The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-24
TOM WATSON FIRES
 POLITICAL GUNS Tirade of lnvectives Is Directed
 At ". J. Bryan HOT SHOT FOR NEBRASKAN Watson Says He Would Throw Geor- eia's Electoral Vote to Bryan h.
 stead of Taft, but Raps
 the Latter Hard.
HOT SHOT FOR NEBRASKAN

i Watson, popul1St candldate Tor Ffesl-
 dent, opened his campaign here tonight
 in a speech of one hour to an audience
 that taxed the capacity of the Grand 1 opera house. He asked for Georgia's ] electoral vote and said that if necessary I he would give them to Bryan to defeat | Taft His assaults were all directed | at Bryan, however, and his praises were for Roosevelt and Taft. His | charge against Bryan of refusing to
 vote for Crisp for speaker in the demo- cratic caucus because of his being l Confederate was heard in silence, but | his attack on the Nebraskan for his | attitude in giving the negroes comfort | in the Brownsville matter was repeat
 edly applauded.
 l Mr. Watson said in part:
 The greatest purpose of my life now IS | to put the south back into the position Of
 national influence which she he'd before lie civil war, and to bring back the reign
 of democratic principles as they were ! pract'ced in the 40's and 60s
 | The greatest obstacle in the way Is the arathy Of the south itself. If the southern | people would arouse themselves they could easily throw off the domination of the
 eastern capitalist who exploits the south ern States through the machinery or the | democratic party.
 You call yourselves democrats-Andrew l Jackson demoerats-Thomas Jefferson democrats-and you have never stopped to inquire what are the principles Tor Whleli Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson l stood You allow your editors to do your thinking for you. You allow your partisan leaders to dictate convictions for you. You have quit using your own heads Tor | anything except the most convenient nat
 pegs during the day, and necessary part | Of the snoring apparatus at nlghl. for Gods sake, rouse yourselves; assert your Individuality, and vote according to the | dictates of your own conscience. No pal 1 lot is thrown away when it represents the l conscientious convictions of him who casls ir.
 | ''You are asked to vote for MT. Bryan | and yet MT. Bryans platform is one Whlcis | Andrew Jackson would have spurned, and 1 Thomas Jefferson despised. It represents | :. disgraceful surrender of principle. Ill, | 1896 MT Bryan claimed to be as good q 1 populist as Watson Upon that plea ne 1 took away from Watson the populists of | the west For eight years he wore every | shred of clothing which popullsm had III l it's wardrobe. He did not leave to me po- | litically so much as fig lear Conse- l uuently, it was necessary for me to let l MT. Bryan monopolize the stage. In l5ol | he abandoned his populistic ratment, and | entered zealously, to the extent or oS 1 speeches per day, into the Parker cam- | paign, which he himself had denounced l as a sell-out to the Wall street element | of the democratic party. He had hlrec | halls in Chicago and elsewhere to de- rounce the manner in which Ryan and | Belmont we're buying the nomination Tor Judge Parker; yet he himself campaigneo
 Indiana, West Virginia and other states in a special train furnished by Ryan ara l Belmont; and he himself accepted $2G,O00 of Ryan and Belmont's money. Not only did he do so, but he violated the law Of
 his own state by failing to publish state 1 lnent of how the money was expended.
 Political Apostasy.
 Tn excuse of his political apostasy h 1904. he pleaded the majority rule, claim ing that as a party man it was necessary 1 fer him to bow to its will But that eX- i cuse no longer avails. In Denver he was | absolutely in despotic control of the dem- ocratic party Whatever he wanted done, 1 vas done Whoever he wanted thrown cut was bounced. The platform is just
 what he made it, and that platform is one | Of the most shameful abandonments of | principle that political history presents. l The man who in 1866 declared his unalter-
 .ible opposition to the single gold standard is now a hero of the gold standardites | | nal opposition to the national banking
 system is now offering props to insure the permanepee of the system. The man who it. 1S96 professed to be in favor of our con- l stitutional money system has gone over to | Wall street, bag and baggage, clamorlns for asset currency to be issued by the gov | ernment and loaned to the banks, With | cnly the faintest possible word of rebuNe
 to those who passed the infamous Aldrich- Vreeland bill.
 ssThis Denver platform is not demo- | cratic platform, unless the mere say-so | of w. J. Bryan constitutes democracy. Judged by the creed of Jefferson, 1t is | not democratic. Judged by the creed or | Benton and Jackson, it is not democratic. | Judged by the platform of the party | from its very foundation down to the | days of Buchanan, it is an insult to his | toric democracy to call Bryans patch l work platform a democratic document 1 What right has he to demand the sup
 port of those citizens who are democratic l in principle, upon such a platform as
 this?
 Support of the South.
 "And particularly, what right has he to expect the support of the south? Upon ! one principle alone can he hope to get | if. and that is upon the idea that the | south is compelled to vote the democratic l ticket. no matter how offensive in princ- | ple the platform may be, nor how much | the candidate may insult her. Upon the | principle that the south cannot help her l self. no matter what eastern democracy ! and the democratic candidate may do- l upon the idea that the south has got to | vote the democratic ticket, even though there be a dead dog upon it-I can un- | derstand how southern democracy may | come along and vote for Bryan, just as l 1t has swallowed many bitter dose in | the past There seems to be no depth of | degradation to which the south will not i cheerfully go, if the democratic party de- | mands it. There appears to be a hypo- crite charm about the name demo cratic" which takes away from south ern people their intelligence, their in dependence, their pride.
 "The democratic party. in one of it's | national conventions, declared that it adored the Fourteenth amendment. No | bigger lie was ever told. Yet the south made no protest at language which should have made every drop of her blood jingle with infinite indignation. The | democratic party has compelled the south to vote for candidates who practiced so cial equality with negroes, and the south reeed blindly into that attitude of pit
 fable humiliation. So completely under
 the control of eastern capitalism were