The Irish standard., 1912-10-05
A DESERVED REBUKE
TO TOM WATSON
A Victory Won Over Bigotry by
Joseph F. Gray, of Savannah, in
Recent Election.
A Splendid Vindication of the Rights
of Citizenship by an Atlanta
Newspaper.
The Object of Attack a Specimen of
Upright, Intelligent American
Patriotism.

TdlElOllSlll.
1t is interesting to note that in the
old State of Georgia, which happens
to be the home of the notorious bigot,
Tom Watson, and the field of his
greatest activities in stirring up i'll
feeling against the Catholic Church
and the Hierarchy, through the pub
lication and propagation Of lies. tla
like of which We're never heard from
the great lie uttered by Satan in the
Garden of Eden, through the days Of
Ananias, and Munchause:. to the willy
Georgian himself, bigotry has just re-
ceived a singing rebuke, and inci-
dentally Tom Watson such a slap in
the face, that we cannot better chron-
icle the splendid action of the citizen-
ship of Georgia, irrespective Of creed,
than by quoting in full the able edi-
torial from the Atlanta Constitution.
In it's issue of August "a, under the
caption, "Medievalism in Georgia." the
Constitution says:
The following dispatch to The Con-
stitution from LAGRANGE the day Of
the State Primary rings more truly to
the days of the Spanish mquisition
than to the thought Of the broad
minded twentieth. century.
Joseph f. Gray, of Savannah,
candidate for railroad commissioner
to succeed himself, was the object Of
a scurrilous attack by means of a big
poster conspicuosly placed in the
courthouse yesterday by some people
posing as his opponents. Displayed IN
placard was the following:
Joseph +. Gray is Roman Catho-
lie, a Knight OF Columbus, against
free speech, free press and our lib
critics. Boys, scratch him."
Friends Of Gray predicted that the
attack would make votes for him,
and the returns are bearing out these
predictions.
The Constitution did not express
itself pro or con in MIR. Gray's race.
We hold no brief for him, aside from
recognizing in him a splendid speci-
men Of upright and intelligent Amer
ican manhood. And, to his credit
be it said, Mr.. McGehee, Mr.. Gray's
opponent, appears not to have been q
party to this attempt to revive the
despicable bigotry OF the middle ages.
We do hold brief for freedom Of
religious belief. of speech and of po-
litical conviction. In the era Of
witch-burning In old and New Eng
land, public sentiment might have
condoned the pillorying of a man be-
cause of his religious Affiliations.
In this day, such a practice is OBJ
solete-and worse. 1t is, first, in
direct contravention of the thought
that molds the federal and the State
Constitutions, which not only rigor-
ously separated Church and State,
but which decreed also that no man
or woman was in any manner TO be
penalized on account of creed.
All civilization has looked toward
America with hopeful eyes. in that
tolerance here reigned supreme. A
man might be Roman Catholic, Meth
odist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Hebrew,
tA1 k, 1t
civil and political rights, so long as
he maintained those fundamental
standards of manhood which prevail
everywhere. That feeling is today
one Of the primary tests of free in
stitutions in America. Only in iso-
lated instances is it disregarded. TO
introduce, or even to suggest, re-
ligious prescription is to invoke me-
| dievalism in it's most malignant phas-
es, and to affront the intelligence and
the sensibilities of ninety mine i1ur-
dredths of the people in this country.
That public sentiment in Georgia
repudiates such middle-ages proscrip-
ton is indicated in the fact that Mr.
| Gray swept the State by an over
whelming majority, there being li:-
tie doubt that the indefensible dra-
goonins of religious prejudice agains,
him largely contributed to the end
The outcome. in this specific instance
is a tribute to the intelligence Of tn
people Of Georgia. no less than to IL
\ Ss # RI " s5 Re ~ isjs, j. 4. r; gt Il &