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PAGE TWELVE
LEAVE THE NEGRO OUT OF IT.
(Continued from page 9.)
der a negro, but there is always a sense of
shame about it. No bitterer pill does the
bread-winner have to swallow. Ihe game of
politics never exacts a more degrading forfeit
than it demands in such instances as
these.
The same spirit of resentment is aroused
where the white railway mail clerks are vir
tually compelled to recognize the social equal
ity of the colored clerks. They have to eat
at the same tables and sleep in the same beds.
Th Government has adopted regulations
which make this compulsory. The white clerk
has to submit to the outrage and endure the
humiliation, or lose his job.
Such things are deplorable. The remedy is
simple and should be applied.
Leave the negro out of it when it comes to
running the Government. The whites made
the Government what it is: the negroes had
no hand in making it: let the whites hold ex
clusive control.
Give to the negro, in the fullest measure,
his rights as a man and citizen; but stop at
that. Political privilege is a different thing
entirely; reserve that for the whites.
Then you remove the source of the trouble,
and the two races will dwell together with
less friction and conflict.
Negroes in the army means Brownsville
riots. Negroes at the head of Government
Departments means insults to white girls and
humiliations to white boys. Negroes in the
Gobernor Smith Inaugurated.
A semi-holiday prevailed in Geor
gia’s capital city Saturday in honor
of the inauguration of the new gover
nor of the state, Hon. Hoke Smith.
A monster parade was one of the
features of the exercises. The pa
rade was composed of many Hoke
Smith clubs from all over the state,
platoons of mounted police, and vari
ous military organizations, including
the Fifth tegiment of infantry, Geor
gia National Guard, and many visit
ing companies.
The line of parade was from West
Peachtree, at the intersection of
Peachtree street down the latter
street into Whitehall, thence through
Mitchell street into Washington,
which marks the western front of
Capitol Square, on which the inaugu
ration took place.
At 10 o’clock a committee from the
general assembly waited on the gov
ernor-elect at his private residence,
and escorted him to the capitol, where
the general assembly previously had
gone into joint session, out of doors,
on the west front of the capitol
gr< muds.
At about 11:50 o’clock the commit
tee brought from “amidst the as
sembled people” the governor-elect
and presented him to the president of
the senate and the speaker of the
house.
Then an invocation was pro
nounced by Bishop Warren A. Cand
ler, after which the announcement of
the canvass of the vote for governor
was made by the committee of the
assembly in joint session, and Chi f
Justice of the Supreme Court Fish
administered the oath of office Io the
incoming governor.
Secretary of Stale Phil Cook then
came forward and presented to Gov
ernor Smith the great, seal of the
state, which was formally rel
•>
Civil Service means compulsory social equali
ty which is of no benefit to the colored clerk,
and which stirs in the soul of the white clerk
the passions of hell.
If some one of the political parties were to
take the bold position that henceforth this
country is to be governed entirely by the
whites there would be an upheaval in 1908
which would show that in the North, as in the
South, the day of illusions is over, and that
the time has come to recognize the fact that
the Negro is a negro —NOT A CAUCASIAN
WITH A BLACK FACE.
* * *
Build It Somelvhere “Else.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson.
My Dear Sir: About a week ago, I sent
to the Atlanta Constitution, for publication,
an inquiry in which every citizen ought to be
interested. The Editor, for some reason, has
not seen fit to publish. It may be that he be
longs to a class of citizens who believe that
publicity and discussion are not wholesome
with regard to some matters of public concern.
I know that you do not belong to that class,
and I now send you the enquiry for publica
tion in your Weekly Jeffersonian, though, for
obvious reasons, I had desired that it should
appear in a daily paper.
Appeal has been made, through the daily
press, for contributions of money to be ex
pended in the erection of a Y. M. C. A. build
ing on the campus of the State University at
Athens. Now my question is: Who has any
the secretary for his care and safe
keeping.
Governor Smith then delivered his
inaugural address.
The closing feature of the inaugu
ral exercises was the great reception
by the governor and his wife at the
executive mansion beginning at 4
o’clock, and continuing until 10
o’clock; many thousands of the as
sembled Georgians greeted their new
chief executive.
Summary of the Address of Govern
or Hoke Smith.
The governor at the outset lays
down 'the proposition that certain
specific duties have been placed upon
him and upon the legislature, as out
lined in the Democratic platform, and
those pledges must be performed be
fore other tasks are undertaken.
Suppression of Lobbyists.
Lobbying is declared to be the
curse of national legislation; the in
fluence of lobbyists is felt in nearly
every state, and Georgia has been no
exception Io the rule. These hired
political agents sit around hotels and,
with professed impartiality, pretend
to speak for the interests of the peo
ple, when secretly they are employed
to defeat their interests. The govern
or wants this deception made a crime
and wants a law requiring any per
son employed to oppose or support
a measure before the legislature to
enter that fact in a book to be kept
in the office of the secretary of state,
describing the nature of his employ
ment, which book shall be kept open
to public inspection.
Abolish Free Passes.
The free pass is described as a
means of petty political bribery, a
twin evil with the hired political
agent, and the governor calls for a
law against free passes.
Use of Money in Politics.
The governor asks that it be made
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
a crime for a corporation or special in
terest to contribute money to politics,
wants it made a crime to hire a striker
at the polls, and wants every candidate
required to make under oath a de
tailed statement of his campaign ex
penditures and where the money
came from.
Regarding Disfranchisement.
The governor does not mention the
negro as a race but he proposes a
new franchise standard which will ■
eliminate the ignorant and vicious,
and he presents a line of reasoning
which shows that the proposed
amendment to the constitution of the
state would not be in conflict with
the constitution of the United States.
In fact he says: “With an oath
fresh upon' my lips to support the
constitution of the United States, I
favor the amendment.” He lays
down the proposition that the inhi
bition of the constitution is directed
against disfranchisement on account
of race, color or previous condition
of servitude. The proposed amend
ment divides voters into six classes
and any person measuring up to one
of the standards would be entitled to
register, and one of these provisions,
that requiring the voters to be able
to “read correctly and write correct
ly when read to them in the English
language any paragraph of the con
stitution of the United States or of
the State of Georgia,” will “exclude
by fair and constitutional tests the
great bulk of that class who are in
competent to govern others or even
themselves.”
Regulate Primaries by Law.
The governor proposes to regulate
primaries by law, and urges that no
primary shall be allowed more than
sixty days prior to the date of the
regular election.
The Railroad Commission.
The enlargement of the powers of
the commission is proposed and a
strong argument is presented against
right to grant to anybody permission to erect
such a building at such place ? If a Christian
temple may be erected there, then, in all se
riousness, I ask: Why might not a Jewish
temple be erected, or a Buddhist, or an Agnos-
Verv trulv yours,
A CITIZEN.
Answer:
No one has authority to grant that permis
sion.
The Y. M. C. A. is a mighty good thing—
but so is Religion: under our form of Govern
ment State affairs and Church affairs are to
be kept separate.
A Y. M. C. A. building is a glorious thing,'
when put in the right place. It has no busi
ness on the campus of the State University.
Located there, it will be as improperly dom
iciled as that Catholic Chapel which the U.
S. Government permitted the Roman Church
to build on Government property at the West
Point Military Acadamy.
Fundamental principles can never be safely
violated. A bad precedent is always inju
rious.
We cannot guard too vigilantly the dividing
line between Church and State, nor watch too
jealously the stealthy encroachments of the
priest.
A chapel in a college, as a part of the col
lege, is all right; but the state is debarred by
the Constitution from legislating in favor oi
any religious denomination or institution.
judicial interference with the orders
of the commission and the suspension
of the findings of the commission on
the ex parte affidavit of a railroad
officer. The governor holds that the
actual trial of a rate is the best way
to determiie its effect and the rail
road commission should be relied on
to modify its rulings if it should be
found necessary. The governor quotes
from Robt. Toombs to show the power
of the state to take the railroads under
the right of eminent domain or to
repeal their chart ers for violation of
the same, and while the governor does
not urge forfeiting of the char
ters at this time he warns the men in
charge of the properties not to defy
the conservative demands that are
now being made upon them.
Suspension of Commissioners.
The governor speaks of the sit
uation in which a commissioner be
comes so hostile to the work of the
commission that his presence is a
hindrance, and he adds that in such
an emergency it “would be the du
ty of the governor to suspe d
him.”
State Road Extension.
Attention is called to the propo
sition to extend the Western and At
lantic railroad to the sea.
Liquor Legislation.
The governor says that' while his
sympathies in local elections are
with those who oppose the sale of
liquor, for the present local option
may be the best plan, but after local
option is adopted the dry counties
should be kept dry by means of laws
against jug trains, and he proposes
to make the operation of a blind
tiger a felony.
Manual Labor for the Negro.
Discussing negro education the
governor particularly urges training
the negroes for manual labor, saying
the negro needs “less books and
more work.” He says the differ
ence between the races must be rec-