Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-04-15
WATSON REPLIES To
HOWARD BY HURL|NG
FIERCE NEW CHARGE.
Intimates Towards Campaign
Expenses Borne by James
M. Smith-Says Howard
Shielded Smith in Cases
SAYS HOWARD WENT OVER
TO DEFENSE OF CANNON


was printed a card of Congressman How
ard attacking Hon. Thomas E. Watson
The Journal telegraphed Mr.. Watson
Wednesday offering the use of its coli
Towards communication. Mr. Watson
replied Thursday through his secretary,
and requested the publication of his an
swer, which is printed in full in this
weeks Jeffersonian.
Mr.. Watson begins his reply as fol-
lows:
After two painful weeks of incuba- !
ton and of distillation, my old friend, i
Bill, Howard, produces the chick and the
poison. The former is small and dis !
appointing; the latter is abundant and
bitter. In good temper and the right
spirit, 1 Immediately begin to take cara
of both his little chick and his copious
poison.
There are five columns of this two
weeks product of the Howard Co-opera-
tive Incubator and Distillery. Less than
one column is devoted to defending his
desertion to the Republicans. The other
four are given to abusing me for having
been a Populist
"Yet, his desertion to the Republicans
is the subject of the debate.
81 am not a candidate for office. The
people are not being asked to return
me W COHEAGSS- II L COiAliAtNbC0 q NAAfAS
when 1 left the Democratic party, God
knows 1 have been numerically pun
ished for it, Seventeen years have /
spent in the valley of political death.
Storms of abuse have pursued me, with
out pity or cessation. SANDER has nailed
me to her cross and bitter hatred has
broken me on her wheel. My old friend, i
Bill Howard, has merely raked ii all up.
and hurled IL at me again. Only, he /
al Of ma la-l
culiar to himself And think he will
find that his malice has got him in
worse fix than he was before. Bad a.
his case was, he has made IL Infinitely
more so-as he himself may realize, soon
enough.
ut does not take me a fortnight to
enter a defense for my honor, nor to
answer mine adversary. My record IL
as straight as a string: and whether
YOU agree with me or not, you will feel,
when you have read what i have to say,
that l have been sincere and honest all
the way through.
SAYS POPS ELECTED HIM.
"Bin Howard can't assail me for hay
ing been a Populist, without offending
the very men whose votes sent him to
congress. I Judge Lawson was a Cleve-l
land man, and favored the gold stand
ard. Bill Howard beat him by catering
to the Populists and championing freel
silver oh, how venomous are his refer
ences to us old Pops; and oh, how eager
he was, in 1894. to get our support
He rails upon the Peoples party
movement as though a bloodier band or
social incendiaries never endangered the
south Yet, as everybody knows, the
Peoples party, from North Carolina to
Texas, marched to the rebel YELL and
was composed of as brave lot of ex-l
Confederstes as ever footed 1t after jack
son, Johnson, Beauregard and Lee, or
ever rode with Ashby. Stuart, Rosser,
Hampton and Forrest.
These men trying to sjure the southf
These men trying to bring back recon-
struction days, and the rule of the Repuo-
rlicans?
"A libel more baseless was never PUB
lished against the innocent"
Mr. Watson then takes up briefly the
organization of the Populist party and
the reasons for II. in which connection
he says. I'm the effort to stop the legsl-
lied and ruinous exploitation of the solth'
lost nay life politically, and only those
personal friends who were nearest to ms
know how narrow was my escape from
assassination"
THE 1886 CAMPAIGN.
Mr.. Watson then continues:
Poor Bill Howard He was in sucn
a tantrum that his two weeks of cogi-
IdAOH anu ltIIucHl DiifSS " SUN
a iamentable state of mind that he en-
tiers me as presidential candidate for 1885,
He figures II out that I prevented Bryant
from becoming president by getting n
electoral votes. He argues that had
Bryan. instead of Mckinley, received.
those votes which I wiekedly got OF
malice aforethought, and at the instiga~'
ton of the Devil. Bryan, and not McKin
lev. would have become PRESIDENT
BLESS my life, And to think that I
am discussing public and political ques-f
lions with the ablest member of the
Georgia delegation.
Every school boy of Georgia ought to
know that the Bryan ticket of 1896 had
two tails to 1t, and that 1 was one OF
them.
''Why, dog gone IT and plague take
IT and dad drat II. I went to Nebraska
in 1896 for the express purpose of help
ing Bryan carrying his own state. From
Georgia to Colorado. I made speeches
for the ticket Of Bryan and Watson
When I got back to Atlanta. my throat
was so liberated that could only speak.
in q whisper. Ask Dr. Arthur G. Hobbs
what answer he gave me when I asked
IL | might not go around to the Sam
Jones tabernacle, where 1e.e00 Democrats
were waiting to give me an ovation, on
my return from the west. And why did
these warm-hearted Democrats wish to
give me a public greeting?
WOULD HAVE BEEN ELECTED. -
Because I had sunk my own person.
atty and NV own ambition in the effort
to win for Bryan.
HAD the Peerless hardened to me.
had he given me recognition. had he
spoken from the same platform once,
he would have been elected. | did my
level best to make him see 1t. In every
way possible. I sought to have him real
ize the danger of driving the mid-road
Pops to despair and desperation.
But the nomination. the fame which
followed the plagarized Grown of Thorns
Cross of Gold peroration, had turned
his head He would not remain in Me-
hraska while am stumping il for him.
He went east to make that silly effort
to win New Notwithstanding the
southwest where our only chances lay.
81 addressed a packed opera house in
Bryan's home town, and loyalty urged
his election. Mrs Bryan occupied one
Of the boxes during my speech in be-
half of her absent husband: but she sent
me no flowers. nor any invitation, nor
any messaRe-though We had been intro
luced i'm Washington.
when returned south Pom the west,