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Frofn Warrenton (Ga.) News.
FARMERS SHOULD ORGANIZE.
Did you know there was already iu
existence a farmers’ organization in
the southern, and a few of the west
ern states, which has a membership
of over one million and thirty thou
sand members?
Well there is!
It is called the Farmers’ Education
al and Co-operative Union of
America.
It started in Texas about four years
ago, and has quietly worked its way
into every southern state, and is now
enlisting thousands of western farm
ers into its ranks.
It has over sixty thousand members
in the state of Georgia.
The headquarters of the Union,
state and national, are located at
Barnesville, Ga. Hon. C. S. Barrett
is president of the National Union,
and R. F. Duckworth is president of
the State Union.
Its object is to educate and solidify
the farming interest so as to protect
that great interest against the combi
nations which have grown fat from
toil and sweat of honest labor. By
compact organization they expect to
perfect plans, and provide means,
through which the farmer can control
the price of his products, by regulat
ing the supply to meet the demand,
and force a demand by preventing a
glut of the market.
The organization has built a num
ber of warehouses in Texas and other
states in which to store their prod
ucts and secure advances of money
to meet urgent demands, thus enab
ling its members to market their
crops at prices which they think re
munerative.
Os course you will say; the farmer
is different from any other fellow;
that he hasn’t got enough gum in him
to stick one to the other.
That may have been true in the
past —in fact, we must admit it was
true.
But hasn’t he learned from obser
vation and experience that nearly
every other profession or avocation
has their organization?
Hasn’t he seen and felt the effect
of the national bankers’ organization?
Hasn’t he seen and felt the millions
of dollars that have been taxed out
of him by Wall street railroad organi
zations?
Doesn’t he know that the seven rail
road kings of America —Vanderbilt,
Harriman, Morgan, Hill, Gould, Moore
and Rockefeller can advance freight
rates until commercial traffic is para
lyzed?
How did they get such power?
Through laws made by men whom
farmers sent to state and national leg
islatures.
Why did they send such men there?
Because they were scattered, so to
speak. Had no organization, no co
hesiveness, while the fellows who
have been growing rich and powerful
at their expense have perfect organi
zation.
On examining our exchanges we
find that every section of Georgia,
with the exception of a few counties
in middle Georgia—and Warren is one
of them —is alive to this great farm
ers’ movement.
Warren county must not be a lag
gard in this grand effort to enable the
farmer to price his cotton, just as the
stove man prices his stove, or the un
dertaker prices the coffin you are to
be buried in.
The News would head an applica
tion for a charter for a Warren Coun
ty Union tomorrow, but we are in
formed that only farmers are admit
ted as members, but editors will be
allowed to join by subscribing to a
double-barrel gatllng obligation, all of
which we will swallow if some of our
young progressive farmer friends will
take the initiative,
THE TEXAS WAY.
Hamden McK. Fulgham, represent
ing the bureau of the census depart
ment at Washington, D. C., dealing
directly with ginners’ cotton statis
tics, is firmly of the opinion that the
farmers’ union will solve the market
ing problem of the cotton planter.
“In the state of Arkansas, alone,”
he said, “they have already built sixty
warehouses, which have a storage ca
pacity of 120,000 bales. In Texas they
have built warehouses in the same
ratio, and it will be possible for tlm
unions in that state to hold 500,01)0
bales in the future, if they so desire.
These unions are building warehouses
all over the belt, and many bankers
and merchants own stock in them.
This warehouse plan of the unions is
the only practical one that the cotton
producer has ever advanced.
“The Farmers’ Union is much
stronger in Texas, Arkansas and the
territories than the Southern Cotton
Association. The union represents
only white farmers, and it is as
strong and as enthusiastically con
ducted as any labor union could pos
sibly be. The Southern Cotton As
sociation for the most part is looked
upon as the association in which the
big cotton planters are interested.
The cotton producer of the south in
the near future will control the mar
keting of his own crop as absolutely
as the steel trust or the beef trust
controls the regulation of their out
puts.
“I believe that the final report of
the census bureau, April 1, will not
be far from 12,400,000 bales, which
will not, of course, include linters.” —
Dallas (Texas) News.
1,600 BALES OF COTTON SOLD.
Last Friday afternoon Sanders &
Co., of Houston, Tex., purchased the
cotton in the San Saba Farmers’
Union warehouse, consisting of be
tween 1,500 and 1,600 bales, paying
11 cents delivered at Goldthwaite, or
.1080 at San Saba. The sum neces
sary to handle this amount of cotton
is about $85,000, which amount by
this sale is turned loose in our coun
ty. The price received was very good
and by selling all together they ob
tained a great deal more than they
could otherwise. It will take some
time to move all this cotton to Gold
thwaite, and the freighters will get a
nice little sum for the hauling.
CENTRALIZATION IS HOPE OF
THE FARMER CLASSES, THEN
BETTER PRICES WILL PREVAIL.
Birmingham, Ala., Feb. 12. —Thomas
Watson, of Georgia, passed through
Birmingham en route to Atlanta from
Mississippi, where he attended the
meeting of the Farmers’ Union. He
was in Birmingham several hours. He
expressed the opinion that the future
prospects for the farmers were very
bright inasmuch as indications were
that they were going to stick to
gether.
“Centralization is the salvation of
the farmer classes,” he, and if
they will only combine and stand by
each other there is no question but
that they can get much better prices
for their products as well as benefit
each other in many ways.
Mr. Watson again spoke frankly in
regard to the railroads and did not
hesitate to say that their systems
could be greatly improved.
“I am not a socialist,” he said, “but
I do believe in government ownership
of all public utilities. I am an old
man comparatively, and may not live
to see this dream realized, but you
younger men will. Let me give you
a rule by which you can distinguish
government ownership from socialism.
Every public untility for the operation
of which it is necessary to secure a
public franchise should be owned by
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
the people. Private enterprises are
those requiring no public franchise
to operate. A school boy can deter
mine the one from the other.
“We have a state road in Georgia
and there is no reason why we can
not run it through to the Gulf. In
Switzerland, which is one of the
smallest countries in the world, gov
ernment ownership is a practical re
ality. They have no rotten ties there
no worn and weakened axles, no un
stable and dangerous trestles, and
they do not, rather than spend money
for repairs and modern equipment,
see their own president killed in a
wreck that, could have been avoided
by taking the proper precautions.”—
Lanett (Ala.) News.
HARRIMAN TO FEEL UNCLE SAM’S
PROBE.
New York, Feb., 24. —Os the many
general events scheduled for the week,
interest is expected to center chiefly
on the interstate commerce commis
sion which will meet in this city to
morrow to continue its investigation
of the Harriman railroads. Many not
able financiers and railroad men have
been subpoenaed, and are expected to
appear for examination at this sit
ting of the commission. Notable among
them all is E. 11. Harriman, the con
trolling factor in the vast transporta
tion system of the Union Pacific-South
ern Pacific lines. It is planned to
call Mr. Harriman to the witness stand
immediately upon the opening of the
hearing, and it is believed that fully
two days will be consumed in taking
his testimony. Among the other men
who are expected to appear before the
commission this time are William G
Rockefeller, Jacob H. Schiff, head of
the great New York banking house
of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., which has
financed many of the Harriman deals;
Otto H. Kahn, also a member of the
banking firm; C. W .Hilliar, comptrol
ler of the Chicago & Alton railroad;
William Mahl, comptroller of the
Union Pacific, and others.
I* *
MEANT A SOUL MORTGAGE.
Mr. Edmonds Explains His Statement
Concerning a Rockefeller Gift.
Baltimore, Feb. 16. —Richard H. Ed
monds, editor of The Manufacturers’
Record, said today that the dispatch
from Atlanta last night, purporting to
be a denial by Robert C. Ogden, late
chairman of the General Educational
Board, of statements made by Mr. Ed
monds. was calculated to confuse the
public mind as to statements which he
had made.
Commenting on the conditions un
der which a certain denominational
college in the south would receive
funds, Mr. Edmonds said that he had
characterized the contribution tender
ed under them not as a gift but as an
irredeemable mortgage on the soul of
any institution that accepts it. —New
York Times.
* r r
A BETTER PLAN THAN SHONTS’S.
Mr. Shonts, the now president of
the New York street transit monopoly,
announces that he has a plan for solv
ing the transit problem for fifty years
in advance by giving the city the best
facilities in the world on conditions
“satisfactory to the municipal authori
ties, to ourselves and to -every fair
minded and thoughtful citizen.”
No new plan is necessary; a very
old one is adequate. The fifteenth
verse of the twentieth chapter of Exo
dus contains that plan in the words:
“Thou shalt not steal.”
If the traction managers of New
York had followed that plan from the
first’the huge profits on their modest
investments would irresistibly have
found an outlet in extensions of serv
ice. in liberal transfer privileges and
in reduced - fares; New York would
-now have an ideal service, and there
would be no clamor for municipal
ownership or for legislative investiga
tions.
If the present owners of the mo
nopoly had followed that plan they
would not now be borrowers in Wall
street of $10,000,000 —presumably to
finance a trifling extension and a
huge growing floating debt —so soon
after pumping $108,000,00 to have
water securities upon the market. —
New York World.
*»
WHAT AILED THE HORSE.
From the Kennebec Journal.
The many friends of a well known
horseman of Bar Harbor are still
amazed over his experience with a
fakir. Some little time ago he owned
a horse which bothered him a great
deal by foaming and drooling at the
mouth. At last one day he saw an ad
vertisement in one of the papers for
a new and sure remedy for the trou
ble. The price asked was only sl,
and be concluded it. was surely worth
that much to him, so he sent the
money along by the next mail. A few
days later came back a neat type
written letter, with the following ad
vice: “Dear Sir —Teach the horse to
spit.”
r.
SPEAKER WARNS LOBBYISTS.
TELLS THEM THEY MUST QUIT
PESTERING MEMBERS OF THE
HOUSE.
West Virginia Entitled to Their Serv
ices, and He Intends to See That
Lobbyists Stay in Their Places.
Special to The Washington Post.
Charleston, W. Va., Feb. 15. —Speak-
er Seaman took a shot at the lobby
ists this morning in a most direct and
unmistakable way. Immediately
after the opening of the session, he
said:
“It has come to my notice by ob
servation, as well as by complaint of
the members of the house, that they
are being unduly annoyed by persons
who are interested in the passage cf
certain bills. Every member of the
house is a servant of the state of
West Virginia, and the state is en
titled to his best services and judg
ment, and in the discharge of his du
ties should be permitted to engage •
therein with his best senses at hand.
I want to say now that this pernicious
business has been carried on under
the personal eye of the speaker. 1 de
sire to say to some of you gentlemen
on the floor, your personality is
not only known to the members, but
is known to the chair.
“I want to say that this pernicious
and abominable habit of interfering
with the members of the floor must
stop or I will deny you the privilege
of this floor and I will call for the
protection of the members of this
house the services of the sergeant
general-at-arms.
“And to you, sir, who offered to fur
nish the means to secure votes for
your bill, 1 will say 1 know you, and
now see you on the floor, and will say
you must not again insult the intelli
gence and manhood of the members
of this house.”
The senate passed almost the en
tire day discussing the Bailey amend
ment to the general revenue bill, by
which it was proposed to place a tax
on the production of natural gas in
this state. Mr. Garland tried to
amend the amendment by inserting
coal among the things to be taxed,
and the debate was a warm one.
The bill, as finally ordered to the
third reading, fixes the state school
tax at 5 cents, leaves off all direct tax
for general state purposes, and taxes
from the school fund the two-sevenths
of the license and charter taxes, and
puts them back into the general fund,
5