Watson's weekly Jeffersonian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1907, August 29, 1907, Page PAGE FOURTEEN, Image 14

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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. . . ,