Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-04-06
II Notable Washington Tribute
To Georgia, Senior Senator
BSERVING that Senator Hoke Smith
has entered the Georgia prefefen-
49, ~,;,,,arv for the San Francisco

has entered the Georgia preferen-
~ tial primary for the San Francisco
nomination. the Washington ID. Co. Even
inc Star. one of the great Independent jour
nails of America, declares "His State should
and probably will, instruct TOT MIN. Aneh
follows a discerning and 1mpartlal discus
sion of Senator Smiths qualifications tor the
Presidency, along with some searching re-
marks on the South's long effacement from
Democracy's highest honor. The eoltorlal is
so timely and withal so interesting that we
reproduce it elsewhere on this page, assured
that it will be read with satisfaction by a
host of Georgians and Southerners
The Stars announcement is chiefly sig
nificant as showing that the belief IN Sena-
tor Smiths availability for the Presidential
nomination is by no means confined to MS
own Commonwealth nor to his own section,
but is shared by keen and d1sinterested oo>
servers elsewhere. In the national capltal
there is no more conservative or highly re-
garded paper than the Washington Star, none
with finer traditions or larger outlook. 1t
appraises Senators and congressman, not &C
cording to the regions from which they hail
nor the factions with which they are identi-
fled, nor the spectacular courses they may
happen to pursue, but by the actual ability
which they manifest and the national service
which they render. It is from this point of
view and from long, first-hand study Of his
career that the Star makes its editorial esti-
mate OF Georgia's senior Senator, reckoning
him las of Presidential size"
It needs only an informed and impartial
eye to see that of all present candidates for
the nomination, Democratic or Republican,
Senator Smith, of Georgia, is far the ablest
the most experienced, the best balanced, the
broadest-visioned. This is not said by way
of lnVldlous comparison, but simply as fact
freely admitted by competent and unpreju-
diced judges. No such judge, we take it,
would deny that in point of legal attainments
administrative efficiency and practical in
sight, not to mention political prowess, Sena-
tor Smith outranks Mr.. Palmer. Mr. Gerard
Senator Harding, General Wood, Governor
Lowden, Senator Hiram Johnson or any
other of the avowed aspirants to the Presi-
dency. Nor can it be gainsaid that he is
more of truly national figure than any Of
them.
His historic services to the far West DUR
ing his administration of the Department of
the Interior in the second Cleveland Cabinet
left an indelible impress upon the mind and
heart of that region. His services to the
cause Of American agriculture have placed
him high in the esteem of every grain-pro-
ducing as well as every cotton producing
State. His services to commerce and indus
try in his telling advocacy of sound banking
and currency legislation and other useful
economic measures commend him to the ma
tons best business thought. His services in
the effective prosecution Of the war, par
ticularly on the Appropriations Committee,
where his influence fastened mobilization of
the countrys every resource, and gon the
Military Affairs Committee, to which he was
assigned at the special request of his col
leagues, entities him to all Americas graft
tude.
A national figure he truly is in the COM
mon country's estimation. His own State
and his own Southland can well afford to
urge his name as their choice at the San
Francisco convention.