Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-08-04
SELF INFLICTED WOUND TO
SENATOR SMITHS PRESTIGE.

If Joe Brown, when governor, had
been elected to the United States Sem
ate, had refused to go to Washington
but held on to the governorship %
carry out promises or perfect personal
political plans, and Democratic legis-
lation had failed, through a tie vote re-
sulting from his absence, the Atlanta
Journal would have headed all the
Smith organs in cries of Lynch him. y
Nothing but his political death speedy,
sure and beyond resurrection. would
have satisfied the ardent Smith peo-I
pie. No language would have been too
harsh to apply to him. no suggestions
too cruel as to what should be done toI
him. and a hue and cry would have
gone up from them from one end Of
the state to the other, that would have
fairly disturbed the harmony of the
angeIs in heaven.
No one who has kept up with polit-
zeal events in Georgia in the past five
years will dispute this The Smith
organs and partisans would have
.ceaselessly bounded Gov. Brown if he
had yentured to pursue such a course
as Gov Smith has done, even though q
tie vote in the senate had not resulted
through his absence from his post OF
duty at the national capital What Is
sauce for the goose, then, should GER
tainly be sauce for the gander. Gov.
Smith and his friends have no right 20
complain of the criticisms that are
leveled at him because of his persistent
absence from Washington, imperilling
important legislation in which not
only the Democratic party but the ma
ton as a whole is vitality interested.
The criticisms directed at him are
mild compared to those that Gov.
Brown would have been bombarded
with under similar circumstances.
Gov. Smith is not doing right. His
friends and apologists in their hearts
know that he is not doing right. His
duty at this time is in Washington, on
the floor Of the Senate, to which body
he was elected as one of the rep
.resentatives of Georgia. There is an
old poem that pionts a lesson that
applies to this case. For want of
horse the kingdom was lost" For want
Of Gov. Smiths vote a bill drafted by
the Democratic party in the House was
lost in the Senate. If Gov Smith had
been at his post there would have been
no tie vote and the Democratic party
would have stood triumphantly be-
fore the country as the author of a law
intended to bring relief to the farmers
and other consumers of the land. The
fact that an amendment measure was
subsequently passed by the Senate
does not in the least relieve Gov.
Smith of the responsibility for the
failure to be on hand, does not take off
from his shoulders the blame and
Odium for the tie vote.
This condition is likely to arise agin.
No one can forsee what any day will
bring forth at the national capital. At
Atlanta Gov. Smith is literally doing
nothing There has not been a meas
.ure passed that would not have been
passed if he had been attending to his
duties at Washington. There will be
no measure enacted into state law
within the time limit of the session
that would not be passed if he was at
Washington. Why, then, play this
game of politics that is damaging him
not only before his own state but be-
fore the nation at large He will never
hear the last of it if there are any
more tie votes and reform legislation
defeated or amended because of his eff
forts to redeem personal pledges at
Atlanta or to strengthen his machine
in Georgia. Georgians are jealous If
Georgia's standing before the country,
and Senator Smith, by the damage he
is intiicting upon the states standing
at Washington, is doing his prestige
more harm than ten thousand of his
worshippers in this state can ever by
their deyotions ward off.
The Mobile Register insists on pre-
snntinm Underworld of Alahana for,