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to every other political consideration. Just now the
fact Is recalled by the very interesting and anything
but dull correspondence between the Hon. Thomas E.
Watson, of McDuffie, and Bishop Warren A. Candler
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South —a corre
spondence largely personal, yet concerning two men
of such prominence as give to it widespread public
import.
Bishop W. A. Candler recalls the fact that in the
campaign of 1896 he refused to stump the state for
the nominee of the Populist party, who had cor
ralled the prohibition plank, because he disapproved
and deprecated any effort to use the prohibition cause
for political ends. Politically, he was a Democrat;
morally, and religiously, he was a prohibitionist
Thus he draws the distinction:
In that campaign Mr. Watson and his party asso
ciates undertook to give the people of Georgia a dose
of Populism in a capsule of prohibition. They mis
led some good men. But when it was given out,
without my knowledge or consent, that I would stump
the state for the nominee of the Populist party for
governor, I promptly contradicted the statement, and
deprecated the effort to use the prohibition cause for
any party ends whatsoever.”
That was eleven years ago!
Things are entirely different today.
The evidences are all about us that the time has
come when appeals on the ground of party loyalty
can no longer be made in Georgia. The people are
doing their own thinking. If organized Democracy
thinks the same way—all right; if not, then out with
organized Democracy! It may be said, it is true,
that we have a white party—a party comprising prac
tically all the white citizens of the state regardless
of former political alignment—in which are to be
found, at last, Democrats, Populists, Republicans and
Prohibitionists, but as for organized Democracy set
ting the pace for their political conduct, it is a ques
tion of the past.
The very first thing done by the legislature is the
enactment of a law which time and again the Geor
gia Democracy has repudiated, a law against which
the recent Macon platform itself entered protest in
its endorsement of local option after specifically turn
ing down a state prohibition plank. Former Popu
lists and Democrats alike were at the head and fore
front of the movement.
Even the governor, declaring for local option apd
urging the platform of the party as a guide in all
matters of pending legislation, was swept aside.
No word or sentence is here said byway of com
plaint. The action accords with the wishes of those
whose authority to take the step is unquestioned.
The new condition is accepted gracefully and good
citizenship throughout the state will adjust itself in
accord with it and in<he determination to make the
new law effective.
It is said to be a settled fact that Judge James K
Hines, for years the avowed enemy of the Georgia
Democracy, and once the candidate against its nomi
nee for governor, is to be tendered one of the highest
positions in the gift of the state, the first vacancy
on the Supreme bench.
Nor is this said with any view of fault-finding.
Judge Hines will, no doubt, make ? capable and effi
cient judicial officer.
But why should we attempt longer to deceive our
selves about the supremacy of organized Democracy
in Georgia! It is a myth, and everybody knows it
to be so.
The truth of the matter is that Mr. Watson has
whipped his fight against the organized Democracy,
and that is all there is about it! The political leaven
that he planted years ago hag done its work, and to
day the victory is his. The breaking of party lines
for which he fought, and is still fighting, has come
to pass.
And the people of the state have thrown political
creed and party organization to the winds and writ
ten “late” before the one-time Georgia Democracy.
There are certain things the people want and mean
to have. They have begun to have them in the
states; they have begun to have them in the nation
In the accomplishment of these objects, party creed
and party organization will be abandoned the mo*
ment they get in the way.
Under whatever banner the people may align them
selves they will ultimately demonstrate, as they have
begun to do, that regardless of the views of leaders,
regardless of party lines and platforms and creeds,
their voice and will are, at last, supreme.
In the meantime, a toast “to the late Georgia Dem
ocracy! It fought a good fight and did a service
that will never be forgotten—but must it now go to
the scrap heap?”—Hon. Clark Howell, in Atlanta Con
stitution. , ,
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Mail All Letters to Thomson.
Subscriptions, manuscripts, and all letters in
reference to editorial and circulation matters
should be directed to Thomson, Ga.
Letters relating to advertising business
may be directed to Gordon Nye, 608 Temple
Court, Atlanta, Ga.
Duns of all kinds should invariably be
mailed to Nye.
Writs, roajsts, levies, 'injunctions, manda
muses, and libel suits are to be served on Nye.
Parties who sign their names in such away
that they themselves could not make out what
it is after they get sober, will please keep such
communications at home until they do get
sober—and then write it over again.
Parties who write communications with a
blunt, soft pencil will please enclose a part of
the pencil. It may aid us in reading the letter.
All persons desiring to shoot, assault or
otherwise maltreat the Editorial Department,
are earnestly requested to deal directly with
the Atlanta office.
M H H
BRYAN AND HEARST—AND WATSON!
Th© rumor of a political understanding between Mr.
Hearst and Mr. Bryan is exciting more than ordi
nary comment throughout the South and the coun
try.
There can be no doubt that the rumor if true will
have a large bearing upon the next Democratic con
vention and upon the next national election.
Whether this understanding revolves around the
candidacy of Mr. Bryan for the presidency or of
Mr. Hearst for the presidency, or whether the two
are to stand behind a Southern candidate, the ele
ment of essential interest in it is the union of two
great forces that for twelve years have been either
cool or antagonistic to each other.
That Bryan and Hearst are the two great person
alities in the Democratic party, no sane man will
question and no honest man will gainsay.
The great evangel of Nebraska has gone like a
Peter the Hermit up and down the country arousing
the people to a new crusade for liberty and purity.
The great Democratic editor from the mouths of
eight great daily newspapers has thundered day
after day and week after week to an audience a
thousand times as large, the principles of a real
Democracy and an inspiration to a real government
of the people beyond the tyranny of predatory wealth.
Whatever the causes that swept Hearst and Bryan
apart, they were causes that contributed most poten
tially to the Democratic defeats for the last twelve
years, and whatever the causes that bring them
together they will contribute most mightily to the
success of the Democratic party in the future. Mr.
Hearst has a personal following as large as that
of Bryan, although it will not be generally conceded.
Mr. Bryan has his personal following devoted, in
fluential and sincere. And these two multitudes
catching something from the spirit of the leaders
have either been loyal and co-operative or apathet
ic and indifferent to each other.
There lacks yet another element to make this
combination potential and almost conclusive to Dem
ocratic success. The missing link to this combination
lives in Georgia and we do not need to name Tom
Watson as the man. Mr. Watson is still the idol
of the old Populist party whether that party remains
intact or whether it has been gathered into the am
ple bosom of its reformed mother of Democracy.
Mr. Watson is also the friend and idol of the farmer,
South and West and center. His magazine stands
almost as one of the organs of that great body of'
thirteen hundred thousand farmers known as the
Farmers’ Union. His name is indissolubly linked
with reform measures and popular liberty and the
rights of the people. We have no abler man in the
South than Tom Watson, and by the light of the
records no cleaner, braver and more honest pub
licist in all the country. He has been consistent
against his interests, loyal without regard to pre
ferment and true to his principles when he might
have triumphed by the most casual deviation from
their lines. Such a man can not fall to command
influence and to deserve friends. We make bold to
say that if Tom Watson would join his forces to
those of Hearst and Bryan it would add to the
strength of that combination a large majority of the
thirteen hundred thousand members of the Farm
ers’ Union. It would lend to the cause an incom
parable advocate and an incorruptible statesman.
We sincerely hope that Mr. Watson will fall into
-: - 4 ■
Watson, Hearst and Bryan are natural allies. With
slight and Inconsequential differences they have the
same political convictions. They have fought in the
main for the same reforms. They are each one pulsed
through and through with a supreme consideration for
the rights and liberties of the plain people of Ameri
ca. Surely, no light and trivial circumstance, no
small differences of opinion should separate men
who see so much for which to fight In common and
for which to hope in patriotic and unselfish ambition.
The Georgian, awaiting with such patience as it can
the confirmation of the rumored understanding be
tween Hearst and Bryan, sends out the fervent wish
that it. may be so, that it may be followed by the
full co-operation of Thomas E. Watson. And with
these three powerful and Incorruptible forces we
have every reason to believe that the new and def
inite Democracy of this better day will march to use
fulness and victory.—John Temple Graves, in The
Georgian.
it at at
Mr. Watson to Speak at Beall Springs.
In explanation—due to those whose Invitations
have been regretfully declined —I beg to say that
Beall Springs, in Warren county, can be reached
from my home without serious interruption to my
work.
Warrenton, Ga., July 22, 1907.
Hon, Thomas E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.
Your Inflexible adherence to the principles and
constant advocacy of the legislation necessary to
advance the Interests of the wealth producers of
♦ America, as advocated by you in your congressional
campaign of 1890, inspires us to seek counsel of
you in the great work which the Farmers’ Educa
tional and Co-operative Union have undertaken.
As representatives of the P. E. and C. Unions of
Warren county we earnestly beg you to address the
farmers of Warren, Glascock, Jefferson, Washington
and Hancock counties at Beall Springs (Warren
county) August 22, 1907.
ROBERT MATHEWS, President No. 928.
C. M. SMITH, Vice President No. 928.
GEORGE T. CLARK, President No. 552.
FRANK TUFTS, Vice President No. 552.
J. B. POOL, President No. 1033.
C. F. JOHNSON, Vice President No. 1033.
Thomson, Ga., July 28, 1907.
Messrs. Robert Mathews, J. B. Pool, George T. Clark
and others:
Gentlemen —Your favor received. Be assured that
I sincerely appreciate the terms In which your in
vitation is extended.
It gives me pleasure to accept
Truly,
THOS. E. WATSON.
Please Send Me Your Name
I think that new life can be put into our
Circulation Department, and things improved
generally, by giving my personal supervision
to the work. ,
Therefore, The Circulation Depart
ment Has Been Moved to Thomson.
In a short while I hope to be familiar with
all the details of the service.
Every one who is now acting as agent for
either or both of the two Jeffersonians is ear
nestly requested to write me. I want to know
who is working with me, and to keep in per
sonal touch with these workers.
Please Send Me Your Name
If not too much trouble, do me the kind
ness to tell me how many subscribers you
have sent in, first and last. If you would, fur
thermore, send me a list of those acquaint-*
ances who could be reasonably expected to
recognize and appreciate sound democratic
doctrine when they meet it in the big road, I
should be thankful and grateful.
But be sure to send me your name, any
how. Yes—send it to Thomson, Ga. Yes—
that’s the way we spell it.
THOS. E. WATSON.
PAGE NINE