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PAGE FOURTEEN
TEXAS NOTES.
Representatives of the varous
Farmers’ Unions of the South met in
New Orleans last week and adopted
measures whereby 8,000,000 bales of
cotton will be held in warehouses
until the minimum price of 15 cents
is paid. They propose to make a
warehouse receipt as good as a bank
note, store cotton, control the market,
and at the same time prevent gam
klirg in cotton futures, which they
allege, with confidence, has been one
of the active causes that brought on
the present stringency in the money
market, with a consequent injury to
their business. Os course the nation
al bankers will howl and use every
means to prevent this, for if it is
carried out some of their unlawful
gains will be cut off, and they are
not willing for that to occur. But
the farmers (of Texas, anyway) don’t
have any particular love for the
banks, and especially those in New
York, and will quietly go on their
way and attend to their own affairs.
At the meeting in New Orleans it was
also decided to advise the members of
ihe Farmers’ Union to reduce the
acreage the coming year. It is ex
pected that the resolutions adopted
at this meeting will be adopted by
the state boards and later by the
county and parish boards, so that
warehouses can b?. built everywhere
that cotton is grown in the South.
It is very evident from this that the
Southern farmer is able to meet the
present emergency, is willing to do so
and will make good. The gambler in
New York and New Orleans had best
give up the fight, for he is sure to
lose.
The educational committee of the
Farmers’ Congress held a meeting in
San Antonio recently during the In
ternational Fair, and decided to rec
ommend that a course of study on
the soils and the best methods for
adapting it to agriculture, be taught
in the public schools. Mr. Cousins,
ihe state superintendent of schools,
was present, and pledged his support,
and stated that he would send a cir
cular letter to every superintendent
of schools in the state and request
earnest co-operation. At the request
of the Farmers’ Congress, the United
States government stationed Profes
sor Carter in the state to make an
exhaustive study of Texas soils,
which he has done, and the knowl
edge gained will be contained in a
book which will be of great value to
the schools and farmers of the state.
Theodore H. Price, that prince of
robbers, whose headquarters in New
York are near those of the former
pirate, Captain Kidd, of savory old
time fame, (this has been stated for
a fact), while fleecing the people of
the country, especially the producers
of cotton, in quite a different man
ner from his great leader in piracy,
Captain Kidd, still heretofore has
found his methods produce better
results than the captain’s. “The re
sults of an action are presumed to be
intended,” so the results of “Pirate
Price’s” efforts heretofore having re
sulted in gain to him and loss to the
cwner of the produce, it is presumed
that he intended to pirate upon the
people, which is another name for
stealing. Since this stringency in the
circulating medium has come upon
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
this prosperous land, or just before,
it makes no difference which, Pirate
Price issued a circular letter marked
‘ Confidential and Private” to all the
bankers and credit merchants in the
South, advising them that the best
thing for them to do was to sue, or
by other measures, FORCE the farm
ers to sell their cotton at once. This
circular was an attempt to force the
merchants to do what has heretofore
been the custom when October rolled
around and the poor debtor farmer
was forced to sell and settle with the
merchant. Now the fact was, and is,
that Pirate Price was on the wrong
side of the market to the tune of
300,000 bales, and should the farmers
persist in holding their cotton, Pirate
Price stood, and stands, a fine
chance of being pinched just as he
wanted to pinch the farmer. These
measures having worked in the inter
est of Pirate Price and his comrades
in New York in the past, it was nat
ural, being a New Yorker, that he
should expect them to again answer
his purpose.
The motive of the letter written by
Pirate Price is now apparent to all,
and as the letter has come into the
hands of the president of the Farm
ers’ Union, it is hardly necessary to’
state that such letters will only hard
en the determination of the southern
farmers to hold on to their cotton,
and should the bankers, or any one of
them, attempt to coerce the farmers,
or any one of them, they will be treat
ed, in the language of President Neill
of the Texas Farmers’ Union, “as
disciples of Theodore Price,” and,
under the circumstances, they cannot
afford to enforce collections. This
has had practical application already,
and the bank concerned was only too
glad to back down and let things
rest. The farmer will win; there is
no doubt this time, and hereafter he
will be too strongly entrenched in his
rights to fear any Pirate Prices of
them all in Wall Street.
There are so many things that I
wish to write about that they get
crossed up in my mind, and none of
them will come out in a satisfactory
manner. However, I have a book
that was gotten up by the govern
ment printer under instructions, for
the benefit of the noble (?) senators
of our country during the first Cleve
land administration, which contains
all the laws relating to currency, coin
age and banking from 1795 down to
1886. . They are arranged so that
they can be readily understood and
have annotations on the side that al
lows one to find what he wants di
rectly besides having an index. From
this I think that I can tell the people
something that they never dreamed
of and can prove that as far as the
two great parties are concerned, they
have each been “Pirate Prices” in
their endeavors to fool the people and
profit the “interests.” This univeix
sal piracy was not confined to the
post-war times alone, but has been
coolly planned and worked from the
time Jackson broke the United States
bank and the people at the same time.
There has never been any hiatus in
the efforts of the “interests,”
through the politicians, regardless of
party, to accomplish what they have
at last almost succeeded in doing— an
absolute control of the people through
the circulation of the nation. The
first time that the people awoke to
the danger was after the adoption of
the act of 1873, changing the repre
sentative of the unit of measure from
silver to gold, and the alarm was not
given by the so-called Democrats, but
by the Greenback Party. The Demo
crats in congress had voted unani
mously for the act of 1873, but let
that wait for a future time. Os
course, this may be considered old
stuff, but there are many young peo
ple today who have never heard of
it, and, like the Bible, it will be pleas
ant reading to the beginner.
The Jeffersonian is a hummer, and
the only paper" in the South that has
the courage to speak the truth, and
the people will not forget it.
Malcolm Jay.
Fort Worth, Texas, Nov. 28, 1907.
CONFEDERATE HEROES.
(Continued from Page Three.)
ing. Most of people would think that
a soldier under fire and facing grim
death would feel like a funeral pro
cession; but not so, he is always
watching for something that will
amuse him. That was the case with
this soldier. During the fighting a
rabbit run in front of the line, and
the boys were shooting at it. This
soldier stepped from behind his tree
to get a shot, as it passed, and a ball
vad shot through his heart. He was
laughing at the time, and was killed
so dead that the muscles of his face
rever relaxed. W. H. Andrews.
Sugar Valley, Ga.
‘‘IDLE THOUGHTS OF AN IDLE
FELLOW.”
To The Jeffersonian:
Jerome K. Jerome is the author of
a little book, not unworthy our read
ing, which bears the above title. The
human mind is made of two score or
more faculties, any one of which,
when aroused, leads off in a distinct
direction governing the manifestation
of all the rest. When the faculty of
“Appetite” is called into action by
the demands of the stomach, all hands
set about to answer that demand.
Likewise when “Combativeness” is
provoked, tooth and toe-nail rally at
once to the call to action. Likewise
throughout with each faculty.
At present my faculty of “Per
spicuity,” which I coin out of a tri
combination of ‘ ‘ Inquisitiveness, ’ ’
“Sagacity,” and “Force,” which in
deed make a striking combination,
and one which is not the most pleas
ant factor in society, is up. But
what care I for society just now?
And even if I did, my hornets’ nest
is stirred up and it’s got to be thresh
ed out. I was getting along very
peaceably in life, eating three times
a day, and sleeping about the same,
until —oh, Scott! that talk about
“Clearing house certificates” put me
to the bad. I had wintered along
with right good temper listening to
my friends talk about the things that
Roosevelt was going to “burst,” the
meat trust, the coal trust, the paper
trust, and all the rest of the ‘ ‘ trust ’ ’
imposed in him, and which put him in
office and will try to keep him there.
Yes, as I was just saying, I was
getting along all right, but this “Cy
clone money” which William Ran
dolph Bryan is making such a fuss
over, flaunted itself under my nose,
and I’ll tell you now, the stench is
more than I ’low to stand for.
I don’t know enough about it to
go into details and explain why I
feel the way I feel about it like some
of them, but I don’t like the smell of
the situation, and I know that there
is a dead cat in the fence corner
somewhere. There is something
wrong, boys, as sure as you are alive,
and the sooner we buckle down to it
and get to business the sooner we can
have peace in the neighborhood, and
confidence in the banks which accept
our money as a loan at 3,4, or 5
per cent interest, and in turn loan it
out at about the same additional, se
curing it to us by values representing
fictitious securities, which scuddie like
a prairie dog at the first show of a
hat.
Now hitch your chairs up a little
closer about the hearth, and we’ll
talk this thing over at more concert
edness on the situation. There is
somebody fooling us, and that is sure*;
somebody’s shortened one end of the
doubletree, and giving one horse the
most of the load, while the old wag
on knocks along just the same.
Summing up the situation, I believe
that the sole cause of our trouble,
and my present condition of unrest,
is due to the fact that the money cir
culation prerogative of the govern
ment has been sold, or we will make
it milder and say “intrusted,” to the
banking association of the country. It
has been asserted by the wisest men
of the world, of both continents, that
the American Constitution is the
greatest and best governing document
ever produced, and it, we know, em
powers and authorizes the govern
ment to control the money issue; to
coin (create) and circulate as neces
sity demands.
Is it doing it?
Yes, er —well, yes—l mean letting
the banks control that, just as it
turns over to the land office the con
trol of public lands, and—
Yes and one makes about the same
botch of it as the other! I feel my
spell coming on a little stronger, and
it will be necessary for me to desist
from sharp discussion which evokes
too much sentiment, as I can not
stand what I once could, in those
troublesome days when Grover was
doing his worst, and later when Wil
liam Randolph Bryan stood around
like a sick calf and witnessed the
sale of the Democratic mule to Bel- i
mont the jockey, and affixed his name
to the bill of sale as an attesting .
witness to the transaction. Yes, I \
stood all that and it was just getting
eral hot weather, too. But the very ,
sigh of them clearing house cirtifi
cates makes me feel just as I did the
first time I tried to chew tobaccor.
And you say the government turns
over to the banks the power to create
and control the circulating medium?
Yes.
And the power to circulate would \
follow ? /
Yes. (
Does it, and is it circulating? \
(Blank.) >
Now boys, as I was saying, let us /
get down to business. There are a /
few simple ways in which we can do )
a great bit of good, if we only employ i
the means at our disposal. We hav* 1
as fearless and as dauntless, as hoi
est and as true a leader as ever ste;
ped into the ranks, the world’s hit