Newspaper Page Text
PAGE FOURTEEN
THOS. B. WATSON SPEAKS ON
TARIFF REFORM.
(Continued from Page Seven.)
to enforce the statutes which the
oath of office binds them to enforce.
“To add to the confusion, Attor
ney General Bonaparte virtually
threatens the states with federal co
ercion.
“Whatever else may be said, it is
clear that the gravity of the situation
reveals the dangers of private owner
ship of a public utility.
“These railroads are nothing more
nor less than public roads. Like the
navigable river, a railroad should be
long to the public. It is bound to
come to that. The highhanded ac
tion of Judge Pritchard and Jones,
backed up by the threatening atti
tude of Mr. Bonaparte, simply has
tens the day when that which is Cae
sar’s shall be rendered unto Caesar.
“Whoever wrote the threatening
note of Attorney General Bonaparte
is more of a corporation partisan
than lawyer.
“The statement that the federal
government will support the federal
judges in all matters where they have
‘regularly taken jurisdiction,’ he
would have been acting far be
yond the limits of the law.
“If Mr. Bonaparte had said ‘le
gally taken jurisdiction,’ he would
have been on firm ground, but no
president could undertake to support
a federal judge when the face of the
papers showed that he had no legal
jurisdiction of the case.
President Roosevelt’s Attitude.
“I think I know the heart of Pres
ident Roosevelt as well as anybody
does, and my opinion is that he will
not hesitate a moment, when the test
comes, to repudiate the bumptuous
Bonaparte and his absurd construc
tion of constitutional law.
“ ‘As old as the hills’ is the adage.
‘The sovereign is not to be sued save
by his own consent.’
“That principle is imbedded in the
thirteenth amendment to the consti
tution, put there by the state after
Chief Justice Marshall in the case of
Chisholm vs. the State of Georgia
had taken jurisdiction of the suit of
an individual against a state.
“What Marshall did in the Chis
holm case directly these usurping
judges, Pritchard and Jones, are now
doing by indirection.
“If Bonaparte backs them up, he
will be violating the thirteenth
amendment, just as those usurping
judges are doing.
“In Virginia Pritchard actually
enjoined the corporation’s commission
from exercising a legislative func
tion.
“Suppose an English court seeking
to enjoin parliament from acting up
on a given piece of legislation, and
you will have the measure of Pritch
ard’s usurpation.
“Let us devoutly pray that the
Farmers’ Union will go on, waxing in
strength until its leaders shall be able
to present the just demands of the
agricultural classes in such away
that congress cannot resist' them.
After all, these demands reduce them
selves to the simple determination to
save ourselves from legalized rob
bery. To keep what belongs to us;
to reap where we have sown; to
peacefully enjoy the fruits of our
own labors, these are the moderate
wishes of the organized farmers.
“Yet, to get that much and noth
ing more, such alterations will have
to be made in our national system as
will almost amount to a revolution.
So far has class legislation gone, so
deep has special privileges sunJt its
roots, that it will require years of
the most patient, intelligent and
courageous effort to even make a good
beginning.
Organization and Unity.
“But first of all, organize. Let ev
ery farmer go into the union. Forget
your past differences. Forget old
feuds. Let the dead past bury its
dead.
“For the sake of liberty, prosperi
ty and country, unite. For the sake
of good laws and good government,
unite. For the sake of home and fire
side, of wife and child, of the future
as well as the present, unite.
“Always try to be exactly right in
everything that you undertake, and
then fight for it till you get it.
“In a land where the ballot is
free, political salvation is also free.
Free for all —thank God!
“Good government is yours, with
out price, if you will but rise up and
give it to yourselves.’’
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Hon. Thos. E. Watson recently
made a speech to a large gathering
of the members of the Farmers’ Un
ion in which he urged the importance
of that order enlarging its scope to
a national organization. His idea
is doubtless for the Union to try its
hand in national politics, as the
Farmers’ Alliance did.
We have been a casual reader of
the Union News, the official organ
of the Farmers’ Union, and in that
paper Mr. Watson has been given
about equal prominence with the ob
jects of the organization.
We have also been a more or less
close reader of Mr. Watson’s writ
ings, and he has given the Farmers’
Union almost as much prominence in
his publications as he has Mr. Wat
son.
In Mississippi John Sharp Wil
liams charges Governor Vardaman
whom he defeated for the United
States senatorship, received his
marching orders from Mr. Watson.
The Atlanta Constitution, forget
ting the severe and caustic criticisms
of its editor last year by Mr. Watson,
seems to be getting close to the
“Dear Tom’’ stage again, and quotes
approvingly and follows docilely the
editorial utterances of Mr. Watson’s
publications on some lines.
What does all this mean, anyhow?
Tn the absence of specific information
we are somewhat groping in the
dark. Is Mr. Watson going to take
the endorsement of the Farmers’ Un
ion, which he can have for the ask
ing, and enter the race for the pres
idency in the hope of forcing the
democrats to present him as the
“Southern” candidate, like Mr.
Hearst is trying to force recognition
with his independent league in New
York!
And in the event the Southern dem
ocrats fail to do this and present
some other man, will be run anv
way, and with the comparatively few
thousand votes he controls insure the
defeat of the democratic nominee,
whether he be Bryan or some South
ern man with real ability and settled
principles!
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
A mutual admiration society be
tween Clark Howell, Thomas E. Wat
son and John Temple Graves would
seem impossible, but the love of the
Farmers’ Union, a non-political
farmers’ organization, makes strange
political bed-fellows, and perhaps
stranger things have happened.
But we are in the dark about all
these things, and if we blunder in
surmises it is because we are not of
the inner circle, have not seen the
cards that are to be played, and are •
not fully on to the game just get
ting started. —LaGrange Reporter.
Note-—O, Mommer! Can’t some
body tell this befuddled brother the
way to the Big House from the
kitchen? He is bothered by an ag
gravated case of circumstantial evi
dence, and hardly knows, at present,
the name of his own yard-dog.
BROKE LOOSE IN GEORGIA.
The Atlanta Constitution accuses
Tom Watson of turning the real De
mocracy of Georgia inside out and
setting it upside down, and Mr. Wat
son comes and answers: “I am the
man,” meaning that it broke loose
in Georgia the last time upon his ini
tiative. The next time it breaks loosq
will be due to the fact that Georgia
is not big enough to hold Tom Watson
and Hoke Smith at the same time in
the same party. Too many cocks
spoil the broth, when in the caldron
boil and bake—
“ Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlit’s wing.”
And that is the dish that
is cooking down there for the party
and the people who once danced to
the piping of Toombs and Stephens
Hill and Turner.
Nobody knows precisely what it is,
except that it calls itself Jefferson
ian Democracy, and is designed to
give everybody everything by act of
the American Congress and the Geor
gia Legislature. The blue laws of
Connecticut have been imported to
make Georgia sober and sanctimon
ious. The disreputable business of
building, owning and operating rail
roads is to be frowned upon, discour
aged and punished. Georgia is to be
reclaimed and washed white in the
frenzy of agrarianism.
The titular boss is Hoke Smith, one
of Cleveland’s last cabinet, and Tom
Watson, one of Bryan’s running
mates, is the Warwick of the new dy
nasty by his own admission. Poli
tics makes strange bedfellows, and
here are joined in political wedlock
the gold bug and fiatist of ’96, when
the country was told from every
stump that politicians were of two
classes—the blanked rascals and the
blanked fools.
Boss Smith is a successful lawyer,
and rich. Warwick Watson is of a
literary turn, and report hath it that
he, too, is in no danger of the poor
house. Their mission is to teach
Georgia that it is disreputable to ac
cumulate money, and criminal to be
rich.
They have Georgia in a basket all
right, and things are getting on fa
mously, but one of these days they
will have at their disposal the vest
ments of a United States Senator
from Georgia. They will not cast
lots for it. They will fight over it.
Then it will break loose in Georgia
again.—Washington Poet.
Note —You’re all wrong, neighbor.
If Hoke Smith and Tom Watson
never fall out until they clash in a
contest for office, it will take Ga
briel’s trumpet to blow ’em apart.
OLD HICKORY.
(Continued from Page Three.)
He did so until Jackson had gotten
out of sight, when he called a stout
soldier to him, and, picking up a
stick said, ‘You pull that arrow out,
or I’ll use this stick on you!’ The
arrow came, and General Houston re
entered the conflict.
“I have often felt the scar on the
rim of General Jackson’s forehead,
which was inflicted by a British offi
cer in South Carolina when Jackson
was a boy of about thirteen. A squad
of British took his family prisoners,
and one of the officers asked his
brother, Bob Jackson, to black his
boots. Bob refused and was given a
blow that is thought to have caused
his death. Another officer asked An
drew to polish his shoes. He refused
and was struck on the forehead, but
he didn’t black the officer’s shoes.
I have heard General Jackson speak
of his mother, who, he said, was a
most remarkable woman. Her name
was Elizabeth Hutchison. She said
when she learned that Jackson was
going to read law that she never
wanted him to bring action for slan
der or for assault and battery. She
walked to Charleston, nearly 300
miles, to carry clothing for the sol
diers. She contracted the fever and
died there.”
Judge Barry spoke of General
Jackson’s racing proclivities, and re
ferred to a celebrated race which took
place in Gallatin, and in which his
own father, Dr. Edmund Dillon Bar
ry, defeated General Jackson. He
also stated that he was present a few
years later when the father of Gov
ernor Cannon wagered and lost his
negroes to General Jackson, on a
horse race in Gallatin.
“The eloquent Tom Marshall, of
Kentucky, said that if Jackson had
turned his attention to oratory he
would have made as great a success
at it as he did at fighting. ”
The judge says he does not believe
that the watch-word of the British
at New Orleans was “Beauty and
Booty,’ as has been reported. His
own father, Dr. Barry, who was de
scended from and related to many of
the nobility of Ireland, was a friend
and classmate of General Packenham,
and believed him to have been too
thorough a gentleman to have given
countenance to such a pass-port as
the above.
Score another for Judge Kenesaw
M. Landis, of Chicago. He has is
sued a perpetual injunction against
the Furniture Trust. Will Judge
Landis please move to New York and
make a few remarks about the Gas
and Traction trusts!
South Georgia Farms and
Decatur County Tobacco
Lands for sale; for descrip
tive price list write to R. L.
Hicks, Real Estate, Bain
bridge Ga. . . ,