Newspaper Page Text
W A TSON 'S EDIT OSIALS
- - - ■ - - - - - -- - - .. ■■ - ■. - ■ - - • - - ' ■■■■>.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN
Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Government. 1
published BY ~~ SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: SI.OO PER YEAR
™OS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON, Advertising Rates Furnished on Application.
K/ Editors and Proprietors U]/
’ Twple Court Building, Atlanta, Ga. £n “” J “ “”“ n ‘ l
I » Bj ■———l , 7’w BY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1907.
Why Toolish?
The Atlanta Journal says, editorially, that
; it would be a “foolish thing” for the Governor
to call the Georgia Legislature into extra ses
sion.
Why so?
The Atlanta Journal can not deny that, on
the whole, the work done at the regular ses
sion was an extreme disappointment to the
reform element, which united to make Hoke
Smith Governor. The Jeffersonian made due
allowance for the difficulties under which the
new administration labored, and gave due cred
it to Governor Smith for his strenuous ener
gy in wresting from an adverse Legislature
the little that was done in the way of reform.
The Candler-Overstreet bill is a good law,
if properly enforced, but it is nothing, other
wise. We did not favor the increase in the
number of Commissioners, nor do we now
think that the increase was either necessary or
wise. In that respect, we thotfght the Senate
was right and the administration wrong. But,
after all, that was a detail; and while the two
additional Commissioners will cost the State,
each decade, a big pile of money which could
be spent to better purpose, we were not dis
posed to harp on the subject.
But whqp the Atlanta Journal objects to
the extra session on the score of the expense,
and characterizes it as “foolish,” we cannot
help smiling at its attitude. Atlanta politi
cians don’t seem to mind the expense when it
comes to creating more well-paid offices; but
when those who think that the pledges made
to the people ought to be kept in good faith,
even if we have to re-assemble the Legislature,
why, the Atlanta politicians suddenly become
as parsimonious as though they themselves
were expecting to pay the expenses.
What an absurd subterfuge it is, to say that
we must not give the people what we promised
them, because it will cost too much! Would
we have dared to talk that way last summer?
M M *
On Trial Tor Its Life.
“Reform within the dear old Party,” is on
trial in Georgia—on trial for its life.
Take care what you do, Messrs. City Editors
of Democratic dailies!
You are playing with fire, when you tell
the country people that they must wait pa
tiently another generation, or so, for those
Reforms which, last summer, were scheduled
for arrival in June, 1907. Now, you tell us
to be patient: “Rome wasn’t built in a day,”
etc. Why, oh why! didn’t you pipe that tune
to the Country-folks last summer?
Why didn’t you remind us that it required
six hundred years, or such a matter, to build
imperial Rome?
Why didn’t you then say, “Let well enough
alone”?
That’s what the Old Gang said, last year.
Pray don’t purloin the Old Gang’s ammunition
chest.
If there is nothing for the Legislature to
do now, there was nothing to complain of a
year ago, a
That’s the case, in a nut shell.
Do you ask, “What is it that anybody wants
done?”
The Jeffersonian respectfully refers you to
your editorials of last year.
LISTEN!
When you make it possible for men to smile
scornfully as they refer to the unredeemed
pledges made last summer, you give a black
eye, a fatal stab, to the policy of “get your
reforms inside the Democratic Party.”
If you don’t quit this astonishing talk about
“letting well enough alone,” and of “Rome
wasn’t built in a day,” you will make it utterly
.impossible for Bryan, or any other Democrat,
to ever be President.
Mark what we tell you, Gentlemen.
You are driving nails into the coffin of “Get
your-Reforms-inside-the-Democratic-Party.”
HMM
Toll of Honor.
The Jeffefsonian will publish each week the
names of a few of those who have been its most
active friends in extending its circulation. This
week we select the following:
General Wm. Phillips, Marietta, Ga.
Sam B. Tarver, Bartow, Ga.
L. L. Winter, Gracewood, Ga.
J. O. Garra*son, Ludowici, Ga.
T. J. Shields, Vineland, Ala.
H. J. Mullens, Franklin, Tenn.
R. E. Thompson, Toomsuba, Miss.
Thos. J. Hall, Montgomery, Ala.
Dixon & Lankford, Chillicothe, Mo.
(To be Continued.)
HMM
To the Lalvyers of the Land.
Gentlemen, why do some of you waste time
on small cases, when you might be busy with
big ones?
The public roads are occupied by corpora
tions which have no right to be there. These
roads run through the land of citizens who
are ignorant of their rights. They have been
bluffed by the Yankee Corporations.
The Legislature had no power to legally
grant Right-of-Way through anybody’s land.
County Commissioners and Ordinaries have no
such right. Any such grant is a mere nullity.
Why not inform each citizen whose land
has been seized by the Telegraph and Tele
phone Companies, what his rights are, and take
his case against the trespassers?
• • • •
The lands which these corporations have
seized, without compensation to the owners,
are worth millions of dollars to the bluffers.
Why not compel these corporations to pay for
the Right-of-Way, or to get out?
Sue them for the value of the Right-of-Way,
or ask for a Writ of Mandamus to oust them,
or try them with an Injunction, or with an
Ejectment proceeding.
Whenever a test case is made, the bluffers
will “coms across.”
• • • •
These insolent corporations know very well
that they had no right to dig holes in the land
and set their poles therein. They know that
their lines exist at the mercy of the land-own
ers.
For, the Public Road is a mere Easement,
carrying no Title.
The soil of the Public Road belongs to the
landowner. Above and below is his—“high
as heaven, deep as hell.” Everybody has the
right to pass on, over and along the road; NO
BODY HAS THE RIGHT TO STOP AND
STAY.
If the road is changed, the old roadbed at
once becomes a part of the landowner’s field,
to be used by him, exclusively, for all legal
purposes. The Telephone and Telegraph Com
panies do not travel along the roads, they stop
and stay.
They put obstructions in the way of travel
lers. They dig holes in the owners’ soil and
occupy them, and this is not only an invasion of
the legal rights of the owners of the soil, but
an invasion of the rights of the Public.
Frequently the poles and wires blow down,
across the road, making the same dangerous
to travel, therefore they interfere with the
Easement.which the public has in the highway.
• • • •
When a private citizen allows a public road
laid out through his place, he does not contem
plate that corporations, or individuals, will
come and live in the road.
THE TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH
COMPANIES ARE LIVING IN THE
ROAD.
If the Telephone and Telegraph Companies
can seize the public highway, without com
pensation previously paid to the owners of the
land, why cannot the railroads do it?
These corporations are private citizens—
where do private citizens get the right to seize
private property for their own use?
The Legislature, itself, could not legally
come down to your place, and dig holes in the
high-way, to set up a line of poles. The Ordi
nary has no legal right to do it. The County
authorities have no right to do it. Everybody
will admit that much. Then, how can the
Legislature, or any County, or State authority,
give a private corporation the right to do what
they, themselves, have no right to do? The
question answers itself.
Suppose the requisite legal steps were taken
to discontinue the Public Road which runs
through your place—what would be the stat
us of the Telegraph or Telephone Companies
which have dug holes in that road?
The law is plain and undisputed, as to what
becomes of the land which has been occupied
by the highway. It reverts, for all legal pur
poses, to the owner of the adjacent soil.
But when it reverts to his use, there are the
poles and the wires of these two corpora
tions, occupying the land above the surface,
on she surface, and under the surface.
Do the corporations continue to have the
right to occupy the land, when the road has
been discontinued?
Os course not