Weekly Jeffersonian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1907, February 28, 1907, Page 5, Image 5

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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