The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-02-05
BEN TILLMAN TELLS JOHN D.
THAT HE AND OTHER RICH MEN
SHOULD HELP POOR WHITES.
The Famous Senator CorPeCts Inac-
curate Reports of His Talk With
the Famous Oil Magnate.

/
curate Reports of His Talk With
the Famous Oil Magnate.
When Senator Ben Tillman of
South Carolina met John d. Rock
efeller on a Southern railway train
the other day he put in his time
! talking in the interest of the poor
whites" of the south. A sensational
article has been published about the
conversation between these two men,
each leader in his chosen sphere,
but the senator says the true story
has not been told before
Tillman Tells What Happened.
AS to what really happened Sen
ator Tillman said:
Mr. Rockefeller was not intro
duced to me by railroad official
or anyone else. He came up to my
seat in the Pullman car and intro
duced himself. When he told me he
was Mr.. Rockefeller l at once recog-
nized him from his pictures, and we
sat and talked together during a ride
of thirty or forty miles. In the
once touched upon the panic or it's
causes, banks or national finances IN
any way whatsoever. He did not say
to me that Morgan and he had stood
behind seventy banks and prevented
them from going to smash, nor any
thing of the kind. Never once did
he give any indication in his speech
or manner that he was $40 better
off than | am, and when that At
lanta reporter represented him as
Dragging about his wealth and his
power, or anything of that sort, he
did Mr.. Rockefeller grave injus-
tice.
"I'll tell you something we did
talk about, though, continued Mr..
Tillman. He seemed very much in
terested in the country through
which we were passing going
down to Augusta to play golf, get
some sunshine and escape the SHOWS
of the north-and he asked me lot
of questions. So, remembering that
he had given thirty-five million dol
lars, or something like that last year
for educational purposes, [ spoke to
him about the Carnegie-Hughes-Wat-
terson talk about getting more mon
ey for Tuskegee. | told him that
when these northern milliOnaires-
l l believe | said damned millionaires
wanted to spend some OF their
money in the south it always went
to the negro.
"They Never Think"
''They never think, I told him,
about the poor whites. Why, said,
waving my hand towards the Allie
ghanies, in these mountains there are
millions of the purest blOoded de-
scendants of the English, Scotch and
Irish ncestors-come down straight
from the earliest settlers three or
four or five generations ago-and
they are living in the densest igno-
rance and pOverty-poor likely be-
cause of their ignorance.
"Yet no millionaire thinks of try
ing to help them. There are no
schools or colleges built for them.
They are poor whites and everything
that the rich men of the north send
to the south is for the negro. And
then | think | threw a few Tillman-
esque explosives expressive of what
| thought about it.
INF. Rockefeller seemed to be
very much interested and impressed.
He did not make any promises, or
anything of that sort. He has be-
come so accustomed, l suppose, like
our friend, the president, to the
sense of authority and having his
word regarded as law that he sim
ply said, spreading his hands like
that, This must be stopped or some
thing of the kind. He did not say
how it ought to be stopped, but he
did seem to be very much interested