Newspaper Page Text
PAGE EIGHT
EDITORIAL NOTES
By J. D. WATSON
The feeling of relief that was expressed
throughout the country only a few days ago
over the fact that Germany had agreed to the
demands of President Wilson, and would in
the future conduct her submarine wkVfare ac
cording to our interpretation of the law oh
the sinking of unarmed vessels, is fast turn
ing into impatient dissatisfaction, as we
realize that Germany has gained more time
bv Bernstoff again playing rings around both
the President and his Secretary of State in
the game of diplomacy.
The question, right now, is just as it was
the day after the Lusitania was sunk, and
.Germany has made -a spectacle of the United
Slates and its foreign policy.
The Germans have played horse with us,
as month after month they turned new tricks
to hoodwink Washington, while they laughed
at us. i y
Whenever the issue seemed squarely up for
settlement they have brought up questions
for discussion, and Washington has always
been in a mood to swallow the bait, hook, line
and sinker, and discuss, with the result that
the time Germany thus gained permitted her
submarines to commit some new deed that
overshadowed the former deed, and thus
bring on more discussion.
The case of the Nebraskan and Gulflight
and the Gushing are still unsettled, while the
only real answer that has been given to the
President’s warlike note of July 21 on the
Lusitania, was the sinking of the Arabic.
The note of July 21 meant be good or fight,
Germany, but Germany had undoubtedly be
come accustomed to school-room phrases, and
could draw the distinction between a school
teacher in the class-room and the school
teacher in the President's chair, and replied
to the threat with a torpedo.
If the situation were not so grave, the pre
dicament of the administration would be
highly amusing—the man who sent the strict
accountability note not having Bernstoff in
the school-room has allowed Bernstoff to
spank him, instead of giving Bernstoff a
spanking.
i’S Ej: * EjE * * HE
Poor old Dr. Dumba leaves us for Austria
this week, while Bernstoff stays at Washing
ton, holding conferences with Wilson and
Lansing, which reminds us that our method
of dealing with Diplomats is somewhat akin
to our method of dealing with another class
■—the little fellows get caught and punished
while the big ones go free.
Poor old Dumba was only a tool of Bern
stoff —a weak lieutenant carrying out the or
ders of one of the shrewdest liars that has set
foot on our soil since the noted Russian,
Count Witte, attended the Portsmouth con
ference, and to expel Dumba and let Bern
stoff remain shows cowardice on the part of
Washington.
Plots of crimes punishable under our laws
have been traced right to the doors of the
German Embassy, and President Wilson
should hand Bernstoff his passports, instead
of asking his government to withdraw him,
as was (lone in the case of Dumba.
The evidence shows beyond a doubt
that Bernstoff was the instigator, and that
Dumba was simply a tool trying to carry out
the plans, and if the tool is to be punished,
the instigator certainly deserves a like dose.
* $ * * * $
Our bankers are to make a huge loan to the
Allies, against the protest of German-Ameri
cans, and the bankers will perhaps make
more loans before the war is over, it mat
ters not how vehemently the German-Ameri
ca ns protest.
Bankers are not in business for the fun
there is in it, and they are not going to throw
away such rich pickings, it matters not
THE JEFFERSONIAN
whether the banker’s sympathy is with the
Allies or Germany.
Morgan, the head of the American bank
ing system, isn’t going to turn down a loan
of from $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000, at
from 5 to 6 per cent interest, because the 5 or
6 per cent interest represents the smallest
part of the profit that the bankers will make.
Morgan represents the British government
in this country, as purchasing agent, and ev
ery cent of the loan that the bankers make to
the Allies will be spent right here with man
ufacturers with whom the bankers have some
connection.
The very money that the Allies borrow
from the bankers representing the Steel
Trust, Standard Oil, and the Powder Trust,
will be spent with those Trusts.
It is, in fact, no loan of money that our
banksrs are making—it is simply a paper
transaction whereby the Allies buv from
$500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 worth of
credit, through our National bankers, with
our Trusts, controlled by the same interests
that control our National banking system.
« e’e .?. *
The difficulties that the Allies’ agents have
encountered up to this time in floating the
loan is simply a piece of shrewdhess display
ed by the bankers —they are willing for the
loan to appear difficult to make in order that
they may squeeze the Allies for a little high
er rate of interest.
* * $
Secretary Josephus Daniels has selected
his Naval Advisory Board, and they will
soon get down to business on inventing more
deadly weapons for Naval warfare.
Just at this time it looks like every effort
of the bigger Navy advocates will be direct
ed toward the submarine, but it is possible
that some of the experts will be able to call
a halt on the submarine hysteria until we
learn more about what the submarine lias ac
tually accomplished in this war.
It is true that (he submarine has sent a
number of vessels to the bottom, but in every
case it was a vessel that any other armed ves
sel could have done likewise.
The submarine, has not proved the terror
of the seas that we generally suppose it has,
for it has utterly failed to destroy England's
shipping. England has more merchantmen,
with a greater tonnage, on the ocean today
than she had at the outbreak of the war. and
we do not know what has been the cost to
Germany in lost submarines.
It is beginning to creep out that England
has sunk quite a number of submarines, and
said nothing about it. not carihg for Ger
many to know where her vessels were lost.
The submarine advocates would have us
build 75 or 100 of these frail fighters, and
before the European War ends we would find
them useless junk.
The German submarine has only caused
aggravation, so far—it has been more of a
pest to defenseless ships than a machine of
destruction in warfare.
sis SjS * SfE E'E Ej: *
Defending the action of Secretary McAdoo
in depositing $15,000,000 in the Southern
Federal Reserve banks to aid in financing
the present cotton crop, Mr. W. P. G. Hard
ing, a member of the Federal Reserve Board,
told the Raleigh, N. C., Chamber of Com
merce that:
“From the report of the Comptroller
of June 23, 1913, it appears that there
are five national banks in Alabama
whose maximum rates of interest aver
age 26 per cent., the rate in one case be
ing 60 per cent, and in another 34 per
cent. The average rate of interest which
one of these banks was charging on all
of its loans amounted to 12 per cent, an
other, 10 per cent. In Arkansas one na
tional bank admitted making a loan at a
rate as high as 120 per cent, another one
at 50 per cent, another at GO per cent
and another at 25 per cent.
“In Georgia there were 11 banks where
the average maximum rate of interest
was about 30 per cent- The maximum
rate charged one of these banks was 40
per cent, and the average on all loans
was 15 per cent. In Texas a number of
banks reported rates in excess of 100 per
cent, and many of them stated that their
average rates on all loans were one per
cent per month or more.”
Such usury is not only extortion, but
worse —it is thievery of the most despicable
type, perpetrated upon the farmers by the
bankers who have the farmers at their mercy.
No man can pay such a rate of interest,
and survive, and the robbers doing business
under charter from our government are sim
ply stealing what the farmer makes.
No wonder the National banks oppose a
system of Rural Credits—no wonder Ware
house Receipt measures, etc., are advocated
by the men who do not care to see the farm
ers bondage broken.
I nless the farmers wish to continue hav
ing their crops stolen from them before they
are even made, they must insist upon the gov
ernment giving them what the Baltimore
platform, and repeatedly the Democratic ad
ministration, promised them—Rural Credits.
Ihe farmers only hope lies in compelling
the Wilson administration to keep its pledge
to the people on this question—insist on the
real thing promised you, and accept no sub
stitute.
. . •
Read “A Book of Sketches,'’ by Thos. E.
Watson. This book covers a wide field of
literary research. Historical. Biographical,
Personal. Beautifully illustrated. Paper
cover. Price, 75c. postpaid. The Jefferso
nian Publishing £*o., Thomson, Ga.
©
New Edition of “Napoleon,” by Thos. E.
Watson. Just off the press. One volume,
$1.50. Handsomely bound, profusely jliiis
(rated. This book is regarded as standard o;
the French readers and .scholars. The Jeffer
sonian Publishing Co.. Thomson, Ga;
Watson’s Magazine
THOS. E. WATSON, Editor.
NOW IN STS EIGHTH YEAR
DEVOTED TO
History,
Biography,
Generat Literature,
Exposure of Italian Popery, the*
Deadliest Foe to Religion, Lib
erty and Human Progress,
Short Stories,
Poems, Etc.
PRICE, SI.OO PER YEAR
In Clubs of 12, Price sOc. Each,
or $6.00 for the Club.
THE JEFFERSONIAN PUBLISHING CO.
THOMSON, GEORGIA.
