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EDITORIALS.
(Continued from page 9.)
Half a dozen big-mouthed, big-headed black
bass will devour all the small fish of a large
pond—to the eternal detriment of the little
fish so devoured, and of the pond thus depop
ulated. (
If Jake Schiff will amend his simile and com
pare Rockefeller and Morgan to the big fish
that eat the little fish, he will have his oratory
in tune with the facts.
n
The Jeffersonian is rejoiced to see, in the
Atlanta Constitution, the statement of Hon.
R. F. Duckworth denying the story that “Bar
rett and Jordan have buried the hatchet,” and
that the Farmers’ Union and the Southern Cot
ton Association would henceforth pull to
gether.
The story was calculated to do President
Barrett and the Farmers’ Union great injury.
Everybody knows that Harvie Jordan is
now running with Wall Street gamblers, like
Hoadley, and that the Manufacturers are in
control of Jordan’s mongrel Association.
It is all natural enough for the manufactur
ers to band themselves together to retain the
Special Privileges which they enjoy under the
High Tariff laws, but it would be passing
strange if the farmers were so silly as to al
low these Beneficiaries of Special Privilege
to control the farmers’ organization also.
Surely the farmers are entitled to have ONE
association of their own.
Whenever the manufacturers let down the
gap for the farmers to enter the Manufactur
ers’ Association, it will be time enough for the
farmers to take manufacturers into their or
ganization.
*
A local grain dealer of Thomson, Ga.. has
for many years been selling corn in carload
lots to the local trade. Recently he has been
put out of business, just as the stonecutters at
Lithonia were knocked out.
He couldn’t get his goods handled by the
railroads. He lost five carloads of corn in
transit, had others delayed so long that the
corn was rotten when it reached him, and
finally got this letter from the Memphis firm
from which he had been purchasing:
(Copy)
CHAS. D. JONES COMPANY,
Grain and Hay, Memphis Trust Building.
Memphis, March 30, 1907.
Mr. A. L. McLean, Thomson, Ga.
Dear Sir:—We have yours of the 28th, en
closing specifications for a car to be shipped
to Messrs. G. W. &G. F. Granade. We have
entered this order for shipment, but beg to
say, as advised in our letter of yesterday, that
at present we arc unable to get cars routed to
Thomson by any route whatever.
Yours truly,
CHAS. D. JONES COMPANY.
*
The letter referred to above as “our letter
of yesterday” is illuminating:
(Copy)
Memphis, March 29, 1907.
Mr. A. L. McLean, Thomson, Ga.
Dear Sir: —After writing you this morning
we started your order for Messrs. Boatwright
Sc Son to the warehouse for shipment and were
advised by the N. C. & St. L. Road that they
could not receive freight for delivery to the
Georgia Railroad at Atlanta, owing to the
congested condition of the latter road at that
point. We are unable to figure out any other
route by which we can ship this car, unless
we were to endeavor to get the Southern Road
to take it around and bring it down by Augus
ta, but our experience with the Southern Road
has been such that we doubt if the shipment
made this way would reach you before late
in the spring.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN
We thought it best to acquaint you fully
with the facts, so that you would not be in
position to blame us if we are unable to get
this shipment off. We will use every effort
to get it out, but unless the Georgia Railroad
is in position to receive the shipment at At
lanta, we do not see how it can be made.
Yours truly,
CHAS. D. JONES COMPANY.
Now isn’t that a pretty kettle of fish?
Here is a citizen of Georgia engaged in a
legitimate business which*is simply destroyed
by the failure of the Common Carriers to per
form the functions for which they are char
tered. Does my friend, Hon. Jacob Phinizy,
still consider the management of Capt. Scott
the best that the Georgia Railroad ever had?
Did it ever happen before his administration
that Memphis declined to do business with
Thomson because there was no Common Car
rier to transport the freight?
The Jeffersonian will publish another letter
from President Phinizy, if he so desires.
*
The Southern Express Company is a Geor
gia corporation. And among all the raven
ously hoggish rate-makers that exploit the
public, there is none more greedy. Its charges
are as arbitrary as they are unmerciful.
'rhe Legislature which is to meet in June
would deserve well of the country if it would
give the Southern Express a thorough over
hauling.
No corporation doing business in this state
needs it worse.
Incidentally, did you ever see a better week
ly paper than last week’s Jeffersonian? Sam
Small and Gordon Nye are a pair of trumps—
don’t you think ?
Brother, say a good word for us.
It was two years ago that the late Samuel
Spencer was lauding the prosperity of the
sections served by the Southern Railwav and
claiming that his system had produced the
prosperity and was getting its full share of it.
Why, then, does President Finley now stand
in the same places where his predecessor
then stood and plead the laissez faire license
for his road under cover of the pauper oath?
The Missouri World is one of our best ex
changes. It is a tribune of the people. Not
only does it know the pulse of the people’s
aspirations, but knows how to interpret them
with words of wisdom and power.
•I M H
Editorial Comments.
By J. D. Watson.
In his Chattanooga speech, Hon. John Tem
ple Graves suggested that Mr. Bryan nomi
nate Mr. Roosevelt for President in 1908. In
his Chicago address Mr. Graves suggested that
Roosevelt nominate Bryan.
A loyal friend of Mr. Hearst’s suggests that
Mr. Graves, being a personal friend of Mr.
Roosevelt, Mr. Bryan and Mr. Hearst, per
suade Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Bryan to nomi
nate Hearst. The Washington Post solves
the problem in this manner: Graves has
asked Bryan to nominate Roosevelt and
Roosevelt to nominate Bryan, and having re
ceived no enthusiastic response from either
Mr. Bryan or Mr. Roosevelt, it is only fit and
proper that both the President and Mr. Bry
an nominate Mr. Graves for President in 1908.
Mr. Graves may be heard from on this ques
tion soon.
Tn the meantime, the Seneca (S. C.) Jour
nal “draps into poetry” and says:
“Says Johnny T. to William J.:
‘You see the game we have to play,
Exert yourselves for Teddy R.,
He’ll prove a Democratic star.’
Says William J., T do not see
Exactly what’s in this for me.’ ”
But it should be remembered that it was the
Iroquois Democratic Club, of Chicago, that
first nominated Roosevelt for the Presidency
for 1908. The Iroquois did this at its annual
banquet two years ago.
It now looks as if Mr. Bryan will be the
Democratic nominee for President in 1908,
and it also looks like the Democratic donkey
will die another death about election time of
the same year. Instead of the death of the
said animal being caused by Parkerisis, as in
1904, it is likely to die of Bryanitis in 1908.
At any rate Bryanitis is a death that the poor
animal is more accustomed to.
The time for the meeting of the Georgia
Legislature is fast approaching. The people
of the State expect it to enact into law the re
forms advocated by Hon. Hoke Smith in his
campaign. We have a reform Governor-elect
but he is unable to put his idea into laws with
out the aid of the legislature.
Most of the members of this body were
elected as Hoke Smith men. The people who
elected them expect them to vote for the mea
sures advocated in his campaign.
Some sudden and unexpected changes have
taken place in the views of members of the
legislature heretofore, and the same changes
may take place again.
If the President of the Senate or the Speak
er of the House happens to be anti Hoke
Smith, he will have the appointing of the Com
mittee on Rules, and you may bet that said
committee will so formulate the rules that
every reform measure can be blocked. Here
is where the corporation crowd will put in its
slick work, and here is where the danger to
Mr. Smith’s administration lies.
This brings us to the question, does Mr.
Smith intend to take a part in the organiza
tion of the next legislature?
If he does not, his hands will be tied hard
and fast, and it will be a grievous mistake on
the part of Mr. Smith.
With the President of the Senate, or Speak
er of the House against him, Mr. Smith will
be hampered, if not helpless.
Mr. Smith, now is the time to begin your
great work. The more active part you take
in the election of the President of the Senate
and the Speaker of the House, in order that
your proposd reforms may be put into laws,
the more likely they are to be made laws. Es
pecially is this true of the Senate, for the
Georgia State Senate is almost equal to that
body of “Mugwumps” called the United
States Senate, when it comes to blocking good
laws.
As suggested in a former issue of the Week
ly Jeffersonian, it would do no harm to give
us a public school law, and make our public
schools Free Schools.
When a child of seven or eight years of age
is made to study an arithmetic which has ex
amples that belong to Geometry, how do you
expect that child to learn anything?
When the parent has to pay from fifty cents
to one dollar per month for incidentals, is it
a Free School?
You may “cram” the child so it can work
the example but the child does not understand
it when it does so, but you cannot “cram”
the parent who has to pay the incidental fees
so he will understand that it is a Free School.
Nor does he believe the public school is a
Free School when he sees the bill for new
school books which slaps him in the face every
now and then. i
Text books are changed too often. There
should be uniform Text Books throughout the
State, and the State should furnish these
books Free, just as it furnishes the school
house and the school teacher.
J. D. W.