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WATftJN’S EDITORIALS
Sensible Jerome Jones; Labor Leader.
From the Atlanta Journal we clip the fol
lowing:
“Jerome Jones, editor of the Journal of'
Labor, and former President of the Federa
tion of Trades, was asked Monday morning
if the working men of Atlanta would contrib
ute to the fund. ‘There has been no meeting
called,’ said Mr. Jones, ‘to consider the ques
tion, and I do not anticipate that one will be
called.
“ ‘We will not, in my opinion,’ said another
prominent labor leader, ‘meddle in this affair.
If these meh are guilty of murdering Gover
nor Steunenburg, they should be hanged, and
it seems that the funds already raised are quite
sufficient to give them a fair trial. Personal
ly, I agree with President Roosevelt, and be
lieve that they are undesirable citizens, any
how.’
It is refreshing to find a labor leader who
has not been swept off his feet by the Socialist
agitation in favor of Moyer, Haywood and
Pettibone. The extent to which the unions
of the great cities of the West and the North
have been carried away in this senseless cru
sade has already seriously compromised the
legitimate work of union labor.
The Governor of Idaho was murdered in
a manner which indicated a deliberate, well
matured plan. This Governor had incurred
the deadly hostility of the Western Federation
of Miners, and threats had been made against
his life. The record of the Western Federa
tion of Miners warrants the belief that some
of its leaders belonged to the class of desper
ate criminals —men whose morbid minds were
saturated with such intense class-hatred that
they honestly considered themselves justified
in committing any crime to advance the cause
of revolutionary Socialism.
Judging by the published reports, there was
ample evidence to cause the authorities of
Idaho and of Colorado to suspect that Moyer
and Haywood, officials of the Western Fed
eration of Miners, had brought about the
murder of Governor Steunenburg. That evi
dence would be sufficient to cause any honest
and fearless court to commit the accused for
trial. In no land on earth, where law and or
der prevail, would the authorities hesitate to
arrest and hold these men for trial, without
bail.
Now, under our law, T may remain at my
hymc in Georgia, hire an assassin to kill some
in New York, and I can never be put upon
jftd for the crime if I stay out of New York,
•fS'ess the Governor of Georgia surrenders
me to the Governor of New York in precisely
the same manner that the Governor of Colo
rado surrendered Moyer and Haywood to the
Governor of Idaho.
Yet the revolutionary Socialists have been
moving heaven and earth to commit labor un
ions to the horrible proposition that because
the Governors of the two states kidnapped
the accused, they shall not be punished for
the murder of Steunenburg, EVEN THOUGH
CONVICTED ACCORDING TO LAW.
The labor unions of San Francisco have been
so wrought upon by the agitators that, dur
ing a recent demonstration in favor of Moyer
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, MAY 9, 1907.
and Havwood, the United States flag was run
down and trampled upon.
Going still further, certain speakers at the
meeting declared, amid a wild applause, that
“our brothers’’—Moyer and Haywood—“shall
not be killed.” In other words, if found guilty
by court and jury of one of the foulest, most
cowardly and most wilful murders in the his
tory of crime, they shall not be punished.
The speakers at the San Francisco meeting
declared that they would resort to arms
rather than allow “our brothers to be killed.”
Similar meetings, with similar speeches,
have been held in Chicago and New York,
and immense sums of money have been raised
for the alleged purpose of paying the legiti
mate expenses of securing a fair trial for the
accused. It is sai l that the purpose is to
raise a fund of one million dollars.
What for?
No such amount of money is necessary to
the employment of lawyers and other legiti
mate costs of rhe trial. There must be some
other plan on foot—what is it?
The Jeffersonian has taken no part in the
campaign either for or against Moyer and
Haywood. They are entitled to the legal
presumption of innocence until their guilt is
established by evidence.
At the same time, the showing against these
men was, on the face of it, amply sufficient to
create the imperative demand that they be
tried according to law.
If they are shown to be guilty, and the law
should condemn them to death, thev should
be executed —if it takes every soldier of every
state in the Union to enforce the. sentence.
The revolutionary Socialists who are chal
lenging the strength of the government should
be dealt with iust as we would deal with anv
other public enemy that should defy the law
and trample upon the flag.
I? H M
Snubbed!
The horrid news is printed in all the news
papers —the news that Mitchell was snubbed.
There is nothing that riles me. quicker and
deeper than to read horrid news about snubs.
I am dead down on all sorts of snubs, for I
myself am acquainted with the whole family
of them, and there is not one of the bunch that
looks good to me.
Consequently a fellow feeling makes me
wondrous kind to Mitchell, and his feelings
of indignation find a responsive throb in my
chest.
By the way, you may want to know who
Mitchell is, and how, when, where and bv
whom he was snubbed.
First and foremost, Mitchell is Chairman of
the Georgia Commission which is supposed to
embodv the State of Georgia at the James
town Exposition.
The snubbing occurred at the alleged open
ing exercises, where President Roosevelt
made another speech, and inspected another
naval display and touched another button, for
an Exposition which lacks a few months of
being ready to do the rest.
It seems that Joe Terrell, nominal Governor
of Georgia, was to have been present at the
Jamestown opening, to Represent the State.
But Josephus had other fish to fry, apparent-
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clast mail matter.
ly, for he was not in attendance. Therefore,
the responsibility and dignity of carrying
himself like the embodiment of the Empire
State of the Sunny South, fell upon our friend
Mitchell. It was not a good day to act the
part, for the weather was nasty. Indeed it
was what a blarsted Englishman, don’t you
know, would call beastly, for it was cold,
cloudy, drizzly, east-windy—in fact, a day
to make the average man put his inner mean
ness on exhibition and do things that make
trouble.
" /am the stateT
CwE, DON'T CARE
a ft. '
It was a bad day for our friend Mitchell.
In spite of the fact that he was, for the time,
the State of Georgia personified, he was un
mistakably snubbed. Nobody seemed to
know who Mitchell was. Nobody seemed to
care. No mortal saw him from afar in the
shivering throng and beckoned him to come
up higher. No committee of reception and
entertainment came smiling hospitably to
greet the personified State of Georgia, and to
give Mitchell that “me and the President”
feeling which is so warming to the heart and
inspiring to the soul. If there was any
charmed circle reserved for the salt of the
earth, Mitchell was not invited into it. With
a callous disregard of consequences, the
Jamestown authorities left Mitchel! to take
care of himself.
No flunkey showed him where to go and
what to do. As though he were a mere crea
ture of ordinary clay, he was ignored. Offi
cially, he had no existence. As plain Mr.
Mitchell he was there, all right enough, just
as were plain Mr. Brown and Mr. Jones ami
Mr. Smith. But Mitchell, as the embodi
ment of tWe grand old empire state of Geor
gia, was not there at all. is his griev-