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PAGE FOURTEEN
THINGS THAT MAKE US TIRED.
By Weary Willie.
The writer attended some of the
meetings of committees and legisla
ture while (the pendency of) the Pro
hibition bill was pending, and after
listening to the feeble remarks of the
opposition, and witnessing their still
more feeble efforts at filibustering, he
was very much in need of repose,
and he thereupon jotted down some
notes in regard to some things that
make us tired.
1. It makes us tired to hear that
old bullet riddled gag, that “Prohi
hibition does not prohibit,” and
“more liquor is sold under prohibi
tion than under license,” when we
see the liquor dealers fighting tooth
and toe-nail the very thing that
would help their business by making
a greater demand for liquor.
2. It made us tired to hear every
speaker for the whiskey side say that
he had no interest directly or indi
rectly in the liquor business, when
we thought that the poor barkeeper
and wholesaler had no representa
tives at all before the Legislature.
3. It made us tired to hear these
whiskey speakers proclaim that it
was wholly a matter of conscience
with them in speaking for the good
of the State against such an iniqui
tous measure as Prohibition and see
some of these conscientious speakers
very active in their filibustering tac
tics casting their yea and nay ballot
on the prohibition side, to keep the
record straight for their constituents.
4. It made us tired to see the
whiskey speakers trying to make it
an issue between local option and
State prohibition, when if the con
test were in a county they would be
lined up on the same whiskey side
of the question and using the same
old weather-beaten, wind-shaken ar
guments against county prohibition.
5. It made us tired when we lis
tened to the old hoary headed gag
about prohibition ruining business
and the facetious references to Maine
and Kansas, when we rememberet
that the State of Maine, in the ex
treme northeast, with a bleak and
wintry inhospitable climate, had three
times more money per capita in her
savings bank than any other State in
the Union; and that the Kansas
banks were loaning money to Texa
and the Kansas farmers were carry
ing their butter and eggs to market
in automobiles.
6. It made us tired to hear them
argue that Prohibition would kill the
cities, depress values, and stop all
improvements, when it would simply
take the millions upon millions of
dollars that are worse than wasted
by pouring them down the throats of
the people, and distribute them to
the grocer, the dry goods merchant,
and other merchants and manufac
turers for what woild add comfort
to the homes and bring happiness to
the people.
7. It made us tired to hear the
whiskey orators say, “I am just as
good a temperance man or prohibi
tionist as any of the supporters of
the bill,” when if one of them would
say, “I am just as good a Democrat
as you are, but I vote the Republican
ticket when it comes to the polls,”
you would say his democracy was not
worth a continental.
8. It made us tired to see men
from dry counties, whose constituents
WATSON’S WEEKLY! JEFFERSONIAN.
expected them to work for prohibi
tion, and where all the churches of
their home town had sent resolutions
and requests for them to support the
prohibition bill, vote and filibuster
with the whiskey gang, when the on
ly negro in the Legislature, “The
gentleman from Mclntosh,” for the
welfare of his race and because some
negro churches requested him to do
so, voted tor the prohibition bilk
This capped the climax. Black is
white and white is black. It is
enough. We are tired. Give us a
rest.
A PLEA FOB LITERARY PA
TRIOTISM IN THE SOUTH.
The day long hoped for when the
South should have magazines of its
own, comparing favorably with the
best northern and eastern publica
tions, has at last arrived. It remains
to be seen now whether the South
has sufficient patriotism to support
the three excellent southern maga
zines, edited by southern men and
published in the South. There are
no better literary productions in the
country than Uncle Remus’s Maga
zine and Tom Watson’s Jeffersonian
Magazine, Atlanta, Ga., and the Tay
lor-Trotwood Magazine, Nashville,
Tenn. Published in the heart of the
South, edited from the hearts of
southern men, they deserve and
should receive the hearty and enthu
siastic support of all southern peo
ple.
We do not argue that the South
should draw the line on eastern mag
azines, but we do say that if we can
take only one or two magazines,
they should be our own southern pub
lications. Why not! Heretofore
when a southern author made a hit
with a book or as a magazine writer,
he was forthwith gobbled up by some
northern or eastern publishing house.
We send millions of dollars out of
the South every year for books and
magazines. Even our school books,
hymn books, Bibles and everything
we read except our newspapers have
come from the North or East. Every
attempt to publish the school text
books our own children use in the
schools has met with rank failure
because of a lack of ordinary patriot
ism, and, if we must say it, a con
siderable lack of common sense, too.
How can we expect our country to
occupy the place its position and tal
ent deserve when every piece of lit
erature we place in our children’s
hands, every book we read, comes
from a section largely out of sym
pathy with us and our institutions?
Even now a southern author must go
North or East to get his book pub
lished, in order to receive recognition
of southern papers, and the patronage
of the southern public! It is a
shame, and our lack of common pride
and love for our own country and in
difference to its interests, are respon
sible for it.
We have seen in but one daily that
reaches us, the Montgomery Adver
tiser, any editorial mention of the ap
pearance of Uncle Remus’s Magazine,
and he is the same Uncle Remus that
the East took from us, returned to
his own again, and his magazine con
tains the same matter that northern
publications would jump at the chance
of paying many thousands of dollars
for, and which they would then sell
to us in the South by the hundreds
of thousands. And yet, just because
it is published in the South, our peo
pie seem more or less indifferent
it.
Hearst offered Tom Watson $lO,-
000 a year for a few hours’ work
each day in New York, but Watson,
loving his own country and people,
preferred to struggle for recognition
here at home. He is publishing a
great magazine that is probably not
paying its expenses yet, when he
could be drawing a princely salary
by going East. You may not agree
with all he says, but you can but be
delighted with the way he says it,
and the keen humor and satire he
mixes with it.
The country papers give half col
umns to dreary, stereotyped readv
made praises of eastern magazines
in return for a dollar-a-year publica
tion which exploits the resources,
industries, literature and men of an
other section and frequently slanders
the South —and these same papers
never have a word to say about our
own splendid southern magazines,
Uncle Remus’s, Tom Watson’s and
the Taylor-Trotwood.
These things ought not so to be.—
The Cullman Tribune.
ALL CREDIT TO TOM WATSON.
To the Editor of The Chronicle: —
Once in half a century, perchance,
some one is fair enough and just
enough, in discussing a movement
which has eventuated in great good
to the people of the entire country,
to bring forward and make conspicu
ous the fact that a certain gentleman
inaugurated the undertaking at a
given time — a number of years ago.
I read with pleasure the able
speech of Senator Clay and the brief
but terse remarks of Senator Bacon,
delivered during the debate on the
postoffice appropriation bill, as print
ed in the Congressional Record of
the 25th instant.
Both senators paid a graceful and
well deserved compliment to a young
Georgian who, by a seemingly insig
nificant amendment to the postoffice
appropriation bill of 1893, rendered
high service to that large body of
hardworking people who live in the
country proper throughout the Union.
I believe the facts will interest
your readers, and for that reason I
have taken the trouble to cull them
from the Record:
“Mr. Clay: Mr. President, an ex
amination of the Congressional Rec
ord of February 17, 1893, shows that
the postoffice appropriation bill was
pending in the House of Represen
tatives, and when an item for free
delivery service, including existing
experimental free delivery offices, of
$11,254,643 was reached, Hon. T. E.
Watson, who was then a member of
the House of Representatives from
Georgia, introduced the following
amendment:
“ ‘For free delivery service, in
cluding existing experimental free
delivery offices, $11,254,943, of which
sum SIO,OOO shall be applied under
the direction of the postmaster gen*
eral, to experimental free delivery
in rural communities other than
towns and villages.’
“Further examination of the Con
gressional Record shows the follow
ing colloquy to have taken place be
tween members:
“Mr. Holman: *1 reserve a point
of order on that amendment.’
“Mr. Watson: ‘This reduces the
expenditure provided for in the bill.’
“Mr. Henderson, of North Caro
lina: ‘I desire to reserve a point of
order. ’
“The Chairman: ‘A point of order
has already been reserved.’
“Mr. Watson: ‘Mr. Chairman, the
paragraph under consideration pro
vides for the expenditure of sll,-
254,943 for free delivery service. My
amendment reduces the amount of
that expenditure and simply directs
that the postmaster general shall ap
ply SIO,OOO of the appropriation to
experimental free delivery in rural
communities.’
“Mr. Loud: ‘That is already pro
vided for; the gentleman will accom
plish nothing by his amendment’
‘ ‘Wr. Watson: It is not pro
vided for in rural districts other than
towns and villages. There is no ex
perimental service in rural communi
ties other than towns and villages.*
“Mr. Buchanan, of New Jersey:
‘You mean “truly rural”!’
“Mr. Watson: Yes, sir; the real
country. ’
“Mr. Holman: ‘I think there is
some misapprehension as to the law
on this subject. I would like to ask
the gentleman from North Carolina
in charge of this bill what the ex
isting law is!’
“Mr. Henderson, of North Caro
lina: ‘There is no law on the subject
providing for rural free delivery or
experiments in that direction. There
is a law which provides for experi
ments in small towns and villages
and 48* of these have free delivery.
That condition is preserved in this
bill, but no provision is made for
rural free delivery.’
“Mr. Watson: ‘The present law
provides for an experimental delivery
in rural communities; but as I under
stand it—and the chairman of the
committee, the gentleman from North
Carolina, Mr. Henderson, makes the
same statement to the house—the
law has been construed to mean
cities, towns and villages, and there
are now in operation experimental
free deliveries in certain towns and
villages.
“ ‘The law expressly provides for
rural communities, and it seems to
me where the general law make
such provision there is no hardship
in taking a small amount from the
appropriation—only SIO,OO0 —and ap
propriating it for experimental free
delivery in absolutely rural communi
ties; that is to say, in the country,
pure and simple, amongst the farm
ers, in those neighborhoods where
they do not get their mail more than
once in every two weeks, and where
these persevering people have settled
in communities one hundred years
old and do not receive a newspaper
that is not two weeks behind the
times. ’
“Mr. Clay, continuing, said:
“The amendment was adopted by
a vote of 79 ayes to 41 nays. Mr.
Watson introduced his amendment to
experiment in the free rural delivery
service, carrying SIO,OOO for this pur
pose, less than ten years ago, which,
from the best information I have been
able to obtain, carried the first ap
propriation ever made by Congress
for rural free delivery.
“Mr. Wanamaker had tried what
he called free delivery in towns and
villages, but the experiment had not
been made for free delivery of ooun
try mails. Who would have thought
that the good work begun by thie