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Our Commentaries on the Week’s Netos Governor Smith and Immigrants. Recently Hon. Hoke Smith, govern or-elect of Georgia, made a visit to Eu rope for the purpose of looking into the question of immigration. His main object was, if possible, to find a desir able class of laborers who may be se cured to supply agricultural hands on the farms of the state, and at the same time, to arrange with some established steamship line to bring such immi grants directly to a Georgia port. Dur ing his visit abroad, he stopped in Bre men and received satisfactory assur ances from the managers of the North German Lloyd’s line that, with suffi cient patronage assured, they would inaugurate a line of steamers between Bremen and Savannah. The establish ment of such a line will mean much to the producers and manufacturers of Georgia, whose goods go into the ex port trade, and will go far in their case to solve the question of international shipping rates by making it possible for the Georgia Railroad Commission to fix the land rates to the steamer wharf. Mr. Smith found in Austria and in Southern Russia a class of agri cultural laborers whose intelli gence, industry and productive ness greatly impressed him, and he thinks that increasing numbers of them can be induced to come to Geor gia and occupy the farms of this state that may be especially opened to them, or abandoned to them by shiftless ne gro laborers. The question of securing European laborers for our Southern fields is one that is giving great concern in all parts of the South, and the general sentiment is contrary to efforts to bring hither those aliens from Southern Europe, especially from the Latin countries, whose habits and customs, conjoined with their general ignorance, would make them unassimilable, and, there fore, “undesirable citizens” in the midst of our peculiarly Southern civili zation. As a rule, they are persons who are scarcely more than hereditary religionists, are accustomed to the free use of the Sabbath for recreation and dissipation, and are antagonistic to all those laws which we have adopted for the safe-guarding of the morals and sobriety of our communities. Unless the foreign immigrants who are sought to be introduced into these Southern States shall be such as will be amenable to the customs and laws of our society, a strong revolt against all foreign immigration to the Southern States may be confidently expected. The need of the Southern States, in fact, is not so much an abundance of cheap labor as it is a sufficiency of steady, sober and industrious labor ers who will rapidly become intelli gent and patriotic American citizens. The Exposition Almost Ready. As noted in a recent issue, the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition was duly opened with formal ceremo nies by the President of the United States on April 26, but as yet the ex position grounds, buildings and exhib its are in an unfinished and confused condition, so that those who visit the great show at the present time have difficulty in getting a clear jconception of its beauty, value and significance. It is believed, however, by those who are on the ground, and who are in terested in the success of the exposi tion, that all of the exhibits will be in place, the buildings completed and adorned, and the entire show in suc cessful operation before June 10. That day is scheduled as “Georgia MARSE HENRY’S STRAIGHT TIPS. =r_ S' —Berryman in Washington Gtar. Day,” when the governor of Georgia, his staff, and a host of citizens of the Empire Commonwealth of the South will be present, and when the occa sion will be honored by the second and last appearance of the President of the United States on the exposition grounds. The Georgia building at the exposition is a reproduction of “Bul loch Hall,” at Roswell, twenty miles northeast of Atlanta, which man sion was the home of the President’s mother, in which she was married to Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., in 1856. Be cause he is a half-son of Georgia, the President has consented to assist in the celebration of Georgia Day by de livering an address from the portico of this replica of the girlhood home of his mother. The occasion will be one of unique interest and Georgians from all parts of the country will be pres ent to join in the celebration, includ ing many who are distinguished in public life, in business and transpor tation circles, and in military and naval service. The governor will be attended, also, by the Fifth Regiment of the National Guard of Georgia, and by a splendid galaxy of Georgia wo men, led by the lady commissioners of the state. The Two-Cents Rate. The anti-railroad agitation through out the country has not been without some substantial results. Almost a third of the states have acted recently upon the question of passenger rates within their own boundaries and their legislatures have found the public un deniable on the issue of lower travel tariffs. The legislation has resulted thus far as follows: Pennsylvania—Two-cent bill passed by the house only. Ohio —Two-cent law enacted last year. West Virginia—Two-cent bill pass ed. North Carolina —Two-and-a-quarter- WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. cent bill passed. Alabama —Two-and-a-half-cent bill passed. Arkansas —Two-cent bill passed. Kansas —Two-cent bill passed. Nebraska —Two-cent bill passed. North Dakota —Two-and-a-half-cent bill passed. South Dakota —Railroad commission authorized to order two-and-a-half-cent rate. Indiana —Two-cent bill passed. Illinois —Two-cent bill passed the house. Missouri —Two-cent bill passed. lowa —Two-cent bill passed applying only to roads earning $4,000 a year gross per mile. Minnesota —Two-cent bill now pend ing. Wisconsin —Rate of two-and-a-half cents fixed by railroad commission. The question of a two cents rate in Georgia is now pending before the railroad commission and it is perfectly safe to say that if a refusal of it, or a splitting of the cent difference, is offered, the people will reject the ac tion and compel the legislature to make the two cents tariff. The Corey-Gilman Crime. For weeks the newspapers have been printing columns of the slush details of the Corey-Gilman marriage. Corey was born in Braddock, Pa., May 4, 1866, his father being a coal merchant of modest means. After attaining a business college training he began work in the steel mills near his home at a few hundred dollars per year. By hard work he raised him self to better positions, married a good woman and made a home in which children were born. He grew as a business man until in 1905 he became the successor of Charles M. Schwab as president of the U. S. Steel Corpor ation, with a salary of $1,000,000 a year. He had already amassed mill ions by his shares in the steel Indus- try. Suddenly he became enamored of Mabelle Gilman, an actress, com pelled his wife to divorce him, and has now married the shameless woman to the disgust of every decent man and woman in the nation. The story is Babylonish and the crime of Corey, unfortunately, is beyond the reach of any vengeance save that of God. Ccrtelyou and Our Cash. Secretary Cortelyou would not ordi narily, and in view of the exposures concerning campaign contributions, be taken for a sensitive soul. And yet he says he is and that he wishes to avoid criticism in the matter of de positing government funds in national banks. He is anxious to impress the country with the notion that he is not going “to play any favorites.” The amount of money depositable under the law is enormous, but recent re ports show that a large number of the interior national banks of the coun try have reached the danger limit of loan expansions. The increase of loans over a year ago is $394,000,000, while the increase of deposits is over $100,000,000 less and the increase of redemption cash is only $40,000,000, or but 9 per cent of the loan expansion. This is inflation with a vengeance and Secretary Cortelyou is naturally wor ried to find safe depositories for our money. The best we can ask him to do is to keep it out of Wall street. Ben Tillman’s Plan. Taking it for a surety that William Jennings Bryan will be the Democratic presidential nominee next year, Sena tor Tillman insists that his running mate should be a southern man. The senator, probably, does not expect to see a landslide for the Bryan ticket, but, like the late Sam Jones, he “de spises a dull time” and thinks a southern man’s name as tail to the Bryan kite would cause the politicians to look up some. If Mr. Bryan can not be elected with a good southern man as his mate he cannot be elected with any other man on the ticket with him. We feel that the time is ripe to challenge the good faith of the Democrats and the whole people of the country upon the reality and sanity of all the reconciliation talk to which we have been treated for a genera tion past. A Conference on Trusts. The National Civic Federation, a volunteer body of doctrinaires, one of which Grover Cleveland is whom — and that is quite enough to destroy its popularity—is to meet in Chicago next September, with invited speakers from all over the union, to consider the question of “The Trusts.” From such a body the people gener ally can only expect conclusions that will be ultra-conservative. They will be told that “there are good trusts and bad trusts” —and that’s a whopper, No trust of a commercial or industrial character can be good! To be a trust it must enjoy Special Privilege and every special privilege is a license to ignore justice and rob the many. John Sherman was right when he said “the way to resume specie pay ments is to resume,” and it is equally true that the way to cure trusts is to cure them as we do meat —kill it first and then smoke it. Tillman thinks Bryan will be the logical candidate in 1908, and yet there are people who think Bryan is too often and too Illogical in that role. PAGE FIVE