Newspaper Page Text
WATSON’S EDITORIALS
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN
r^g<7ffi/ w yrjW| > A Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Government. 1
«»wwrei>«F ——— SUBSCR[ p TI()N pRICE . SIOO PER rEAR
THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON, Advertising Rates Furnished on Application. JBScv
l/JiEditors and Proprietors * * uj
•4/ JrVfr NtKW >-n _ r».„. _ » r. Enttrtd at Ptttoffict, Atlanta, Ga., January 11, I<)07, at ttttnd }AI X\\Y
Hf iff VpT Temple Court Building, Atlanta, Ga„ " Aau ai i matttr. Vp Vr'*
! Bl | u Bl
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1907.
Tfr. firyan, Mr. Watson, Judge Parker,
and the Campaign of 1904.
The Weekly Jeffersonian is not quite a year
old, but already it goes to all parts of the
country.
Everywhere the common people look upon
it as their friend, and the humblest citizen
feels that in writing to the paper on any legit
imate subject, he may rely upon getting con
siderate treatment. That is precisely the im
pression the Jeffersonian meant to make, and
it will always strive to live up to its reputa
tion.
Now, a friend of ours, who lives out anion
the Indians and things, writes to us as fol
lows :
“Welch, I. T., Sept. 5, 1907.
“Hon. Thos. E. Watson.
“Dear Sin: As a constant reader of your
publications, I desire to ask you a question
in regard to statements you quote in the first
issue of Tom Watson’s Magazine, March,
1905, also found in first issue of Watson’s
Jeffersonian Magazine, 1907, January number,
‘As to Mr. Hearst,’ in which you say Mr.
W. J. B. in the campaign of 1904, in Indian
said, ‘Parker is the Moses to lead Democra
cy to victory,’ also, ‘His ideals are my
ideals,’ or words to that effect.
“I have been called down so many times
when I have quoted you on these statements
tfiat I would like to know if the official speech
is where I can get exact quotation, date and
town in which it was made. I realize 1 am
intruding upon the time of a very busy man,
but trust you will answer me promptly, as 1
have tried* the Missouri World and failed to
get the desired information.
“Enclosed find self-addressed envelope. Suc
cess to your publications.
“JESSE L. SWANGE.
“Welch, I. T.
“P. S. If nothing happens I will hear Bry
an tomorrow at Vinita, I. T.”
The statements referred to were made in
good faith, and have never been denied by
Mr. Bryan. They were not only criticised
by Mr. Watson in the press, but also by Judge
Sam W. Williams, of Vincennes, Ind. The
speeches of Mr. Bryan in which he called
Parker the “Moses of the Democratic Party,”
and in which Mr. Bryan declared that “Judge
Parker’s ideals are my ideals,” were made to
ward the close of the campaign of 1904, when
the Bryan Democrats were wavering, and
showing a disposition to swing toward Mr.
Watson. Logically, Mr. Watson was entitled
to the support, not only of the Bryan men, but
of Mr. Bryan himself.
In the campaign of 1904 Mr. Watson was
the only candidate who was fighting for those
principles which the ticket of Bryan and Wat
son was put forth to represent in 1896.
That Parker was an unfit candidate for the
Democrats to name, was Mr. Bryan’s own
verdict. Mr. Bryan not only proclaimed it, in
writing, but he hired halls in which to de
nounce Parker to applauding multitudes.
Nominations do not change the nature, the
character, the principles, of men.
If Judge Parker’s character or principles
unfitted him for the nomination, as Mr. Bryan
contended, then the nomination could not
make him fit.
When Judge Parker was endorsed and eulo
gized by Mr. Bryan, in those Indiana and
Ohio and West Virginia speeches, he was the
same Judge Parker whom Mr. Bryan had de
clared to be unfit. Judge Parker had not
changed a particle. He was standing precisely
where he stood when Mr. Bryan was hiring
halls to denounce him.
The only change that had taken place was
that Judge Parker had been nominated.
He had been stamped, “Good Man,” by the
St. Louis Convention, and Mr. Bryan allowed
the stamp to change his opinion of the goods.
Yet he knew as much about the goods before
they were stamped as afterwards.
As a party man, Mr. Bryan could very well
say that he would yield to the majority, and
vote with his crowd. Where he did wrong,
from every possible point of view, was in pre
venting the Bryan Democrats from exercising
their own judgment.
They were inclined to vote for Mr. Watson,-
as a protest against the foul work which
brought about the nomination of Parker.
That Parker’s nomination was the result of
“indefensible methods,” we have the public
statement of Mr. Bryan himself. The whole
country now knows what a corrupt and gieedy
crew were behind Parker, and everybody
knows that his nomination was bought.
Mr. Bryan knew- it, THEN.
When he saw that his political followers
meant to vindicate their convictions by voting
for Watson, he should not have interfered.
Mr. Watson was bearing the same banner
which Mr. Bryan had borne through eight
years of glorious struggle.
The Bryan Democrats realized this. -
they were wavering—showing all signs of a
disposition to follow Watson.
Then it was that Mr. Bryan rushed out of
Yellowstone Park, and began & whirlwind
campaign whose object was to hold the Bryan
men in line for Parker.
To dp this, was no easy job. Bryan’s own
denunciations of Parker were fresh in every
body’s mind. The rank and file of the Demo
cratic Paity were sick and sore, over the
doings at the St. Louis Convention. There
fore, Bryan had to use some means more ef
fective than perfunctory acquiescence and rec
ommendation.
To satisfy the Brvan men, Bryan had to
vouch for Parker. To have the Parker draft
honored by the Bryan Democrats, Brvan had
to endorse it.
That was why Mr. Brvan felt it to be
necessary to allude to Judge Parker as “the
Moses of the Democratic Party,” and to make
the very unusual declaration that Parker’s
ideals were the same as his own.
« H H
Henry Watterson Unhappy.
We regret, to see the great Western Editor.
Henry Watterson, railing at the procession
and trying to scotch the wheels of the band
wagon. Jlc and the New York Tribune have
been interchanging comment, and our Ken
tucky friend has this to say:
“As to Mississippi and North Carolina, the
Tribune, runs away ahead of the hounds.
Neither State has yet taken any decisive
stand. The Georgia law had already been en
acted when Mr. Watterson made his speech at
Lexington. It was the result of the collu
sion of Hokey-Pokey Smith and Tom Watson
to take advantage of a small moral wave and
a big Negro scare, and, by hitching the Pro
hibition party and the Populist party to a
little remnant of what called itself the Demo
cratic party, to win the election. It succeeded
famously. But, can the Tribune approve of
that kind of politics?”
The Prohibition movement may look to be
nothing but “a small moral wave” tG Marse
Henry, but our prediction is that it is destined
to fill more political grave-yords with dead poli
ticians than anything which has come along
lately.
“Small moral wave,” indeed! The truth is
that the people are so fully aroused upon that
subject that they are enraged against thfcm
selves for ever having tolerated so long
the bossism of the Liquor Dealers Associa
tion. The outrageous laws which Congress
has enacted, at the instance of both the old
parties, in behalf of the Whiskey Trust, are
unknown to the average Prohibitionists them
selves.
BOTH THE OLD PARTIES HAVE
BEEN DOING DIRTY WORK FOR THE
DISTILLERIES, and both the old parties
have been interested in keeping the facts out
of sight.
When we Pops tried to make the people lis
ten to the story of Congressional shame, we
were howled down.
Next to the National Banks, this Govern
ment has showered personal favors upon no
class of men so lavishly as upon the powerful
men of" the Whiskey Trust.
The Jeffersonian means to show it up.
The people are now ready to hear things,
which they would not listen to fifteen years
ago.
All those abuses, all those monstrosities of
class-legislation which were shown up in Mr.
Watson’s “Not a Revolt, but a Revolution,”
will be exposed again in this paper.
The people would not heed the book. It
was published in 1892, and the angry psfesions
of the Democratic and Republican masses
were running away with their better nature.
They wouldn’t listen, then. They are willing
to listen, now.
And, bless God! they shall know it all—
this story of national shame!
There isn’t a nation on earth where the
machinery of Government has been run so
boldly in the selfish interest of a few incor
porated capitalists. The Steel Corporation,
the Standard Oil gang, the Railroad Combina
tions, the Express Companies, the Life Insur
ance Companies, the National Banks—what
a glorious time they have had! But none
have been coddled, and pampered, and petted
more than the Whiskey Trust.
And the Jeffersonian means to tell you all
about it.
“Small moral wave,” forsooth!—if the bet
ter men and women of America don’t mean to
wage a war to the death against the defiant
debauchery of the young, which is sweeping
off the flower of the flock in tens of thousands
of communities—then all signs fail!