Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-08-03
Columns Enquirer-Sun
Reviezvs Splendid Record
Of Senator HOke Smith
(From Columbus Enouirer-sun.)

LOIs III making HIS announcements, uS-
clares that Il shall make my race for
the senate on the Democratic plat
form and on my nine years record
in the senate and on the hope of flu
ture service to the people of Geor-
gia."
1t is we'll, in the first place, that
the senator has made it clear that
he is making his race on the Demo-
cratic platform. In stating this fact
he has left his political enemies with
no reason to charge that he is not the
staunch and true Democrat that his
record from his youth up has unmis-
takablY shown him to be. He has al
ways been Democrat and he is stu
Democrat. That is part of his
record and he assures the people OF
Georgia and of the nation that he has
not the slightest intention of depart
ing from the faith. 1t is true that
there was no reason why he should
have made this statement other than
for the purpose of leaving his po-
litical enemies no ground TOR crltl-
cism of him.
1t is also we'll that the senator
stands upon his record, because the
record speaks in terms that cannot
what he has done, and it is long list
Of accomplishments. One cannot go
behind the record. So, let US glance
at Senator Smiths. In March, last,
The Atlanta Journal printed an ar
ticle in which was contained some OF
the big things he has done from his
youth up to the present time. 1t re-
counts how while yet a very young
man, he fought the misrule OF car
petbaggers and scalawags in Georgia
during the days of "Reconstructlon,"
"defying the bayonet rule under
which the south then labored." The
Journal tells those who care to con
hi jl1 wi
record) what they will find. 1t says:
Leader and Pioneer
They will find him as chairman OF
the Fulton Democratic executive
committee, leader in the hard, grim
battles of reconstruction, and later
southern education. They will, see
him in 1898 called to the forefront
of President CleVeland's administra-
ton, the youngest cabinet member
ever known, save Alexander Hamil-
ton, and then the first Georgian to be
honored in that capacity since the
breach between the states. They
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
the interests of every
rightful beneficiary.
Looking further, they. will recog-
nize him as an outstanding exponent
of liberal as opposed to reactionarv
thought in Georgia politics, and will
Judge of his appeal to the public
mind by the fact that in the mem
carried one hundred and twenty-five
of the one hundred and forty-eight
counties, carried them overwhelming
Iy against four Of the mos distin-
guished and personally popular OPP
ponents that. ever a candidate faced.
Two years later they see him de-
featod for reelection; but with the
years, they see him returned to the
governors chair. his constructive
policies indicated. Next they will
note his selection by a decisive ma
Jority to fill the unexpired term of
the lamented Senator Clay, and will
before the people he was elected, re-
ceiving one hundred and thirty thou
sand votes-one Of the most en-
phatic tributes in the states annals.
Man and His Record
This Is the man and this the rec
ord that insensate partisanship. now
attacks as though he were guilty of
high crimes and misdemeanors. TO
what specific acts do the Wagers of
this wild war against character and
achievement refer? Is it the Smith
Lever law, that monumental meas
ure which has done more for the
agricultural interests of the south
other one piece of legislation-it is
this that they so bitterly resent in
Senator Smiths record? Or is it
the Smith-Hughes vocational educa-
ton law, or the Smith Feares act
for the rehabilitation of disabled SOL
bill, providing for a secretary of
education in the presidents cabinet
and for a fund of $1O0,OO0,0OO to
promote public educational interests
Do they denounce the senior sena-
tor for his persistent and fruitful
labors in behalf of Georgia schools,
Georgia farms and Georgia ports
because as one of the leading trainers
Of the federal reserve law he stood
out for amendments which made 1t
possible for three regional banks to
be established in the cotton states
whereas none might have been here
as the measure was originally pro-
posed? Or are they incensed because
reserve bank for the Sixth district
was allotted to Georgia instead OF
to Alabama or Louisiana? Do they
consider it traitorous in Senator
Smith to have saved Camp Gordon
and Camp Benning from being
blotted from the map as Republican
partisans of the house and senate
plished? Can they deny for a mo-
ment that in all which pertains tc
the business, the agricultural and
the educational interests of Georgia
and of the common country, he has
been unfailingly vigilant and con-
work like this deserves no better
appreciation than headlong abuse?
Wartime Services
AS to the senior senator's war
time services, the record again is
the one fair court of appeal Not
even his intensest political enemy
can gainsay that in the winter OF
sinewed preparation for the emery
ency which broke upon us the fol
lowing spring, and that long ere this
he pleaded for army and navy ex-
pansion in spite of pronounced OPP
position to that policy on the part
of a number of other Democratic
leaders. 1t cannot be gainsaid that
he spoke and voted for the armine
of our merchant ships, his warmth
of argument in that connectfnn lead
ing him almost into a personal diff
ficulty with Senator La Toilette, who
opposed the measure. Following the
declaration of war, which he earn
W.
as a member of the senate finance
committee, in behalf of unstinted ap-
preparations and the speediest pos
sible program for modelling the
country's every fighting resource. He
voted for the selective service. bill
and aggressively advocated it, at the
very time when Democrats like
speaker Clark and Floor Leader
Kitchin were opposing it, and when
it seemed that supporters of the
measure were haZarding their politt-
cal all. Is it for his record on these
vital war matters that Senator Smith
is being denounced?
The food control bill, the fuel con-
troll bill, the railroad LIBERALIZATION
bill and the Overman bill, all re-
ceived his vote, and, in so far as
their basic principles were concern,
ed, his earnest advocacy. He stood
for certain amendments to them on
the ground that in their original
were needlessly inimica1 to common
interests and common rights; and