236 Our Poorer Brother 



sonally by his colleagues, even by those differing 

 very widely from him in matters of principle. The 

 stanchest friends of order and decent government 

 fully and cordially recognized Mr. Watson's hon- 

 esty and good faith men, for instance, like Senator 

 Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Representative Bel- 

 lamy Storer, of Ohio. Moreover, I sympathize as 

 little as Mr. Watson with denunciation of the 

 "cracker," and I may mention that one of my fore- 

 fathers was the first Revolutionary Governor of 

 Georgia at the time that Mr. Watson's ancestor sat 

 in the first Revolutionary Legislature of the State. 

 Mr. Watson himself embodies not a few of the very 

 attributes the lack of which we feel so keenly in many 

 of our public men. He is brave, he is earnest, he is 

 honest, he is disinterested. For many of the wrongs 

 which he wishes to remedy, I, too, believe that a 

 remedy can be found, and for this purpose I would 

 gladly strike hands with him. All this makes it a 

 matter of the keenest regret that he should advocate 

 certain remedies that we deem even worse than the 

 wrongs complained of, and should strive in dark- 

 ling ways to correct other wrongs, or rather inequali- 

 ties and sufferings, which exist, not because of the 

 shortcomings of society, but because of the existence 

 of human nature itself. 



There are plenty of ugly things about wealth and 

 its possessors in the present age, and I suppose there 

 have been in all ages. There are many rich people 

 who so utterly lack patriotism, or show such sordid 

 and selfish traits of character, or lead such mean 



