Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-05
4 Senator Who Has Served

tomorrow, March the fourth, one Of
the most effective and most faithful
representatives that any State or constit-
uency ever knew-Hon. Hoke Smith, OF
Georgia. Through more than a quarter OF
century he has labored as leader for the
commonweal, graphing formidable prob
lens, fighting for reason and right as he
saw them, building broader and straighter
the ways Of opportunity for his peoples ad-
vancement and good fortune. If in these
stressful endeavors he has made political
foes, he has made also multitude OF .ad-
mirers AMI friends, and if at times he has
erred, he has accomplished more of substan-
tial good for his State than even the most
achieving of public servants usually score to
their credit.
Both as Governor and as Senator, Hoke
Smith brought to bear upon matters OF mo-
ment rare combination Of powers and SYM
pathies-the powers Of a penetrating intel
Iect trained in the law and i'll mastery or
affairs the sympathies of large under
standing of the problems and rights and
hopes of common men. This understanding
it was that made him champion OF re-
forms which today commonly ackroWl-
edged as just and wise, but which when ne
first espouseG them were denounced by num-
bers who sat in high places as radical ana
destructive. "Demagogic' they olled him,
back in the days when he battled as new
lance in che field against corporate wrongs
and political cliques which were making a
travesty of free government. And demagoglc
he might have proved, with so vast and ar
dent following as he rallied, had there not
been rooted within him profound belleI IN
American institutions and an instructive de-
sire to construct ather than destroy. mus
it was that while popular rights Interested
him intensely, popular whim9 left MIN
unmoyed He saw issues in the light OF
common sense; and as that light is olttlmes
very clear and cold his conclusions and poll
cies would seem not infrequently, 10 one Ut
another group of his constituents, lach-
ing heart quality. His rigid reasonapleness'
indeed. made him liable to errors OF STRAIT
egv which an ordinary politician, concern
ed with popular effects rather than win
sound judgments, could easily have avoided:
Significantly enough, 1t was pro1esslonal
politicians rho found Hoke Smith most pal
fling and least Iikable. They never could
understand him and they never would, for
his WAYS were not their ways, nor his
thoughts Of public service conformaDle TO
petty personal designs.
IT was Ills rare mixture OF the liberal and
the conservative, the reformer ana the
safeguarder that made Senator Smltns Ia
bors for his commonwealth and country so
sive Georgia would not know him today as
the foremost figure in that crucial era OF
her Dolitical life when forces OF speclal priv
i1eee and greedful plutocracy joined ISSUE
against common rights and were overwhelm-
ingly beaten If he had been less OF pulio-
er and conserver, she would not know MIN
today as the author and consummator OF
legislative ideas that have quickened all the
currents of business prosperity, added De,
vond measure to agricultural progress anu
nower. and marked a national indeed
world epoch in public educational endeaxor
No need to recount the golden services
he has rendered; they are written 1nerasa-
blv. not alon in Georgia and American ms
tory, but in the minds and hearts OF t, nrs
1isb him continued vigor and happiness as
he laws aside the long and splendidly borne
burden of Senatorial duty. singularly rlch
fields of opportunity and prestige nave open
Cd tn him in the practice Of law at the ma
tional capital; but it is gratifying that ms Is
citizenship is to remain In georgia. anu ~
is hoped that his visits "back home" Will oe
freouent and not far between.