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PAGE TWELVE
MOST UNJUST.
(Continued from Page Nine.)
Fair. Had he given his word, he would have
kept it
Fair managers who publish unauthorized an
nouncements and who then wriggle out of the
scrape by saying that “Mr. Watson broke his
promise/’ deserve some sort of punishment.
n h n
'Editorial Notes.
President Roosevelt killed a bear weighing
365 pounds. Louisiana bears, of'that size,
should be more careful. ’Most anybody might
mistake one for a wild hog.
If the President will come down to the Ogee
chee Swamp we will promise any reasonable
number of “bears” weighing 365.
If we Georgians had had any idea that Louis
iana bears were no bigger than that, we would
have spoken up for the Ogeechee Swamp when
the thing was first mentioned.
Clark Howell has nominated Bryan for Pres
ident, and Hoke Smith has made the plat
form.
What more could anybody ask?
Bryan is irresistible on every day excepting
the day of the election.
If they keep on fooling with me, I am going
out and make a speech on “Education.” Oh,
what a nice, peaceable subject Education is!
TENNESSEE’S POLITICAL
STATUS.
Tennessee is far behind themoving
procession.
All around us there is evolution.
There is progress.
In Tennessee, however, the rail
roads in their fortunate, for them
selves, selection of public officials,
have plastered us up against the
stone wall of inaction.
There is nothing doing.
We have a governor who, with the
indorsement and in the confidence of
the Louisville & Nashville railroad,
is satisfied to occupy himself in the
construction of a political machine
to continue him in high place.
He has closely associated with him,
in methods at least, a railroad com
mission which has shared his feeling
of antipathy to any noise, any agita
tion, which would disturb the rail
roads in their happy sense of secur
ity and in the autocratic exercise of
cheap franchises, unlimited license
and the unchecked power of toll
gathering without contributing more
than a minimum toi the expenses of
maintaining the state’s government.
We have a governor who, during
a long legislative session, never in all
his messages and addresses felt called
upon to say one word, to legislators
as to railroad matters.
He did not suggest that in the gen
eral plan of rate reduction Tennes
see should demand the same rates
that her neighboring states were re
ceiving. ,
He did not suggest that in Tennes
see the railroads were not paying the
taxes that they should be paying.
He did not tell his legislators that
in Minnesota, the railroads charge 2
cents per mile, give cheapened freight -
rates and at the same time pay an
nually into the state treasury an hon
est contribution from their excess of
earnings about $3,500,000. In Ten
nessee we have had no sort of rate
concessions, and the railroads last
year paid in taxes $226,000.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JKFFBHSONIAN.
Get ready, boys- the old man can’t hold in
much longer.
• Must speak on Education.
Alabama, in the meanwhile, is up and doing.
An Extra-session is not “such a foolish
thing,” in Alabama.
Governor Comer should be keerful. The
Atlanta Journal may not approve of the way
he is conducting himself. ..
*
The readers of The Jeffersonian will be glad
to learn that J. D. W. is back from Virginia,
and will help the old man keep up with the
procession.
He will take some of the drudgery off my
hands, and thus enable me to fix up a real nice
speech on Education.
n h h
Poor Lindsay.
Paul Lindsay writes a long card in the
Atlanta Constitution trying to squirm out of
the nasty deal he made with Lon Livingston
concerning that snub of Mr. Watson at the
National R. F. D. Convention.
Clark Howell gives Lindsay’s card great
prominence—so much so, indeed, that it raises
a suspicion that Clark, after all, was in the
little game.
Lindsay’s card is so different from the pri
vate letter which he wrote to Mr. Watson that
the Jeffersonian will, next week, publish said
letter.
That’s a difference, don’t you
think?
And Minnesota, with surely as
much area as Tennessee, has a popu
lation smaller than our own by some
quarter of a million people.
The governor did not say that as
Minnesota has done, so have been
doing Wisconsin, lowa, Illinois. Ne
braska, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas,
Oklahoma, Texas; Alabama, Georgia,
the two Virginias, N. Carolina. New
Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and
Providence knows how many others.
He did not suggest that the rail
roads should improve their service;
that out of their earnings they should
put on more cars and should do a lit
tle double tracking in the interest
of our lives and our commeice.
He did not intimate that fir years
there had been under assessments for
the railroads as compared with the
individual, and that were the former
corrected, the burden of the latter
would be lessened or completely re
moved.
He did not decry the railroad lob
byists who have for more than a gen
eration been poisonous pests about
the halls of legislation.
Instead, the governor has become
the acknowledged candidate of the
most vicious and pernicious railroad
system that ever looted and tyran
nized and bullied and dominated a
state. The newspaper property of
the Louisville & Nashville railroad
is the governor’s special and most
zealous champion for a continuance
in power.
It is for him because the railroad
behind it, appreciating the dainty
delicacy of his interference with the
railroads’ status want* Mr. Patter
son to stay where he is.
It wants him to keep down “anti
railroad mania.”
It wants him to be the purveyor of
their messages of assurance to those
people who have not been altogether
satisfied.
It wants him to o. k. their pledges.
More than that, it wants him to
continue his policy of tilling the courts
with politically trained judges select
ed from railroad law offices. Up to
this time, the governor has had three
judicial positions to fill. He appoint
ed to the two vacancies on the Court
of Civil Appeals two working politi
cal railroad attorneys, and to the va
cancy on the Supreme bench, to mem
bership of our Court of Final Resort,
he has commissioned a lawyer who
has not yet resigned" bis railroad at
torneyship, and who has stated that
it is not his intention to resign it.
Now, we submit that Tennessee
needs to “eyes front,” to “right
about. ’ ’
Back in the days of the territo
ries and the new Western states, we
had instances of judicial degradation
similar to that now existing in Ten
nessee.
But it was a shame then as it is
a shame now.
We believe thatl in no other state
would such appointments as Horace
Palmer’s, A. B. Lamb’s and John
Hendersm s be tolerated for one
week. In New York. Massachusetts
or even Pennsylvania, for instance,
there would go up protests in condem
nation that would overwhelm the gov
ernor who had made them.
The trouble in Tennessee is that
there has not been a free press in the
capital city, and the people are not
informed of the constantly recurring
atrocities.
They will learn in time, however,
and they will speak at the primaries
and in the general election their dis
approval. And Tennessee will begin
the work of her own regeneration and
redemption, even though at the ex
pense of a lot of cheap and unworthy
politicians in high places.—-Farmers ’
News-Scimitar.
The News does not yet join in the
chorus of cheers that greets the vic
tory, so narrowly won, of John Sharp
Williams over Governor Vardaman
for United States Senator down in
Mississippi. It may be all right, but
among the republican press and ora
tors and the reactionary democratic
Honor Poll.
The names given below are those of a few
of the staunch friends of the two Jeffersonians.
These men help me in building up The circu
lation:
A. Q. Searles, Casey, Illinois.
Mr. Searles sent $12.75 i n one letter, and
ha- writes as though he weren’t the least bit
ashamed of himself for having been an old
Pop.
W. S. Hubbard, Carrollton, Ga.
Friend Hubbard sent $8.65 in one letter last
week. And he isn’t done with it yet.
G. L. Gray, Eddyville, Ky.
J. W. Biard, Paris, Tex.
W. C. Chapman, Crawfordville, Ga.
Tom Tankersly, Leathersville, Ga.
T. L. Dixon, Gibson, Ga.
SPECIAL NOTICE
Club propositions, agents’ commissions, and
combination offers of the Jeffersonian clubbed
with other periodicals, DO NOT APPLY to
RENEWALS.
We are making some attractive offers to re
newing subscribers, however and these will be
found elsewhere in this issue.
press the Williams enthusiasm is so
great that a democratic- democrat may
well take another think before he
lifts his voice in thanksgiving. Vard
aman is one of those husky folk who
have carved their own fortune. J
grew up in poverty and has achieved
his present position by sheer force of '
energy, intellect and honesty. Be
cause he conceived the notion that a
chief executive of a state held a brief
for the whole people he incurred the
displeasure of the railroad trust, the
school book trust and sundry tax
dodging corporations. And these as
sisted in downing him. Williams is
educated. He has ability a-plenty.
And he will, we trust, make good.
He can if he will. But the end of
Vardaman is not yet. Mark that.
The Pennsboro (W. Va.) News.
To Our Subscribers
(1) To each of you who renews will
be sent DIXIELAND Magazine at $1.50
for the two—viz., The Weekly Jefferso
nian and Dixieland.
(2) The Cosmopolitan Magazine will
be sent with the Jeffersonian Weekly
for $1.75 for the two.
(3) Th© Review of Reviews (regular
price $3.00), Success Magazine (reg
ular price $1.00) and the Weekly Jef
fersonian ($1.00) will be sent TO NEW
SUBSCRIBERS, AS WELL AS TO
RENEWING SUBSCRIBERS for
$3.25.
(4) Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine
will be sent with Weekly Jeffersonian
and Dixieland for $2.50. This applies
to Renewals.
(5) Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine,
the Weekly Jeffersonian, and The Re
view of Reviews, all three, for $3.50.
This applies to renewals.
(6) The Cosmopolitan and the two
Jeffersonians for $2.75. This applies
to renewals.
(7) The Standard FOUNTAIN PEN
vouched for by the perfectly reliable
Union Library Association, of New
York, will be sent as a Premium to
any one who sends us four New Sub
scribers at the regular price of SI.OO
each. Three new Subs, to the Magazine
will entitle you to the same Premium.