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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