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upon the reserved rights claimed by the Journal, yet this exercise of rare self-control must not be taken as a precedent. I o one newspaper should not be given up what was meant for mankind; and the Jour nal need not plead surprise if hereafter we seize upon some of the Harvie Jordan gems of thought which it claims to be private prop erty. There are some things which, as Blackstone tells the new beginners, are not subject to private ownership; and if mental treasures of the Harvie Jordan sort do not come within the reason and spirit of the rule, then, in the picturesque language of the impassioned law yer, pleading his best case, “I’ll eat the book.” At the risk of being sued for damages by the Journal, I WILL say that one of the tasks which Harvie now proposes to address himself to is the breaking up of rascality in the Liverpool and New York Cotton markets. Os course; he will soon do this and pass on to harder jobs. By the time he puts an end to Liverpool and New York cotton robberies, and gets that Fraud Order which he and Liv ingston were chasing so hotly last year, per- - haps we may hope that even Harvie Jordan will condescend to notice this question, which goes to the vitals of the cotton grower trou bles— “ Why xion’t you fight the Special Privilege which has been used to CUT DOWN THE COTTON MARKET ONE-HALF?” •8 * M The End of an Era. With the passing of Joe Terrell, as Gov-, ernor of Georgia, there comes the end of an era in Georgia politics. Would that we could say, “in Southam politics.” The record is one that reflects little credit upon the state. Here and there, good work has been done; now and then, public opinion has compelled reform; but the balance was always on the wrong side of the ledger. True, the Legislature broadened the scope of Free School Education, but the system is far from perfect. True, the Convicts were no longer practically given away to the Jim Smiths and Company, but the paid the state, even now, looks ridiculous by the side of the S4B per month which Alabama gets for her convicts, and the still larger sums which our Lessees get from Sub-contractors. True, the time has passed when the public treasury was usad as a private bank deposit, and when a good fellow with a pull, like Gunby Jordan of Columbus, could step into Treasurer Hard eman’s office, and call out, “I want SIO,OOO to day, Bob!”—and get it, to buy cotton with— no questions asked and no interest paid. But still it is unreasonable that a few pet banks should continue to use public money without paying the same rate conceded to private money. After due allowance for credit for such acts as these, the condition of the accounts of the Steward shows woful mismanagement of the Estate. Has the Law been enforced? Everybody knows it hasn’t. The weak, the poor, the friendless, have been punished; but how about the rich, the strong, and the influential? How about those who exploit Public Utilities? These have mocked the law. They pay just about as much taxes as they please to pay, and they bend to little more of th law than it suits them to obey. Delayed trains are not posted; station rooms are not lit up at night; rates and classifications are not put where they can be readily referred to by ship pers; extortionate and varying tariffs are im posed; equal facilities are not furnished to all; the Trust can get cars when the Independ ent cannot; and for months at a time traffic has been blockaded by sheer disregard of the duties of the Common Carrier. When the State or the Railroad Commis- WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. sion gets after the corporations for lower rates and they put forward that monstrous plea of Confiscatory to keep rates up, we have seen the value of the property swell like a balloon being filled for its aerial voyage. When the Comptroller-General, however, gets after these same corporations for taxes, we have seen the same property shrink like a dropsied patient being tapped. Constitutional law which forbids the com mon ownership of competing lines has been treated as though it had no existence. Stat ute law which forbids discriminations has been set aside with a cynical scorn which can only be indulged in a state where the corpora tions rule. In the State of Georgia, the Corporations have ruled. The first great step was taken when Joseph E. Brown secured the State Road at $25,000 per month over a competing Com pany which offered twice that amount. The united strength of. Toombs and Linton Steph ens was insufficient to block the deal. Since that day we have had Governors who were in no wise tools of the corporations, but there has never been any permanent setback given to marauding combinations. Convict Bosses, Insurance Lobbies, Fertil izer and Oil interests, School Book Trusts, railroad influence, bank power, the Liquor Dealers’ Association—these have been the dominating factors of state-policy. bhe Constitution of 1877 was supposed to have abolished the Lobby—but when has that evil influence been greater than during the corrupt regime of the Hamp McWhorters, the Harry Fishers, the Tom Felders, the Pat Cal houns ? 'fhe Constitution of 1877 was supposed to have guaranteed Competition among Com mon Carriers—but see how the Georgia Rail road is leased to the Atlantic Coast Line, and the Central owned by the Southern. See the confidence with which the Georgia Road could forfeit its.charter by such neglect of its road bed as in England, under the Common Law, would have worked a forfeiture of the franchise of a toll-road. See the confidence with which the Central Road could openly aid the Cotton Seed Oil Trust to smash the Au gusta Brokerage Company, by refusing to furnish cars to the Independent buyer while fully supplying the Trust. « In law and morals, such misuse of franchise is a forfeiture; but the corporations were in power, and were fearless. A political machine, of course, managed the political end of all this. A few lawyers, pro fessional office-seekers, and subsidized news paper men—aided and abetted by a variety show of ignorant voters who could still be fooled with party names and campaign lies— steered for the corporations, kept “safe men” in office, kept hurtful facts out of the news papers ; kept serviceable falsehoods in the most conspicuous columns, and thus “kept the lid on. In other words, the political machine held the state down while the Northern corpora tions plundered it. I would not devote so much space to these conditions in Georgia, if they were not prac tically the same as those prevailing in most of the states. Alabama is as badly afflicted as So is Virginia. So is North Carolina. Few states of the Union have been able to free themselves from this loathsome, destructive bondage, though all are now struggling to do so. Last year, we fought it out in Georgia, and we whipped the Yankee corporations. In spite of their money, and their venal tools, their Hessians and their Sepoys, their campaign tricks and lies—WE WHIPPED THEM! And, with the passing of Joe Terrell, ends the era of Yankee corporation bossism in Georgia. With the term of Hoke Smith begins Home Rule. By the splendor of God! WE GEOR GIANS ARE GOING TO BOSS THIS STATE. Our Constitution MUST and SHALL BE OBEYED. Our statutes must and shall be respected. Our Common Carriers must do their duty, OR WE WILL FORFEIT THEIR CHARTERS. Our Public Roads must and shall be controlled here in Georgia. Corporations shall be made to contribute in just proportion to the public expenses; they shall be made to furnish decent accommoda tions to their passengers at stations, as well as in the cars; they shall be made to under stand that charter powers and privileges were granted them to serve the public, here in Georgia, AND NOT TO PILE UP ILL GOTTEN MILLIONS FOR A GANG OF GREEDY SCOUNDRELS AT THE NORTH. I do not say that Joe Terrell is, himself, a bad man—of that I know nothing—what I do say is that he was the product of machine pol itics of an evil type, that his policy favored Yankee plunderers to the injury of his own people, that he was chiefly a dignified, rather nice-looking lid-sitter for a lot of rascally stock-jobbers and law-breakers who ought to have been put behind the bars, and that dur ing his entire administration he never lifted a finger to vindicate the law, or to protect the victims of these corporation robbers. But as Achilles remarked in choice lonic Greek when he came forth from his tent to take a hand in the fight against the self-confi dent Trojans, “They shall see the difference now.” With Hoke Smith in office, armed with the confidence, and inspired bv the hopes of the people, A NEW ERA BEGINS. •e n n Leabe tfie Negro Out of It. Whenever the attempt is made to cancel the fact that the negro is a negro, the results are disappointing. Race-color, race-differences, race-prejudice, are eternally actual. The stubborn reality de fies the legislative’ harmonizer, mocks the gen erous dreamer, and confounds the benevolent doctrinaire. No matter what illusions we may have once indulged, it must be apparent at this late day that the God-made separation of blacks and whites is not to be reversed by the puny efforts of man. Booker Washington may dine with Andrew Carnegie and lunch with Roosevelt, but he never felt “at home” on either occasion, nor would he ever feel “at home” in any white man’s house. Neither would any white man ever feel “at home” in any negro man’s house, never. When the Federal Government puts negro office-holders over the heads of white people, as it is constantly doing, the arrangement is always felt to be unnatural, and it always in flicts mortification upon the whites. Bitter re sentiment is felt by the white boys and girls in Washington City who are compelled to work under negro bosses. • If I were to tell you how one of President Cleveland's negro appointees patted the bare shoulder of a lady clerk from Georgia, and how this same lady, who was the widow of the son of a former Governor of Georgia, was hectored and bullied and ordered about by the burly black negro whom Cleveland’s appoint ment had made her boss—the hot blood would burn your face! Where negroes, like Lyons and Rucker and Deveaux, are foisted into places where they have no business to be, the amount of social injury inflicted upon the state is beyond cal culation. Necessity often compels a white boy or girl, a white man or. woman, to take service un (Continued on page 12.) PAGE NINE