The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-03-18
AN OKLAHOMA PAPER EDITED
BY AN ABLE LAWYER PAYS
Z A TRIBUTE TO THE EDITOR
OF THE JEFFERSONIAN.

I'VE are in receipt of the March
number Of Watson's Magazine, which
contains very able review of the
Leo Frank murder case, written by
the edltOr-in-chief, Hon. Thomas E.
Watson, the veteran lawyer, states
man, and author of international
fame. Watson holds that Frank is
guilty beyond the peradventure of a
doubt, and that he ought to pay the
penalty for the dastardly crime of
numbering Mary Phagan, which is
said to have occurred in Atlanta,
Ca, in the early spring of 1914. The
trial Of the case occupied almost a
month from the time the case was
called until the jury returned a yer
penalty. Watson entered the news
paper controversy when certain
northern publications began nation
wide campaign to save Frank from
the gallows, claiming that his con-
viction was the result of mob demon
stration in and about the court room
in Atlanta during the trial OF the
case. No sooner had the jury re-
turned their verdict than the above
mentioned publications began their
scurilous attacks on the trial court
and against the people of Georgia;
and it remained for Watson, than
whom there is not a more brilliant
character in Americas public life of
today, to take up the matter of de-
Tense of the Atlanta court and her
people against the wholesale SANDER
sent broadcast over the country by
class Of publications that have de-
voted more space to this one case
than to all similar cases that have
occurred in the space Of fifty years.
With the merits Of the Frank case
we have nothing to do, as the mat
ter has been discussed pro and con
by far ADLER pens than ours; but it
is Of the man Watson we shall write.
We have been student of his writ
ing for a number of years, and re-
gard him as one Of the most inciSiVe
and pungent writer's of the times,
Watson is a past master in the use
Of vigorous English to which is added
a clearness Of diction that cOmpels
the attention of the reader from the
opening paragraph to the final SEN
tence. He has written a number of
books, among which are some of the
ablest expositions of political econ
omy written since the days of Adam
Smith. It was back in the early
'nineties' that we first heard of Wat
son; he was at that time considered
to be the leading exponent of the
principles of populism. 1t was back
in those halycon days that the old
pops were told to shave their heads
and to plant their scalps to Johnson
grass, then to get religion, and they
might then possibly get to heaven
but never to congress" The tenetS
OF populism in those days were
thought by some wiseacres to be a
weather-proof hirsute, vivid imagi-
nation, much gall and a superlative
gift of CAB. But my! How the times
have changed We have lived to see
the age of miracles restored: Thomas
Pryor Gore, an ex-populist spell
binder, is now serving his second
term as U. S. Senator from Okla
homa, the most progressive of all pro-
gressive states. Also we recall that
our old-time neighbor, Cyclone Davis,
the foxy old pop Of Sulphur Springs,
Texas, has been elected congressman
at large from democratic old Texas.
And now the once proffered reforms
of the old-time populists are being
paraded as the up-to-date tenets of
progressive principles in all political
parties Back in the old days these
doctrines we're derisively termed the
vagaries of 'wild-eyed' populism;
nowadays even Wall Street confesses
her respect for them. Among those