Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1906-09-06
nokE sMIrn's rscHr.

The nomlnsiion n Hoka Smith for
governor q Georgia ~ he dsmacFatie
eoassnGion yesterday ends oae Of the
bitterest and most sensational cam.
paisns IN The history M southern pol.
itics. The haule wzs practically set-
tied Il the primaries held ID August
e and the convention merely ratified
the peoples choice.
Hoke Smith H. n native Of North
Carolina, canning 10 Georgia when II
years of age. For many years he wa
editor and proprtet<s q the Atlanta
Journal. and was secretary Of the In.
terror In President cleseiands O..
bines.
Smith made the race ON a platform
opposing the socaiied state machine.
advocating the Acknowledgement Of
negroes and denouncing the alleged
railroad domination ~ Georgia Off.
eisis." Al the nomi6ation In Georgia
Ii equivalent 10 election. II II probable
that Smiths proposed Law 10 keep the
negroes from voting, framed on the
Mississippi plan. Will loon become
q reality.
In his fight against the machine
Smith had the enthusiastic support Of
the Hon. Tom Watson. once the pop.
nlist candidate for vice president. As
= result. Il In expected that nany pop.
ulists will vote the democratic ticket
this fall.
Smiths chief opponent In the con.
test for the gubernatorial plum was
Clark Howell. former speaker Of the
house. former president of the Geor.
gta senate. nov q national democratic
committeeman ana editor ~ the Al.
ianta Constitution. For years Howell
has been the ~undispnted leader Ut the
Georgia democracy. When he IN.
nounced that he wanted To become
governor there was no ~ To deny
him the honor-~no one. that Ii. hut
Mrs. Hoke Smith.
In an unfortunate moment Howell
wrote an editorial for his paper In
which he declared that Smith was
politically o corpse and that he
couldn't be elected 10 the office Of
dog catcher, or words to that effect.
The editorial only excited the risi.
bilities Of Smith, who dismissed II as
one Of the usual polite amenities Of
an opposition organ. II IL said. and
popularity believed that at the time no
had never seriously entertained q
thought Of making the ace for guy.
ernor. ~
But Mrs. Smith read HoweIl's ed.
torial. Then she got busy. She told
her husband that her southern pride
had been outraged and dragged In
the dust. She declared that the honor
Of the family was at stake. She do.
manded revenge. and insisted that that
revenge take the form of defeating
Howell In his cherished ambition to
become governor. She assured Smith
that he a the Real Big Noise in
Georgia politics. and much more to the
same effect.
That was over a year ago. The re.
suit Is history.
There were three other candidates
In the gubernatorial fight who also
ran. These were J. VI. Estill. editor Of
the Savannah News, Colonel James
Smith. a millionaire planter. and Judge
Richard Russell. a lawyer.
Russell was In many respects one Of
the spectacular figures Of the AM
paign. He was insistent In his de.
nunciations Of race suicide and re-
ferred necessarily TO his own large
family.
''rhe supreme moment OF my life"
he declared i'm one Of his speeches.
will be when | walk up Peachtree
street to the governors mansion
Win my dozen cotton gosned child
rensat my, heels"
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