Americus times-recorder., 1920-04-05

porn Will De QeCelNeu ny par
tisan efforts to divert atten-
ton from the vital issues in
the Presidential primary through
ranting abuse of Senator Hoke
Smith. That robustious school of pol
itics has torn passion to tatters all too
often to draw more than fatigued
smile from the informed native pub
lie. Late comers to the Common
wealth, however, may be puzzled to
account for the melodramatic stride,
the air-sawing gesture, the peanut
gallery gaze, the hoarsely beloved
Courses on We" that instantly be-
came the role in certain quarters
when Sentaor Smith entered the pri-
mary. If such bewildereG onlook-
ers there are, we beg of them not
to Judge all Georgia, nor even the
little company of players now
stamping the stage, by this moments
outburst. The State is in no wise
hysterical; and after while our
vituperative friends themselves will
lay aside the tragic mask and ad-
NIT that although there was method
in their madness, tney decidedly
over-played the part.
What the foes of the senior Sen
ator may say against him or what
his friends may say for him is not
so important as what the record
itself declares - that indisputable
record of Georgia and American
history whose aim it is, nothing to
extenuate, nor set down aught IN
malice" Whoever cares to consult
this impartial witness will find that
Hoke Smith has done many a SER
viceable deed for his Common
wealth and his country They will
find him as a youth Of twenty-one
defending the integrity of the bal
lot against carpet-bag invasion, de-
fying the bayonet rule under which
the South then labOred. They will
find him as chairman Of the Fulton
Democratic Executive Committee, a
leader in the hard, grim battles of
Reconstruction, and later pioneer
in the larger fields Of Southern edu-
cation. They will see him in 1898
called to the forefront Of President
Clevelands administration, young
est Cabinet member ever known, save
Alexander Hamilton, and then the
first Georgian to be honored in that
capacity since the breach between
the States. They will see him as
Secretary of the Interior putting an
END to Federal pension frauds that
were costing the people millions, and
at the same time fully protecting the
interests of every rlghtful bene-
! ticiary.
Looking further, they will recog-
nize him as an outstanding eXpOn-
ent of liberal as opposed to reac-
tionary thought in Georgia politics
and will judge of his appeal to the
public mind by the fact that IN the
memorable Governors race in 1906
] he carried one hundred and twenty
two of the one hundred and forty
eight counties, carried them over
whelmingly against four of the most
distinguished and personally popular
! opponents that ever a candidate fac
ed. Two years later they see him
defeated for re-election but with
the cooling lapse of still another two
wears, they see him returned to the
| Governors chair, his constructive
policies vindicated. Next they will
note his selection by "a decisive
majority to fill the uneXpired term
of the lamented Senator Clay, and
will observe that in his subsequent
race before the people he was elect
ed, receiving one hundred and thirty
thousand votes-one of the most
emphatic tributes in the states an
nails.
This is the man and this the rec
ord that insensate partisanship now
attacks as though he were guilty of
high crmies and mIsGemeanors. To
what specific act do the wagers of
this wild war against character and
achievement refer? 1t is the Smith
Lever law, that monumental meas
ure which has done more for the
agricultural interest of the South and
of the common country than any
other one piece of legislation-is it
! this that they so bitterly resent in
Senator Smiths record? Or is it
the Smith-Hughes Vocational Educa-
tional law, or the SmICn-Teares act
for the rehabilitation of disabled sol
diers, or the pending Smith Towner
bill, providing for a Secretary of
Education in the Presidents Cabinet
and for a fund of $100,000,O0O to
promote public educational interests
Do they denounce the senior senator
for his persistent and fruitful labors
in behalf of Georgia schools, Geor-
gia farms and Georgia ports? Or
are they bursting with Indignation
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