Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1908-05-30
THE FITZGERALD Enterprise MAY 90. 1908:


We do not believe it!
We do not believe that there are any men in
Fitzgerald who would stoop so low as to use the
employing power of their money to such base ends.
In the first place the man who employs fellow
beings in shops factories or in the fields and who
holds over the heads of the workingmen the threat
of discharge, in the event they use their God given
and constitutional rights of exercising their free
will at the ballot box are criminals in the truest
sense of the word; criminals of lower order than
the man who robs his neghbor of money or other
worldly goods. There has been known to be men
of this stamp in days gone by, but we cannot some
how believe that any live in this city, at the present
time.
We would like to know it if there are We
would be glad to deal with them according to their
deserts and promise that, if necessary, the machin
cry of this great state would be set to work to
punish them.
And if there are any workingmen in our midst
who have been directly or indirectly threatened with
dismissal if they did not vote for any certain can
didate let them remember that the ones who make
such threats are at heart towards and who when
confronted by display ofmanhood, fall back
The men who promise to ''dO things"
for you if you vote their way will have no respect
for you after the election is and will give you
stone then when you ask them for bread.
Let eyerv workman stand on his manhood and
use the right which God created in him and which
is backed up by the laws of this great country.
Don't be cowards-be MEN. Don't be weaklings-
be STRONG and if a threat comes to you directly
or otherwise, defend your honor as you would the
honor of your family
Don't sell OF barter or loan or give away the
privilege you have of betterng your conditions or
the conditions surrounding your wives and child
This present campaign is peculiarly war
waged by the laboring people and the farmers ON
the one side and arrogant capital on the other
BE MEN-STEADFAST IN THE TRUST
THAT is PLACED IN YOU.
'Who said Hoke Smith friend to or
ganzed labors Where was this untrue state
ment originated! At Smiths campaign head
quarters in Atlanta. "-Fitzgerald Leader
No stronger Misrepresentation Of the truth
has been uttered in this campaign than the above.
Some of the facts that have proven Hoke Smith a
friend of organized labor are matters Of record. In
1886 when he purchased the Atlanta Journal he
did ''what he had sought to teach" In 1900 he
ical Union No. 4S. And allthru his life from a
struggling student thru to the bench and ever after
ward he has been positive friend of the laboring
man (and even his avowed enemies admit that he
is mighty positive fellow.
On the other hand what does the records show
of Joe Brown EVER having done ANYTHING to
help the laboring man? Has he ever defended ONE
OF them in the courts? Has he not, rather, always
been in position of an official capacity of railroads.
and while in such positions has he not been called
upon to defend the corporations AGAINST THE
WORKMEN?
The other statement that union labor was lined
up solidly against Hoke Smith and that they would
defeat him by an overwhelming majority, must
have been near beer dream of Brother Brightman's
Evidently he has not E'been in the midst of the
brethren" lately or he would have printed more
recent card than one five years old.
Little Tommie Watson has, perhaps, cut the
sorriest figure of all the actors in the present cam
paign now drawing to a close. That he is shrewd
was demonstrated years ago. but that he is narrow
and mean has gradually dawned on those who
know him.
The vindctive spirit that has made him al
ways despsed at home, is being more and better
understood in the wider circles of the state.
The Talbotton New Era, edited by W. NJ. Nc
Gehee which has been neutral in the campaign
since the opening, outin the last issue strong