New-York tribune., 1922-09-27
Senator w atson
Dies of Asthma
At Age of 66
Georgia Politician Passes
i'm Full vigor After 40
Years as Unique Figure
i'll Affairs of Nation
Virulent Foe of Wilson
Populist Cam paigns and
Attacks on War At
tracfed National Attention

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (By The AS
sociated ress).--Another potent and
picturesque figure passed from public
life in the death to-day OF Senator
Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia. His
death, which occurred at 2.4o a. m.,
was unexpected, according to physicians
resulting from an attack If asthma.
The Senator had been sufferer for
several weeks from the disease, and
only last Sunday experienced an acute
! attack. Two physicians and a nurse
were at the bedside when the end came,
but the patients wife, who lis in iii
health, and other relatives were at the
nome in Thomson, Ga, for which Mr..
watson had planned to depart TODAY
Tor the Congressional recess.
The funeral will be held at Thomson.
Ia, either Thursday afternoon or Fri
DAY morning. Senate officials are in
charge and the funeral party will leave
mere tomorrow at 3:l5 O'Clock for
Thomson. A'A
Senate flags were ordered placed at
haif mast for period of thirty days
out OF respect to the late Senator, and
the senate will adjourn out of respect
when 1t reconvenes. A day also viii be
set. for memorial services. President
and Mrs. Harding headed those who
protfered condolences.
Parents Slave Owners
'Tom" Watson, rs he was nopu-
larly called and as he preferred to be
known, was the son Of John S. and
Ann Eliza (Maddox) Watson, and was
born in Columbia County, Georgia,
September s, 1866. The attempts Of
his foes to identify him with the
"crocker," or poor white" class were
unfounded, for his parents were
wealthy land holders and slave owners.
But the Civil War reduced them to a
bare competency, and while the future
| Senator was yet in his teens the panic
| Of 1878 swept away the remainder of
! their property.
The boy was then a student in Mer-
Ger College, but the change in family
fortunes compelled him to leave at the
end of the sophomore year. He then
supported himself by teaching school
while he studied law. At the age of
and began practice at Thomson, few
miles from his birthplace.
Like the eminent Nebraskan with
whom his political fortunes were
destined to be Joined and then to
clash he came into notice first as a
hoy orator" In 1880 he was a dele
gate to the Democratic State Conven-
tion, and his speech against General
Colquitt made him known in every
township in the state.
Watson's election to the state House
of Representatives followed, and he
served in that body in 1882 and 1888
His next official appearance was as q
Democratic Presidential elector in
1888, and during the campaign of that
year he stumped the state for Cleve-
land and tariff reform, though he
afterward dissented in the strongest
possible way from Mr.. Cleveland's type
of democracy.
Joins Populists
His break from Cleveland Democracy
occurred only two years later. The
| Farmers Alliance movement then de-
veloped great strength in the South
and he identified himself with it, and
with the Populist party which sprang
out of it. His white-hot zeal and pas
| sionate oratory made him a leader of
its ranks, and in the fall of 1890 he
was elected on the Ocala platform q
Representative in Congress, from the
10th Georgia District.
When that Congress met in 1891
| Watson refused to enter the Demo
cratic caucus. Instead he allied him
| self with "Sockless Jerry" Simpson and
other Western Populists, and became
himself their candidate for Speaker.
| This conduct. of course, excluded him
from the Democratic party, and he
was compelled to seek renom nation