Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-05-28
PAYING THE FIDDLER.


II chronicIer of some later time ever essays to
write the history of Georgia Democracy it trans
Dired in the spring Of 1872 he win be sOrely mysti
led and If a Democrat himself. sorely chasrined.
He win find in this remarkable year that the party's
arch traitor and bitterest foe cracked his whip over
the heads Of its then dominant faction and bawled
forth commands which they .meekly obeyed. He will
ind a political huckster whose main merchandise is
SANDER and whose only fame is infamy leapng upon
the party rosrum and delivering his decalogues as
though he were lord and master Of all the state.
And be viii find that in the midst Of the hubbub
while the huckster shouts and the socalled leaders
cringe the party's rank and file look on, scarcely
knowing whether to be more amused, disguised or
shamed. t
Such is the pass to which the cunning Underwood
campaigners have brought Georgia Democracy
through prediction deals with Thomas z. Watson.
The predicament in which they now find themselves
Is but the logical outcome Of the service they bar
gained for and the trade they concluded The dance
was a merry one, to be sure, but the fiddler
must be paid; and there's the rub.
How can any Democrat, regardless Of his previous
alignment in state or presidential politics, get his
moral consent to send to the national convention at
Baltimore person of watson's record and stripe?
How can he accept the dictatorship of a man
whose chief distinction is the facility with which he
whenever it serves his individual interests to do so?
How can anyone, no matter to what faction he
may belong. to entrust his states reputation
and his party's welfare to who has dishonored
the one and betrayed the other?
The most loyal Democrat, no matter how great
service might have rendered the party, never pre-
sumed to make demands so exorbitant and oyerbear-
ing as those upon which Watson in hts ambition and
vanity insists.
He would not only go as delegate to Baltimore
but also as the head of the delegation.
He declares that he viii not only shine at the
state convention. but that he will be the whole show
that he will name its temporary chairman and its
permanent chairman to boot that he will say what
delegates shall be seated and what shall be debarred,
that he the great Am Of the commonwealth
ant the party. viii make the convention in Atlanta
on May % "red-headed" from start to finish.
Now, it must be admitted that If the leaders of
the particular clique who engineered the Underwood
campaign in Georgia live squarely up to the terms
OF their trade with Watson they must yield to each
and every one Of his demands. for it was he who
did the work that won their victory. He undertook,
and successfully so. broadcast the blacklist false
hood Of the entire campaign Nobody else be-
leve. could have been hired at any price to stand
+ Sponsor FOR the SANDER that Woodrow Wilson had
written his "sympathies' Booker Washington dur
Ing the negro educators difhculty with one Ulrich
In New York That Watsons distinctive and
browning contribution to the Underwood cause; and
who has waded through such muck is certainly
entitled to compensation from the interests he served
We repeat, then, that individuals the politi-
clans who made their trade with Watson obli-
gated to do whatever they to reward him as he
chooses. From his standpoint and theirs his de
mands are thoroughly logical. This fact, however,
does not Tighten the humiliation which every Geor-
cofo
will feel seeing Thomas E Watson as the states
representative in national Democratic convention.
Despite the ties which bind those special leaders
10 Watsons will, the rank and file of Democrats who
to compose the forthcoming convention wiI Is
to be hoped assert their and their partys self
respect and refuse to be browbeaten into Watson's
demands. If they have spark of manhood they will
resist his arrogance to the last and bitterest
tremty.