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I was a mere boy; and, thank God!
I can say of my record on prohibition,
that it is a consistent, long, faith
ful and unselfish record which might
even do no discredit to a bishop.
When I joined the Baptist church,
at the age of 14, I was a clerk in a
store where whiskey was sold. Re
fusing to sell another drop of it, the
proprietor respected my scruples and
closed that part of his store until he
could hire another clerk.
From that day to the present hour,
if ever I have hesitated to smite the
barroom system with voigp, pen or
vote, the lost opportunity escapes my
recollection.
So well known is my position that,
when Henry Grady was leading the
great fight against the barrooms in
Atlanta, some twenty-odd years ago,
I was one of those to whom he tel
egraphed for help. I well remember
the day —a beautiful November
morning, the Thanksgiving day of the
year, 1 had planned to pass a rest
ful day at home with my little fam
ily, for I was a hard-working lawyer
in those days, but the summons of
Grady found me ready to go. I pah)
my own expenses to Atlanta; made
the great meeting as good a speech
as I could cram into the fifteen min
utes allowed me; saw and heard some
of the ablest champions of prohibi
tion, but did not, as I remember, see
Dr. Warren Candler,
Yet he may have been there. If
the meeting was not graced by his
presence I know it was blessed by
his prayers.
It would never occur to me to in
fer from his non-attendance to hear
me speak that he was faithless to
the cause. As the bishop takes it
so much to heart that I did not go
out to hear his speeches in McDuffie
county in 1884, 1 here and
emnly hold up ,my right hand, and
pledge my word that the next time
Bishop Candler comes to Thomson
to make any kind of a speech, night
or day, rain or shine, I am going to
drop everything and butt in at that
meeting, and drink in every blessed
word which falls from his eloquent
lips. Never again will I make the
mistake of-not going to hear Warren
Candler —never.
The state of Georgia has prohibi
tion m more than two-thirds of the
counties, and this advance of tem
perance has been made under the lo
cal option law. If the bishop had
not been so hasty in trying to find a
kink in my record to offset one in
his own, he would have remembered
that, in the legislature of 1882-8.3,
the temperance committee of the
house of which Hon. C. R. Pringle
was chairman, selected me to close
the debate for the local option bill.
To be chosen for this place and
for this important duty was not only
an honor, but it proves how well es
tablished was my reputation as a
prohibitionist. It is hardly necessary
for me to add that I did close th a
debate, answering, as best I could,
all objections to the local option
measure, and setting forth as well
as I could the reasons why it should
be passed. Hon. Seaborn Wright was
also a member of. the house, and we
two youngsters battled as stoutly for
prohibition then as we did afterwards
in 1896 —the year in which Bishop
Candler bolted the track. I do not
recall that Bishop Candler was pres-
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
ent in 1882-83, taking a hand in the
good work of passing the local option
bill, but I have no doubt that he
helped us in every way he could.
He assures me ho favored the local
option bill in those days when “pro
hibition was not so popular as it is
now. ? ’ I believe him. Os course,
it is a little bit mortifying to have
the bishop and his pious old negro
forget that I worked myself “up to
the shouting point for prohibition”
sq far back as the legislature of
1882, but still “a fickle young man”
like me must expect knocks of that
sort, particularlv when a kink in the
record of a bishop is disturbing the
natural functions of the ecclesiasti
cal memory.
When in congress (1892-93), it was
I who made the first fight that had
ever been made on the congressional
barroom, which for many years had
been licensed by the speaker and pa
tronized by the members of the
house. It did not seem to me to be
proper to have a liquor saloon in
one of the rooms in the building
our national lawmakers meet
to make laws for a Christian people.
Because of my exposure of the
evils of this saloon I was furiously
assailed by an overwhelming major
ity on the floor of the house. But I
felt that I was right, did not flinch,
fought the whiskey men to a stand
still and thus earned the bitter hat
red of the members on both sides of
the house. This had much to do with
the formation of that iron resolution
of Democrats and Republicans, that
no matter what I might prove in a
contested election case I should not
be allowed to'come back to congress.
But I had made such an exposure
of the congressional barroom that,
within a few years after I was de
frauded of my scat, the saloon was
abolished.
During all the long and dreary
years during which I have been a
social and political outcast because
of my convictions, Bishop Candler
has been fortunate in keeping within
hailing distance of the powers that
be; and has climbed to such heights
of power, fame and influence that
trivial details of my own struggles
have not attracted his attention.
This is natural. Have I not already
said that bishops are but human?
In conclusion, I beg to say that
when Bishop Candler intimates tiiac
he was a stalwart reformer in the
years of the past, when reform was
not so popular as now, while I have
only been outspoken when there was
everything to be gained and nothing
lost by declaring for reform, he makes
a comparison between his record and
mine which I can very well afford to
leave to tfie decision of the people
of Georgia who have known us both.
Respectfully,
THOMAS E. WATSON.
Thomson, Ga., July 21, 1907.
P. S. —The bishop will observe
that 1 have taken his advice about
cultivating my amiability. If he will
read the foregoing letter closely he
will see that it is every bit and grain
amiable as the other one was.
T E, W.
From Texarkana, Texas, Bishop
Candler fired a reply at Mr. Watson,
and from Thomson, Georgia, Mr. Wat
son touched off a return shot. These
two articles will appear in next
week’s Jeffersonian.
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