimes less than half-full. Sometimes we see but a dozen passengers in a car that might be full, if the cost of travel were not so high. On Excursion Days, when rates are cheap, the whole train is rammed, jammed and crammed. Sometimes the overflow hangs out at the window, clings on to the railing of the steps, crowds the rear end, and straddles the cow-catcher. Why is the crowd so great? Because of Cheap Rates. So it is, also dur ing the weeks when the railroads publish Spe cial Rates. Traveling becomes cheap; therefore, Mr. Everybody and his wife and children and house dog go traveling. Now suppose the cheap rate was spread out over the whole year, wouldn’t the increased travel spread out over the whole year, also? Os course, it would. But the corporation lawyers are so fond of running to court that they can’t abandon the habit, yet awhile. These intellectual giants get big fees, you know, and they must see to it that “some thing’s doing” all the time, else the Corpora tions might begin to fancy they need not pay out so much money to the lawyers. Consequently, the corporation lawyers are now engaged in the congenial task of persuad ing the judges to decide that legislation is ii