Newspaper Page Text
Jeffersonian
VOLUME THREE
NUMBER FORTT-EIGHT
s ummary of 'Ebents as appen
By Tom Dolan
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CHAS. S. BARRETT.
It is with pleasure that we note the
recent appointment of Charles S.
■Barrett, President of the Farmers’
Union of Georgia, as Country Life
Commissioner, by President Roose
velt. Georgia appreciates the honor
conferred upon her worthy son. The
membership of this distinguished
body is comprised of the following
men: Professor L. IL Bailey, New
York State College of Agriculture,
Ithaca, N. Y., chairman; Henry Wal
lace, Des Moines, Iowa; Kenyon L.
Butterfield, President Massachusetts
Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass.;
Gifford Pinchot, United States Forest
Service, Washington, D. C.; Walter
H. Page, of North Carolina, editor of
the World’s Work, and William A.
Beard, Sacramento, Cal.
It is the purpose of this Commis
sion to interest'farmers in systematic
work for the upbuilding of the coun
try and the schools and in fact every
thing that pertains to the wellbeing
of the farm and the life on the farm,
and to extend such aid as they may
feel the need of.
On November 19, the largest tobac
co deal ever made was closed between
the American Tobacco Company and
the Burley Tobacco Society, in Louis
ville, Kentucky. The price per pound
is an average of over 20 cents for the
crop of 1906 and 17 cents for part of
the crop of 1907. The total sum paid
is something like $14,000,000, which
money will be put in circulation in the
famous Burley District of central
Kentucky. What this means for the
prosperity of that region, and indi
rectly for the whole country, may
readily be imagined. No crop was
raised by the members of the Burley
Society during the present year,
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON
while the fight was being made for
fair prices for the product, and
against the tobacco trust.
This is one of the most signal vic
tories ever gained by. the farming
class against the manufacturers and
while the history of the troublous
times in the tobacco growing region
has in it many a dark chapter which
is regrettable, perhaps the lesson will
not have been learned in vain. That
lesson is not, of course, to shoot, or
burn; but it is that the men who
create wealth by the labor of their
own hands should stand as firmly to
gether as do the interests who simply
manipulate the prices to suit their
own greedy desires.
In every attempt to reduce produc
tion in order to raise the price to a
living average, there is a type of
grower who will not lend his help to
the movement, but who does try to
profit by the limitation of crops en
joined upon the unselfish and honora
ble men who live up to the resolu
tions of the association. This is the
kind of man who says to himself:
“Well, if my neighbors are going to
raise loss tobacco, or corn, or cotton,
this year in order to help the farm
ing class generally, it is my chance
to fill every crack and cranny of my
acres full of tobacco, or corn, or cot
ton, and get a> good price for it my
self—no matter if I do help thereby
to discourage and discredit my neigh
bors, and defeat their object.”
T hn Burley Tobacco Society had a
good many so-called “independents”
of this morally spineless, but invet
erately narrow and grasping, class to
contend with. It was a question
practically of life or death to the
Society; a case of winning their
contest with the trust, or going into
abject industrial slavery. Not much
wonder, therefore, that a few of the
“independents” were dealt with
severely by the night-riders. And,
when human beings start out to pun
ish other humans, they generally go
too far. The spirit of night-riding is
seldom either cowardly or^brutal in
its inception, but in practice usually
deplorable. The parent who whips
a child for a real fault, but who loses
his self-control and punishes too se
verely exhibits “night-riding” in its
entirety and in the wholesale con
demnation which has been heaped up
on the Kentuckians for “lawlessness”
a few side remarks might have been
made anent the provocation thereof.
Patience is a great virtue, but of the
American public generally, despite
the “Eagle’s screams,” it may truth
fully be said that they are patient
to the point of impotence, prudent
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, November 26, 1908
to weakness and conservative to cow
ardice.
Holland has asked Venezuela to re
voke her transshipment decree by No
vember 30. It is understood that her
first ultimatim named November 1,
as the day, but inasmuch as the de
cree showed no signs of revocation at
that time, it was diplomatic to extend
the period. Venezuela is preparing
to meet, if necessary, a prolonged
blockade of her ports, should Holland
resort to that means of attempting
to gain her ends. It is the opinion
of those familiar with all the details
of the situation, however, that Hol
land will not commit any direct act
against the government of Castro,
but will seek to overthrow him by fos
tering revolutions. The Dutch island
of Curacoa, under present tactics,
could be usel as a base of operations
against Venezuela to the immense ad
vantage of the revolutionists, and
without involving Holland in any
complications with other powers.
Events in China of late are such
as to occasion more than ordinary in
terest. The almost simultaneous
death of the aged Empress Dowager,
the real ruler, and of the nominal
Emperor, has been shrouded in deep
mystery, while with them perishes
much of the strength of the Manchu
dynasty, so fervidly hated by genuine
Chinamen. There have in the past
been several uprisings of Chinese
against their foreign rulers, and the
time may be ripe for another one. In
that case, a widespread revolution
would inevitably follow, involving ev
ery country in the world that has
now, or expects to have, interests in
China. The Boxer uprisings would be
very slight compared to the inter
necine strife that would ensue in a
war between the Orientals them
selves.
. The Hungarian ministry of agricul
ture, which makes a yearly review of
the crops of the entife world, reports
that Europe will be short some 18,-
000,000 bushels of wheat alone. This
shortage is heaviest in France, which
usually produces enough grain for its
own consumption but will probably
buy heavily from America this fall
and winter. All of which, of course,
will be the result of “Republican
prosperity” and the “restoration of
confidence.” Under our vicious’class
legislation and insane financial sys
tem, prosperity more and more be
comes absolutely dependent, not on.
natural resources, industry or honest
increase, but some calamity somewhere
ice Five Cento
—a war. a famine —some catastrophe
befalling another country that will
temporarily make “good times.”
King Leopold, on Sunday, Novem
ber 15, released possession of the ad
ministration of the Congo Free
State, and Belgium will formally take
it under control. Many changes will
be made in the administration. No
native will be compelled to work for
any individual, company or govern
ment without remuneration. The
new administration purposes to teaeh
the natives the use of coin, and the
tax, which is from $1.20 to $4.80, will
be paid in currency and not by work
or produce as formerly. Belgium al
so assumes, the assets and liabilities
and all international treaty obliga
tions, and guarantees freedom in reli
gion and trade, and will continue to
protect missionaries. The ten million
dollar fund which was created for
Belgian concessions will be expended
for the scho< Is and to effect a reme
dy for the “sleeping sickness,” also
to send sick Belgians home, instead
of being paid to the king.
It is reported that there is shortly
to be a merger of the Swift and Ar
mour fertilizer companies in a new
company to be capitalized at $75,000,-
000. When the company gains con
trol of the larger independent fertil
izer concerns, it will, of course, at
tempt to take over each of the small
er enterprises until the trust has the
whole fertilizer industry in its clutch.
This will hardly be joyful news to the
farmer.
Dr. Hamilton Wright, of Washing
ton, D. C., before sailing for the
Orient to attend an International
conference at Shanghai held for the
purpose of assisting China to abolish
opium smoking, gave out the follow
ing startling statements:
But one hundred thousand pounds
of opium can be used in this country
per year for legitimate medicinal re
quirements. Customs receipts, how
ever, show that we import six hun
dred and fifty thousand pounds every
year. The average dose of morphine
is from one-fourth to one-half a
grain, therefore what can possibly
Jjecome of over six hundred thousand
pounds of opium? It is appalling
to think of.
It is stated that work on the Na
tional Honduras Railroad which is to
cover a distance of 300 miles between
Truxillo and Tegucigalpa will begin
within the next sixty days.