Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

WATSON'S EDIT OKI ALS Chancellor Barrolv 9 s Invitation Not 'Broad Enough. The Atlanta Journal deserves great credit for its outspoken censure of those who turned the State University Commencement into an opportunity for a Railroad lawyer to make a Railroad speech. Every word which the Journal said was criticism at once timely, moderate and just. When our College Commencements are pros tituted to the selfish and sordid interests of the Trusts; when the Commencement orator is nothing more than the hireling of monop oly talking shop; when the day and the occa sion are surrendered to the paid attorneys of Special Privilege who can exploit the oppor tunitv without'fear of challenge and contradic tion —then the sooner the Commencement orator is abolished the better. If the Chancellor Barrows are going to make a habit of furnishing intelligent public audiences to corporation lawyers who other wise could not get them, it will not be long before college management will be asked to give an account of itself to the people whose taxes support the college. When a Syracuse institution of Higher Ed ucation puts forth its Chancellor Day to fugle for the corporations, eulogize the Trusts, and mangle the remains of the crucified Dema gogues, we understand what it means well enough. We know that Chancellor Day is kept up by Standard Oil money, and we class him at once with the oxen and the asses, that know their master’s crib. But in Chancellor Barrow’s case, there can be no such motive. We acquit him of all but this —that he allowed himself to be imposed upon. He was victimized. A familiar cor poration scheme was worked upon him, and he innocently helped Hamp McWhorter and the Southern Railroad trump a trick. We do not insist that any considerable dis aster has been the consequence of the Chan cellor's mistake. Thom’s address was a self evident corporation speech—partisan, narrow, defiant of actual facts and of law and of pub lic opinion, as expressed by governing bodies throughout the Union; therefore, it has done no particular damage. Thom, a somewhat crude citizen, overdid the thing, and gave himself away. But the Jeffersonian offers a suggestion to Chancellor Barrow. The next time he decides to call for a cor poration lawyer to make the Commencement Address, let him invite some of the poor, God forsaken Demagogues to be present. Divide the time between the corporation flunkey and the Demagogue. The Jeffersonian thinks it knows quite a number of Thom’s Demagogues who would enjoy the opportunity to take the hide off just such sordid brain-sellers as him self. Divide the time, and let the audience hear both sides! Just as Chancellor Barrow's invitation should be broadened as to the speakers, so, also, it should be broadened as to audience. The next time the General Counsel of the Southern Railroad is invited to Athens to de liver a railroad speech and eulogy on Sam Spencer, let the Faculty of our State Univer- WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN A Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Government. published BY SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: SI.OO PER TEAR THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON, Advertising Rates Furnished on Application. Editors and Proprietors Temple Court Building, Atlanta, Ga. Eh “”* “ /Q ° 7, " ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1907.. sity make some special efforts to secure the attendance of the men, women and children who were stockholders in the old Central Railroad and who were reduced to poverty by Pat Calhoun and Sam Spencer. A more sweepingly outrageous robbery than was committed upon those people whose fathers, Guardians, Executors, Administrators and Trustees had put their estates in Central Railroad Stock by authority and encourage ment of the laws of this state, was never known. Two of the guiltiest criminals engaged in that monstrous offense against morals and law were Pat Calhoun and Sam Spencer. If such characters are to be eulogized in Commencement speeches made to our young men—if such characters are to be held up as models to be imitated —broaden the au dience. Let the victims of the commercial robber be present to emphasize the fitness of the eu logy which his hirelings and partner in crime pronounce upon him. Thus the unities will be preserved. But there is one difficulty: The stockholders of the old’Central were so completely fleeced that they have not enough left to buy railroad tickets to Athens. Would Thom and his new boss, Finley, be willing to furnish transportation to the af flicted? If so, the results might be curious. In such a case it might require the com bined gall and cheek, the cultivated and mer cenary effrontery of at least a dozen of the Sam Spencer lawyers to deliver the Sam Spen cer eulogy in the hearing of the Sam Spencer victims. •SUM Our HarVie Is Back A gain. You may have noticed that I have been dreadfully nervous here of late, and you may have wondered why. I was anxious about my Harvie, your Harvie, our Harvie, Hoad ley’s Harvie,. Lon Livingston’s Harvie. Need you ask, “Why this solicitation and worry ?” I will be honest with you, and tell you why: I was afraid that the Emperor Joseph and other crowned heads would be so deter mined to keep Harvie in Europe that they would tempt him with offers which poor hu man nature —for Harvie is but human—could not resist. And when I tried to figure out how we Americans could ever get along without Har vie Jordan, my mind gave way temporarily, and I had to be put to bed. This shows how a nervous man, blessed and cursed with a vivid imagination, can bor row trouble. We fret ourselves to emaciation and settled melancholy over things which we fear will happen, but which, in fact, never happen. Rut then, you sec, we don’t know that it will be that way. You never can tell. Os course, I know now that there was no cause for mv uneasiness about Harvie; but how was 1 to know beforehand that his patriotic soul would spurn the blandishments of Emperors, Kings, Princes, Potentates and Powers, and that he would come back to us without the smell of fire on his garments? True, my better judgment suggested that a man who had mastered the intricacies, mys teries, difficulties, complexities* and ramifica tions of farming, while exhibiting his beauti ful features at the Kimball House de'sk as Clerk, would not fall an easy prey to the al lurements and intoxicating possibilities of the position of “The Emperor’s Guide, Philos opher and Friend,” at the Austrian Court. But yet when I recalled what had been re lated to me, in low tones, by travelers concern ing the snares and pitfalls which beset the feet of the unwary in Vienna, I trembled. In these gay, wicked capitals of Europe—so they tell me—it is hard to say which are the most dangerous, the men or the women; and I quaked when I remembered that Harvie is from the rural precincts and is richly endowed with the fatal gift of beauty. I knew how he would be run after, but I quaked. For neither Joe Hoadley nor Lon Livingston had gone along to protect Harvie from designing men and women. But all is well that ends well. Escaping every subtle wile, eluding those who sought to get him into the toils, defying Scylla on the one hand and Charybdis on the other, Harvie has come back to us, as un changed as though labeled Original Package, and is today the same delightful, resourceful, beautiful and altogether interesting Harvie that he was when he bought those two trip tickets to foreign lands—one ticket for him self and one for his newly-found, long-lost brother, Charlie Barrett. At first, my feelings were somewhat hurt by the failure of our battleships to fire a sa lute, and the refusal of the commerce of the country to suspend itself for a few minutes, in honor of Harvie’s safe return. But I guess its all right. ‘‘The shallows murmur while the deeps are dumb,” and so, applying the same principle to public receptions, we may make a fuss and loud noise when Governors and I residents and Japanese Admirals move about, but when a man of the Harvie Jordan species—a sort of Century Plant, you know —-steps from one continent to another, our highest tribute is to keep cool and remain mute—enveloped in a speechless awe. Har vie is one of those flowers alluded to by the poet—he stirs emotions too deep for tears. When the great man reached the little old town of Atlanta, he gave out an interview which will take its place in American liter ature as the companion piece of Washing ton’s Farewell Address. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to print this Interview. With a strange disregard of public necessities, Har vie ga\e the Atlanta journal exclusive rights in the matter, forgetting that even such a big and valuable paper as the Atlanta Journal should not be allowed to monopolize a public -utility. A national institution like Harvie is more than any one newspaper is entitled to. Journalistic rapacity seeking exclusive rights to Harvie, needs the curb. It’s like putting up toll-charging ferries on the lower Missis -4hXl,kr P u * tin S buoys in mid-ocean, labelled “Do not Trespass.” It’s like-oh anythin & that ’ s just PREPOSTER- And while, for this once, I will not infringe Ai*