Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1920-09-02


you second lieutenant provided you
would raise and bring to the regi-
ment forty volunteers. You went off
and came back with about eight men,
but they told you to go down to the
camp at Griffin anyway, There you
hung abound two or three days, with
out being mustered in, taking the
oath or even getting a uniform. FL
nally at the end of the third day
you went to the colonel of the regi-
ment and told him that after careful
ly thinking over the matter, you had
decided you were not fitted for mill
tary work and asked to be excused
You were thereupon promptly excus-
ed and your military career came to
sudden stop. This is what you knew
from your own experience of the
volunteer system and yet you propos-
ed that this Nation should risk its
very life by relying upon it to raise
an army of four million men. Your
own experience should have told you
that the volunteer system could not
produce officers, much less men.
Repeat Attack Provoked
'You say the attack of the American
Legion upon you was unprovoked.
That is not true. When you went in
to partnership with Watson and then
failed to repudiate his monstrous lies
against the American soldier, and
tried to secure a political benefit
from all this for yourself, you be-
came morally as guilty as he, and the
only difference between you was that
he was open in his enmity and you
were underhanded.
'TDe American Legion of Georgia
is fighting you:
4. Because two years before
the war when the government, an
ticipating their need, tried to pur-
chase from private German citizens
100000 tons of shipping at cost of
about $3.50 a ton, you helped to pre-
vent it, and forced it into perilous
delay when the war did come, and to
pay over $1,000 per ton. You know
that you are misleading the people
of Georgia when you state the gov
eminent afterwards, cOnfiscated
these privately owned ships and got
them for nothing, because you know
very well that, even in war, the gov
eminent could not confiscate pri-
vate property.
SO. Because a year or so before
the war, you fought the establish
ment of a plant to manufacture nj
trates, necessary in the manufacture
of gun powder and dynamite. You
opposed it because it was proposed
that the surplus nitrates should be
sold to the farmers of the country at
cost. You said that the farmers were
like a bunch of mocking birds with
their mouths always open hollering
for more. You came back the next
day and had these remarks cut out
from the record, but such were the
facts.
"3. You fought the draft. You
came down to Georgia and under
took - tell the peorle, all distressed
and anxious as they were, that at
least 2 million Americans would be
ki'ltG Could the Germans, them
selves, have devised deadlier blow
at he morale of - people?
"a. You fought the food and fuel
bills. You did not want the food of
the country fairly and equally con-
served. You did not want to insure
that the rs ilroads, The transports and
the nun tions ia tor rs should get
coal. You were willing to leave all
this to the hap-hazards of chance.
"(5) You opposed the railroad con-
troll bill, although, under private
management you knew that they had
virtually broken down under the con-
gestion of troops and supplies and
could no longer operate.
(6) You opposed the war finance
corporation, the need for which, in
winning the war was not less urgent
than for rifles and artillery.
"(D You opposed the espionage
bill. You tried to fix it SO that trea-
sonable papers like the Jeffersonian
could not be excluded from the mails
until the post office department had
first gone into court and after months
and years of litigation had proven
into serious trouble; that there are