Mr. Thomas E. Watson, in his
Weekly Jeffersonian, protests to The
Washington Herald, with earnestness
and courtesy alike convincing, that he
was in no wise seeking to “belittle,”
or “sneeringly allude to,” Abraham
Lincoln in a magazine article noted;
stating that it was his object merely
to dissent from the, to him, apparent
ly growing idea that “Mr. Lincoln
was the greatest man in the world.”
We confess that we read a somewhat
broader meaning into Mr. Watson’s
article —or, perhaps, we should say
narrower—and amid the universal
kindliness of Lincoln expression in
cident to the celebration of his birth
day, Mr. Watson’s summing up of the
martyred President carried, to our
mind, a distinctly jarring, note. But if
Mr. Watson says he did not mean it
that way, he did not —and that is
all there is to that! We have fre
quently expressed our honest admira
tion for Mr. Watson’s splendid
“Story of France,” and if he should
ever be moved to write a “Story of
Lincoln,” we are satisfied it would
have a wide reading—and it would,
therefore, be little short of a calamity
for Mr. Watson to get a wrong point
of view. We do not say he will; we
do not say he is even likely to, but
we do say we hope he will not. —
Washington Herald.
DIFFERENT THING.
Three years ago when Hoke Smith
was running for governor of Georgia
and was being supported by the third
party almost to a man, the members
of that organization were fairly re
spectable people. The anti-Smith
crowd were too decent to throw mud.
But as soon as the tide was turned,
why that was a different thing. The
third party folks were mighty wicked
people that nobody could agree with.
