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. Give it to ’em—the lunatics! RUN ’EM OUT! WE RUN OUR ROADS TO MAKE MONEY. n Listen to this Lieutenant Lawton: “No Apologies to Offer. “Referring to the frequency with which the railroads go into federal courts, Colonel Law ton said he had no apologies to offer. He rid iculed and criticised the wave of popular senti ment against the railroads, saying any candi date can ride into office by fighting vested rights. He characterized Mr. Alexander’s ef fort as a stump speech, and intimated that some of his statements were as inaccurate as the statement in Watson’s Jeffersonian that the Central railroad cost $7,000,000 and is cap italized at $50,000,000.” We don’t know when we have read any thing that so impressed us with the fact that the Beneficiaries of Special Privilege always go mad byway of prelude to their own de struction. To adopt this insolent, defiant, bear-baiting tone, at this time, is the sheerest madness— AND IT WILL PAY ITS PENALTY! So far as we can recall, we have never had a word to say about Lawton —Colonel Lawton. Not even when he so arrogantly dismissed Hon. E. K. Overstreet, of Screven county, from a local attorneyship of the Central Ral road because the said Overstreet, as a member of the Georgia Legislature, had exercised his rights as a man, in voting for measures which the corporations opposed. So far as we remember we did not take the trouble to denounce that contemptibly small piece of prejudice, intolerance and tyranny, although it well merited denunciation. But now that Lawton—Colonel Lawton—• has seen fit to drag Mr. Watson’s name into his truculent talk before the Railroad Commis sion, and to treat as utterly false a statement made by The Jeffersonian, Lawton—Colonel Lawton—shall have just as much attention as he demands. The Central of Georgia Railroad was origi nally capitalized at $7,500,000, and has been monkeyed with until its entire stocks, bonds, etc., amount to about $55,000,000! General A. R. Lawton was for many years the General Counsel of the Central Railroad. While holding that position, he caused himself to be named as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1877. The corporations knew what Gen. Robert Toombs proposed to do in that Convention. They knew that he meant to create a Railway Commission, and to make it impossible for competing lines to combine and throttle competition. Consequently, the corporations succeeded in sending some of their best men to the Conven tion. One of these was Gen. A. R. Lawton. During a debate, while the Convention was in session, Gen. Tocmbs arraigned the Cen tral Railroad for repeated violations of its charter. Gen. Lawtort in that de bate. One of the statemehts made by Toombs, and not denied by Lawton, was that “the original capitalization of ‘the Central Railroad was $7,500,000, of which one-half was water.” Gen. Lawton was actively defending the Central from Gen. Toombs’ attack, and he challenged whatever he could of Toombs’ statements, but THIS STATEMENT ABOUT THE ORIGINAL CAPITALIZA TION WAS NOT CHALLENGED AT ALL. Does the younger Lawton know more about it than the elder Lawton did? Would Toombs have made such a statement unless he knew he could prove it? As to subsequent monkeyings with the se curities of the Central, all the world knows how the Pat Calhoun crowd burdened it with a $16,000,000 debt, how it was put through a process of sale and reorganization, and how WATSON’S ' its paper capitalization has been increased to about $55,000,000. Poor old Central! It has the same pitiful, scant, ramshackle outfit of passenger accom modations that it had when Mr. Watson left Mercer University in 1874 to go down to Screven county to teach school. Not an up-to-date passenger waiting room is to be found now any more than it was then. The Jeffersonian offers this advice to Major Hanson and his Lieutenant Lawton: Deal with the situation that confronts you in a spirit of fairness to your own people, and not altogether as bigoted partisans of the rich Yankees to whom you have sold your services. Do not expect the people of the South to be satisfied with a system which plunders them, in violation of law, for the further enrichment of a gang of rascally New York millionaires. Have some regard for your own flesh and blood, for your own kith and kin—and do not arrogate to yourselves the privilege of de nouncing as demagogues THOSE SOUTH ERN MEN WHO STAND UP FOR THE SOUTH AGAINST THE CHARTERED ROBBERS OF THE NORTH! H Dribe the Highlvaymen off the Public Road. Slowly, but surely, the vast inert public is waking up to the fact that IT NEED NOT al low New York Highwaymen to ‘‘hold up” the people who travel THEIR OWN PUBLIC ROADS. Slowly, but surely, public opinion is crys tallizing on the proposition that THE HIGH WAYMEN MUST BE DRIVEN OFF THE PUBLIC ROADS. By Highwaymen, The Jeffersonian means those Wall Street rascals whose only thought in the operation of the Railways is Dividends, Dividends, DIVIDENDS. These lawless bloodsuckers care nothing for the lives and limbs, the health and comfort, of the passengers. They care nothing for the convenience and the prosperity of shippers. If the corporation can squeeze every blessed human being that dais with it—employes, shippers, passengers and all—and clear a net profit of 33 per cent as The Coast Line Rail road did a few years ago —what must be done about it? Shall rates be reduced, and employes and patrons given a share in that marvelous pros perity? No, indeed. The thing to do is to issue more stock, di vide it around among the Wall Streeters, and then go to squeezing everybody again, to earn fat dividends upon this enlarged capitaliza tion. That’s exactly what the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad did: and ONE OF THE FEEDERS OF THIS EARNER OF 33 PER CENT DIVIDENDS IS OUR GEORGIA RAIL ROAD, which the Coast Line has scooped, in violation of the Constitution of the State of Georgia. The Jeffersonian is making a fight against this ruthless greed of the New York thieves who are using our railroads to rob the South. The Jeffersonian means to keep up the fight until these wrongs are righted. Why should Wall Street rascals be allowed to set aside the Constitution of our state? What right has a crew of New York pirates to say that our Constitution is wrong and should be set aside? That’s for the people to say. The voters of Georgia adopted the Constitution: they can repeal it or amend it: BUT WHY SHOULD WE SUBMIT TO HAVING IT SET ASIDE BY FOREIGN CORPORATIONS? Let us never rest until we clear our Public Roads of the Highwaymen. Let us take our railroads back into our own hands. Our land, our cash donations, our grants of privileges and exemptions, our gifWMMI chises MADE TjIESE IRON HIGHWAYS What we gave, we can take away. Our liberality has been abused, our confi dence betrayed, our rights trampled upon, our remonstrances scornfully ignored. LET US DRIVE THESE HIGHWAY ROBBERS OFF OUR PUBLIC ROADS. H « R Editorial Notes. President McCrea, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, filed, with Governor Stuart, an elab orate protest showing in the most conclusive manner that the 2-cent passenger rate would be “Confiscatory.” Ihe Governor of Pennsylvania, being no corporation's parrot, went right ahead and signed Mie bill, thus making the 2-cent rate effective. Railroad “showings” are at a low ebb when they are laughed at even in Pennsylvania. * In Bookkeeping, it all depends upon “the system." And there are many different “sys tems." It is a mighty poor corporation that docs not keep its books by a “system” which will show in emergencies almost anything the corporation wants to show. 1 he widespread knowledge of these methods of Bookkeeping partly explains why Railroad "showings” nowadays get themselves laughed at —even in Pennsylvania. n Whether any formal conspiracy exists or not, there can be no doubt that the Wall Street robbers “have it in” for Roosevelt. The sooner such a war begins the better. In the very nature of things, the people will have to fight the corporations to a finish. It is a question as to who shall rule. If artifi cial persons are to become our Governing ( lass —let us know it and be done with it. it. If NATURAL PERSONS are to domi nate —let us get ready for the battle.- 1 he issue is on us, and we must either fight, OR GIVE UP. In one of the first numbers of the New York "Watson's Magazine,” I appealed to Mr. Roosevelt to espouse the cause of the Com mon People against the Trusts which were plundering the unprivileged. The prediction was made that if the President would adopt this course, boldly challenging the arrogance, the greed and the lawlessness of the monster corporations, the people would rally to him, in mass, regardless of party, AS THEY HAD RALLIED TO NO LEADER SINCE THE DAYS OF ANDREW JACKSON! Well, Roosevelt has challenged the right of the Privileged Few to plunder this continent, and the people are rallying to him, regardless of party, with an enthusiasm that will main tain an exact ratio to the vigor of his blows. President Finley, of the Southern Railroad, is still being shoved around by Lawyer Thom, Boss Morgan, and among ’em; and wherever Finley is taken off the cars and rolled into a small assemblage of folks made up of the Chamber-of-Commerce variety of humanity, he makes what he considers a speech. Poor Finley ! He is going to get killed. No man can make a practice of riding on the Southern Railroad without going the way Sam Spencer went. In his latest “speech” (Green ville), Finley admitted that the railroads were overcapitalized. BUT NOT MUCH! In other words, the chambermaid’s baby is a little bit of a thing that ought not to cause such a tremendous row. •t Frank Stroud, the bright and indefatigable editor of the livest weekly paper in North Car olina (The Hornet) will never again copy wit ticisms from The Washington Post without giving due credit. (Continued on Page 12.)