Newspaper Page Text
THE
Weekly .1 effersonian.
Vol. 11.
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JUSTICE IS ‘BLIND.
The Directors Are Never Guilty: It is Always Their Salaried Employes Who Commit the Killing—But Can the Engineer Be Held Responsible
for Rotten Ties, Broken Down Bridges, Light Rails and Neglected Roadbeds?
Mr. Watson’s Great Farmers’ Union Speech.
Tuesday was a memorable day in
the history of the Farmers’ Educa
tional and Co-operative Union.
For weeks the districts have been
holding meetings and choosing dele
gates to the conference called by
President Charles S. Barrett, and o i
Tuesday morning they began arriving
in full force. The - leading officials
are here and many subjects of vital
interest to the order, which will be
discussed in these columns more at
length next week, were brought up
for consideration: The most notable
feature of the conference was the
speech by Hon. Thos. E. Watson, be
fore the National convention, on
Tuesday night, an extensive synop
sis of which we give in this issue.
Mr. Watson does not write his
speeches, and as he has specially pre
pared this synopsis for the benefit of
the Farmers’ Union readers of The
A r \elvspaper Demoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Government.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, January 24, 1907.
Weekly Jeffersonian, it is the only
authorized and absolutely reliable
summary of his speech to be had. He
said:
*
Synopsis of Mr. Watson’s Speech to
the Farmers’ National Convention
on the Night of January 22, 1907.
The Farmers’ Union as an organi
zation should, by all means, steer
clear of politics. As an organization,
it should take no part in any political
campaign. It should avoid all entang
ling political alliances.
But if the individuals composing the
Farmers’ Union do not go into politics
waist-deep, shoulder-deep, chin-deep,
to get what their intelligence tells
them is necessary for their material
welfare, they will continue to be what
they have been ever since the Civil
war —the mere drudges, pack horses,
“hewers of wood and drawers of
water’’ for other classes who do go into
politics, as individuals, to get what
they want.. In other words, if special
privileges have been granted to other
classes, which are bearing with harsh
ness and injustice upon the agricul-
tural class, how is this adverse legis
lation to be repealed unless the farm
ers make themselves felt as a politi
cal power?
Let us study the national situation
as pictured by Uncle Sam himself in
his census reports. We will not take
anything from any political text-book,
any political pamphlet, any speech or
essay written by reformers, by Popu
list, by Bryanite, by Hearstite, by So
cialist. For the purpose of my speech
tonight, I am going to confine myself
strictly to the government reports, as
shown from year to year, in the well
known volume called, “Statistical Ab
stract of the United States.’’ The vol
ume from which every statement of a
statistical character that I make to
night is known as “The Statistical
Abstract for 1905.’’ This was issued,
of course, last year. Now, let us see
just what Uncle Sam says is the con
dition of the various members of his
family—agriculturist, banker, railroad
er, and manufacturer. These are the
leading members of Uncle Sam’s
household —big boys of the family.
Let us see how they are getting along,
and how the progress of the one com
pares with that of the other.
We find that in 1850, the amount of
capital invested in agriculture, or in
other words, the entire value of the
agricultural estate in the Union, was
$4,000,000,000. At that time we were
living under what is called the Walker
tariff, which levied a contribution of
20 per cent upon the farmer in order
that his brother, the manufacturer,
might be protected from foreign com
petition over on the other side of the
big water, thousands of miles away.
This, of course, was a burden to the
farmer, but because he loved his
brother, the manufacturer, he bore the
burden cheerfully and went forward
with it for ten years—with a slight re
duction in 1857. In 1860, we again
take an inventory of the estate of the
farmer. We find it to amount to SB,-
000,000,000. In spite of the fact that
he has been contributing a bonus of
twenty cents out of every dollar to
protect goods which he purchases for
his use, which bonus went to his
brother, the manufacturer, the farmer
has doubled his estate within these
ten years.
Then came four years of war, a loss
of nearly a million men from the army
(Continued on page 4.)
No. 1.