Americus times-recorder., 1920-04-05
A PLAIN UNVARNISHED RECORD
VERSUS RIDICULOUS ABUSE

stood out 1Or dIIellulilSll'0 |
made it possible for three reglohai
banks to be established in the COTTON
states. whereas none might have beeh
here as the measure was orlglnally
proposed? Or are they incensed be-
cause. largely through his endeayors
the Reserve Bank of the Sixth DIS
trict was allotted to Georgia instead
of Alabama or Louisiana? Do they
consider it traitorous IN Senator
Smith to have saved Camp Gordon
and Camp Benning from being blot
ted from the map as republican par
tisans of the House and Senate had
designed and well nigh accomplished
Can they deny for a moment that IN
all which pertains to the business,
the agricultural and the educational
interests of Georgia, and of the com
mon country, he has been un1all-
ingly vigilant and constructlve! Or
can they pretend that work like tins
deserves no better appreciation than
headlong abuse?
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 1915
1916 he urged immediate and full
sinewed preparation for the emer-
gency 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
e al TNa.~, "a.
leaders. 1t can not be gainsaid that
he spoke and voted for the arming
of our merchant ships, his warmth of
argument in that connection leading
him almost into a personal difficulty
with Senator La Toilette, who op-
posed the measure. Following the
declaration of war, which he earn
estly supported, he eXerted himself,
as a member of the Senate Finance
Committee, in behalf of unstinted
appropriations and the speediest pos
sible program for mObilizing 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 politi-
cal all. Is it for his record on these
vital war matters that Senator Smith
is being denounced?
The Food Control bill, the Fuel
Control bill, the Railroad Federaliza-
tion bill and the Overman bill, all
I received his vote, and, in so far as
their basic principles were concerned,
his earnest advocacy, he stood
for certain amendments to them on
the ground that in their original form
they were either defective or were
needlessly inimical to common inter
estS and common rights; and those
amendments were adopted. Likewise
ne supported the Merchants Marine
bill, not only when it was introduced
as a war emergency measure, but
also when it was first proposed. dur
ing the earlier stages of the Euro
pean conflict. How his colleagues re-
garded Senator Smiths work and his
counsel in the critical tasks of win
nlng the war is seen in the fact that
they created an additional place on
the Military Affairs Committee for
/ the express purpose of assigning hin,
to 1t; and any informed Senator will
testify that after Mr.. Smith took that
post, friction between the committee
and the War Department ceased and
the situation in every respect grew
more satisfactory these are not mat
/ ters OF heresay; they are matters
OF unbeatable record. How uninet
then. and how ridiculous that pojiti,
cal feudlsts should seek to class .
Senator who earnestly and ablv SIM,
ported the war program with tbcto
| who opposed it 0'e
AS Tor his course in the matter of
the Peace Treaty, Senator Smitb,s
SeVereSt critics can not refute tbo
TACT that at the moment of crucial
test, when 1t was question of savinn,
the great covenant with reServations
or losing it by insistence upon ite ,.o
naming unmodified in word or lat
ter, he voted with the twentv-ttro,a ~
democrats who stood for the onI1,
form OF ratification obtainahla @ ang
VINO represented the best haIononG ,,G
thought Of America and of tho ~ n,nS1J u
ms beng the record, is it not nv n.y.
sNorts!m1anlike, is it not unjust is oIt i
not ridiculous for political tarr,a .n 1t
@ants to continue their abusn - of
Ge0rgla's senior senator? VI
During his more than eigb+ ,,o..-
IN the Senate The Journal bas IGts J;s
Tered with Mr.. Smith IN o co,.ta;., uii-
questions, both before and after 'fIn tbn
But justice is justice, service is seSa,' sar
wee. and truth is tr,.4L = 20 ssI-