Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-31
HARDW|CK DEFIES
WATSON To ENTER
RACE FOR CONGRESS
eff Mr.. Watson Is a Candidate
Let Him Announce, Other
wise Let Him Withdraw
From the Party Primary"
WATSON DARED TO SHOW
THEIR CORRESPONDENCE
BY RALPH SMITH.
ecial Dispatch to The Journal.


gresham Thomas w. Hardwick. of the
Tenth district, today gave out state
ment. in which he denopnces Thomas E.
Watson as a deliberate falsifier, defies
him to enter the race as contestant for
the congressional nomination in the
Tenth district and challenges him to
produce correspondence bearing OF his at
titude in the last gubernatorial campaign,
when Mr. Watson deserted Hoke Smith
and supported Governor Brown.
Failing to accept the challenge that he
enter the race as a contestant for the
Democratic congressional nomination in
the Tenth district, Mr.. Hardwick sug-
gests to Mr. Watson that he shut up
for the present, and run against him in
the election after he (HardwieD has
been nominated.
The statement given out by Mr.. Hard
wick is dignihed, but he does not fail
to express himself freely and forcefui-
ly regarding the present attitude of Mr..
watson concerning the congressional
campaign in the Tenth district. particu-
larIy Mr.. Watson's continued attacks up
on himself in the columns OF The Jeffer-
sonian.
The statement follows:
Mr.. HARDwICK'S STATEMENT.
Is Mr.. Watson candidate for con-
gress7 If so, is he a candidate for the
Democratic nomination? II he is, let him
announce that fact In an open and manly
way and 1 will undertake to meet him
man to man. eye to eye, and face to face.
~xfNk. Lad frrf-
ly. before the people of the district, the
issues he seeks to raise with me. so that
| they may fairly judge between Us
II he is not a candidate for the nomi-
nation, IL he cannot affiliate with the
party and will not participate In its
primary, / would respectfully submit that
ordinary decency would require that he
withdraw himself and his cause OF
quarrel from our party noninatiof.
wait until am nominated In the augusta
| primary and then announce his candidacy
| In opposition to me.
If he will do that I promise him and
I promise the people of the district that
/ will not shun discussion Of each and
every issue that is at stake, whether
the forum that he chooses is that OF the
public press or hustings-
But unless he Is to adopt one course
| or the other and is to become candi-
date at one time or the other, respect
| fully submit to fair minded people,
imbued with the Anglo-Saxon love Of fair
play that his present assault on me In
| both unjust and ungenerous.
Two opponents for the nomination
| already have.
They are making the same assaults on
me- They are assailing me with the
same weapons. am fighting them both.
hammer and tongs. In joint debates am
sale and
ord from thsir unjust assaults, though
they are double-teamed on me, and In
| every debate / have to fight two men, ]
| who have twice as much time az 10
and who sometimes have me sandwic
| between them, where i have no OPT
| tunity to reply to one or the o.
| them.
| WHAT IS THE MATTERf
What is the matter with Mr.. Wat
What has become of his sense or
playY Are the debates between my
and these men who make the points,
by day. that are outlined in the "Jeffsz
proceeding so unsatisfactory to the
owner and editor of the aforesaid
| '.Jeffs" that he feels called upon to in
terfere to protect his arguments" and
to preserve his reasons for my retire
ment7 Has the little" Hardwick to
whom he sneeringly referred after the
Lincolnton debate as having been eat
| en- up" by Evans and walked all over
| by Eve become so formidable that Wat
| son can no longer trust TO the swords or
his lieutenants but feel that the blade
of the chieftain himself is required7
II So we are making distinct progress
and can congratulate ourselves that some
| of the underbrush Of the campaign -
about to be cleared away.
But, If such is the case, I submit that
| II is but fair for Mr.. Watson to call on
his deputies, to quit understanding and
| triple-teaming on me, and get down to
! business himself. II he Is going to let
Eve and Evans and McGregor run. let
them run. II he is going to run himself,
| In eithar of the ways I have suggested,
let him say so and that will clarity the
atmosphere and simplify the situation
In his recent articles-those of May the
18th in the Augusta Herald and OF May
| 18th In his own "Jeff'-Mr. Watson I'M
dertakes to execute a somersauit that
has never been equaled by any Political
acrobat but himself and has only been
duplicated once, even by that Individual,
| to-wit, when he Topped from Hoke Smith
to Joe Brown in the year Of grace 1908.
He undertakes to seriously assert that H.
was I who am now and have been since
1908 waging a war on him and not he
who has been and is now waging a war
on me. Telling the people in one breath
strong in the district that sought TO
make political capital out OF my personal
and social relations with him; in the next
breath he asserts that l was fool enough
TO break with him because he would not
agree with me about state politics in 1905
and have been assaulting and prosecuting
and bounding him down ever since.
WATSON FORCED ISSUE.
Oh how ridiculous is the contention.
Everybody in the district knows that I
have sought no quarrel with Watson
that 1 have done my best TO avoid it
that I have gone to the furtherest limit
that my self-respect permitted to escape
it. and that, step by step. inch by inch,
he has forced the issue until at last he
has put it so that 1 could not avoid this
issue with him II I would, and In view
of his latest conduct, would not IL I
could.
In his Jeffersonian of May 5, 1870 In
which he refers to the Lincoln debate, he
takes high and mighty ground. He fings
his gauntlet down in language unmistaK-
able-he says to me: 81 wish you no
HARM but you are not going to represent
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