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ZETTEEJ FROM THE PEOPLE
Simsboro, La., Sept. 1, 1907.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.:
Dear Sir: I enclose herewith the
names and addresses of four subscrib
ers to your weekly Jeffersonian, with
the necessary funds for same.
I have sent in a good many names
already, but have been sending them
through the Missouri World office,
and I heartily wish I could send , ten
times as many as I have sent, for
I feel when I obtain a subscriber to
either one of your publications, that
I have done a work that will be a
blessing to my friend and country,
and I want to congratulate you, to
gether with the other few who have
been true to the cause of human
rights and justice in the dark days
of the past, on the seeming near ap
proach of complete success and vic
tory and vindication. Yours is a
heritage that your children will be
proud of after you have gone to your
reward, and though you have beer,
misrepresented and slandered and vil
ified and abused and perhaps by some
misunderstood, yet you can now
thank God and take courage, for the
light of truth and justice is begin
ning to dawn; right will in the end
triumph and our beloved country will
yet be redeemed from the clutches of
plutocratic greed. So press on and
falter not in the great work, and I
will do what little I can here in
Louisiana to hold up your arms and
strengthen you in your noble efforts,
and may the Lord of hosts be with you
and continue to give you both wis
dom and courage, is the prayer of
one who admires Tom Watson, and
has been in hearty accord and sym
pathy with him from our first ac
quaintance through the press, over
twenty years ago.
I see a letter in last week’s issue
of the Jeffersonian from my old army
friend and comrade, S. J. Whatley.
I had lost sight of him. God bless
him in his old age. We will meet on
the great campground when all things
are made new.
And now, if you should take time
to read my scribbling at all, just cast
it aside with the thought that there
is one more who appreciates my la
bor of love fcr common people.
Yours for liberty and justice,
N. J. BELTON.
Decoy, Texas, August 17, 1907.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.:
Dear Unseen Friend and Brother in
Reform:
I notice that you request all those
that are working with you to wiite
you. I have not sent in any sub
scribers, as I am old and afflicted
with pains in my legs, and can not
get around to solicit subscribers. I
distribute your literature among the
people, and request them to subscribe.
Quite a number have promised me to
do so.
I have been reading your literature
for the past fifteen years, and I find
that you never wabble on the spindle.
You are the only man that is writ
ing to the public that is advocating
true, unadulterated democracy. T be
lieve that the principles of pure dem
ocracy, like Christianity, originated
in God, for the Bible, as I under
stand it, teaches • democracy from
Genesis to Revelation. Christ’s life
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
have pure democracy without pure
and teaching while on earth was dem.
ocratic. I believe that we can not
Christianity, nor pure Christianity
without pure democracy. My prayer
to God is to speed that day when the
principles that you are advocating
will be enacted into law, and will be
the ruling power of this and all na
tions. May God’s most choice bless
ings rest an dabide with you to aid
you in your noble work for the
rights of all the people.
I am standing immovable upon the
principles advocated by the People’s
Party. I believe them to be pure,
unadulterated democracy.' I am with
you and for you. I had rather see
you president than any other man liv
ing, but there is too much corruption
in this nation to elect a pure, true
patriot. There have been frauds
enough perpetrated in this nation
since the civil war to swamp three
monarchies. No other form of govern
ment but a republican form of gov
ernment could have stayed in exist
ence.
For fear that I weary you, I will
close. With best wishes for your suc
cess in this life, and the life to come,
I am as ever an advocate of equal
rights to all, and special privileges to
none. ; ’“j |
Yours very respectfully,
WM. A. SKILLEM.
Longtown, Miss., August 1, 1907.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.:
Dear Sir: You will please find en
closed fifteen cents in stamps, for
which send me a copy of your August
Jeffersonian magazine. I desire to
express to you my gratitude for the
kind and true things that you have
said concerning our governor, and I
sincerely hope that you will have the
pleasure of seeing him numbered as a
member of the United States Senate.
I am,
Yours very truly,
CHAS. L. ROGERS.
I have read a great deal after Mr.
Watson. In fact, I have kept pretty
well up with him since he started the
People’s Party paper in Atlanta,
of Mr. Wesley’s writings from the
years ago. I have also read much
time he was at Oxford College, Eng
land, till his life’s work was finished,
and what Mr. Wesley was to the re
ligious world in his day, Mr. Watson
is to the political world in his day.
Mr. Wesley had to contend with alt
kinds of opposition from the upper
classes, even in his own church, from
whom he had a right to expect faith
fulness and earnest corporation.
Many of the ministers of his own de
nomination- locked the doors of their
churches against him, and turned
their backs on him, sometimes incit
ing and leading the infuriated rab
ble in their mad efforts to mob him.
He was forced to preach in the
fields and the streets of the cities in
many places, which he did in the rain
and the sunshine, in the heat and the
cold. The common people heard him
gladly, and sometimes he preached to
as many as twenty thousand at one
time. He had a divine mission to
execute, and neither men nor devils
could stop him, and to-day, while he
is speaking to about thirty million,
of all races of people, those who op
posed him are dead and forgotten,
save some whose names were placed
in the books he has written.
We believe Mr. Watson has a mis
sion to fulfill in righting the wrongs
of an oppressed nation of people in
the political world. May we not say
he was raised up and set apart for
this very purpose? We believe it,
else he would have given up in dis
couragement long ago.
Who have been his greatest oppos
ers in his reform work? We find them
among those in authority in church
and State, while the common people
have heard him gladly as they did
Mr. Wesley in his day. And like
Mr. Wesley, after his work is done,
his name and his memory shall be
perpetuated and go down the years
to come, while those who have re
tarded his efforts to bless his people
and save them from oppression shall
be dead and forgotten, save some
whose names he may write in the
books he shall leave behind him.
May his days be prolonged till
his work shall be completed.
B. F. LEE.
Louisville, Ga., Sept 12, 1907.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.:
Dear Mr. Watson: I have been
thinking every week since my return
from Atlanta that 1 would write
about a matter which the people ought
to know. I mean write to you so
that you could handle it editorially
if you see fit. I believe every mem
ber of the House has his record
11 straight” on the anti-pass bill.
Every member voted for an anti-pass
bill, and yet it is a fact that a ma
jority of them did not want any anti
pass legislation, and proceeded in a
manner to keep their “records
straight,” and at the same time pre
vent any anti-pass bill from passing.
The people should know who they
were, and it can be found out. The
Atlanta Constitution made it appeal’
that the passage of the Hall anti-r
bill in the House was a victory for
Joe Hall. It was not. Probably Hall
controlled a dozen members for his
bill, but no more. Those who voted
for the Hall bill voted for it because
they did not want any pass bill to
pass, that is the large majority of
them did. They knew that the Sen
ate would not accept the Hall bill;
they knew that if they voted for the
committee substitute we would
have an anti-pass law; they did not
want that. The scheme was “vote
for the Hall bill, the Senate will not
accept it; they will offer a substi
tute, and if it gets back here we will
then take the position that we can’t
be inconsistent. We voted for the
Hall bill and will not accept the
Senate substitute. We must be con
sistent.”
And they were. They were consist
ent in their efforts to prevent anti
pass legislation. What they antici
pated happened. The Senate passed
the Felder-Born substitute, which
was similar to the committee substi
tute which they killed in the House,
but it never got back to the House.
It was the purpose of these fellows
who were working this trick to try
and keep their records straight, and
when the bill comes up next summer
they meant to amend by making the
bill effective January 1, 1908. They
would then vote for any bill with
this amendment, as their terms of
office would expire before that time.
Such public servants ought to be ex
posed. I know that was the cause of
no anti-pass legislation this summer.
It is easy to get the names of these
fellows. On the passage of the sub
stitute offered by the committee, we
called for the ayes and nays. The
House Journal will show who killed
that substitute. The large majority
of those fellows are responsible for
no anti-pass law. Some few of them
voted against this substitute on ac
count of being under personal obliga
tions to Joe Hall.
Excuse this lengthy letter.. It may
be the facts are given you too late
to be of use, but your editorials call
ing to task such fellows do a great
deal of good, and the people appre
ciate them. With high personal re
gards, and best wishes, I am,
Very truly yours,
MEMBER LEGISLATURE.
Dallas, Texas, Aug. 28, 1907.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.:
Dear Brother: I rejoice exceeding
ly with Seab Wright and others over
the passage of the anti-barroom bill.
I read with interest your review of
Bishop Candler’s article, and take
your view of it. As you will remem
ber, I spoke in Georgia for the anti
barroom bill eleven years ago.
I have never been a populist. I am
a prohibitionist, and an independent.
I never saw the day I would not co
operate with any set of honest men
on a sound platform to defeat the
liquor traffic, and I think that is the
real nonpartisan attitude for every
prohibitionist.
Very cordially yours,
J. B. GAMBRELL.
Rochelle, Ga., Sept. 2, 1907.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.:
Dear Mr. Watson: As you request,
I write to say I’ve sent in some eight
or ten subscribers to your magazine,
and it is sent to others here who were
subscribers to the New York maga
zine. After filling the unexpired
time of the old with the new, the
subscribers promised to pay; so the
magazine was continued. I hope they
will pay all arrears and more, soon.
Several have moved off whom I can’t
see. I might give you a list of the
subscribers, if desired. Some are at
Pitts. I’m the only one here, that I
know of, taking your paper. We all
like your writings, and, in fact, we
think the magazine has no equal.
I, and many others, were tickled
at Clark Howell’s editorial in which
he acknowledged you had whipped
the fight.
It is amusing to see how the old
parties are falling in line with popu
list principles—dressing their planks
and claiming them as their own floor
ing.
Allow me to say you are doing
“great good,” and we are with you.
The hard licks you are hitting are
proving effective. Continue the
blows; don’t spare the rod.
Our hearts are with vou, and so is
God.
Truly yours,
W. C. CARTER.