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ZETTEKJ T<ROM THE PEOPLE
FARMERS GETTING WISE.
k Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
On Thursday, February 28, the Sixth
Congressional District Union met at
Griffin. The meeting was well at
tended and was full of interest. The
delegates came loaded and the dif
ferent subjects were discussed with
brotherly spirit and tended toward
binding our members' closer together.
Guano, warehouses and marketing farm
produce were discussed intelligently
and the meeting was in every way a
success. After leaving Griffin I went
to Covington and met with the Fifth.
This was by far the best meeting they
have had and by the way business was
transacted could be seen the improve
ment of our members. I have been
attending union meetings for the past
year in different parts of the state and
the delegates of the Fifth have at each
meeting been branching out until they
can see a proposition, the danger or
benefit, quicker today than ever before.
It was a great treat to hear them dis
cuss the warehouse plan and I believe
that every county will own a ware
house by fall.
Taking the two as a subject for
thought you can readily see how our
farmers are benfited by their organi
zation and we may expect great things
from the citizens of our beloved Geor
gia in the near future. Better homes,
better schools and better people. All
striving to build up the agricultural
interest and bless the consuming world
with pure food. Now that we have
passed the experimental stage we sim
ply ask every person to lay hold of
the great movement and help us drive
to success everything that is just, good
and right and destroy those things that
stain the name of the greatest, fair
est and best state in the United States.
Sycamore, Ga. J. L. LEE.
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ESTABLISH ANOTHER ONE.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
Suppose we gain another congress
man in 1910 what will we do about
our eleven new agricultural schools
in Georgia? J. L. P.
Conyers, Ga.
WILL TELL YOU LATER.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
It seems that Thomas W. Lawson
after spreading toll corn along all the
paths has finally pulled his trap and
caught thousands of people and skinn
ed them of several millions of dollars.
What do you think of him anyhow?
Give us your opinion of him and his
He looks like a man who
is working “both sides” of the street.
Juniata, Pa. ELBERT MORRIS.
IS MORGAN CONVERTED?
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
The great “autocrat” of all the
states has at last been made to squeal.
I have just read in a newspaper where
J. P. Morgan of New York city had
moved onto Washington, D. C., and
called upon the president of the United
States to stop the railroad agitation,
which agitation, the people are simply
making against oppression from those
mighty corporations of our fair land,
they have burdened and oppressed our
people for 10, these many years, and
now that the common people have ris
en up and demanded of the various
legislatures to do something for them;
watch this “great autocrat” take to
his private car, a perfect palace on
wheels, this very car wrung out of the
necessities of the people. Yes, I imag
ine he consulted with the president
He, with a bigger club than the pres
ident’s, “demanded” this legislation
must stop, and then it is written he
left for Europe to consult the “money
lords” over there as to what else he
must do. So look out when he gets back
and takes to that palace car and moves
on Washington again. He may, and
will, no doubt, demand the political
heads of many congressmen; or may
be governors, etc. But watch our
president now squirm around and
try to stop some of the agitation that
is going on, you know when the “great
autocrat” of “all the states” visits
Washington something is doing and go
ing to be done, for this man doesn’t
speak or make a trip without dollars
coming his way. Beware, citizens of
our broad land, be ever watchful when
J. P. Morgan goes after the president.
He carries a bigger stick than ever
Mr. Roosevelt carried, and he uses his
too, even on the president and con
gress, and the senate, also. His is the
gold and silver club, better look out,
when it falls, it falls hard, somebody
is crushed or mangled, somebody has
to be buried. American, “common or
plain people,” watch J. P. M., because
he has no mercy on the common peo
ple. J. E. M.
Jacksonville, Fla.
A TRIBUTE TO COMER.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
We have hoped to read from Mr.
Watson’s pen some just comments on
the way our governor has so far re
deemed his pledges to the people of
Alabama. He appealed to us farmers
to elect him by promising that he
would do his best to regulate the cor
porations, reform freight and passen
ger tariffs and give the people back
the rights taken from them by usurpa
tion. He has done well. Although
strongly opposed by the corporations
he was as strongly supported by the
country farmer members of the legis
lature. The net results are many steps
forward in curbing the lawlessness of
the corporations and assuring better
service by them to the people. You
ought to give Governor Comer a boost.
It might encourage him and other gov
ernors to stand by the common people.
“The Weekly Jeffersonian” is a great
feast to me. W. B. TRENT.
Montgomery, Ala.
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DEATH FOR SEDUCERS.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
I want to express my heartfelt ap
proval of the verdict acquitting the
Strother brothers in Virginia for kill
ing the despoiler of their sister. Real
ly we have more to fear from the
white seducing scoundrels than from
black rapists. The latter are brutish
and senseless beasts to whom death
has few terrors. But the former are
reckless, wilful, smooth tongued devils
to whom life is dear because of des
picable lust. Our daughters and sis
ters must be saved from them at any
hazard. Three cheers for Virginia jus
tice in this case. MRS. M. P. R.
Charlotte, N. C.
IT IS STILL “THER’N.”
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
What’s the matter with the Georgia
railroad commission that it does not
promptly take up and act on Mr.
Rowdre Phinizy’s charges against the
Georgia Railway lessees? Is that com
mission the servants of the people, or
are they short-stopping for the rail
roads? Are they our’n or ther’n?
Madison, Ga. W, E. H.
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
JACKSON VS. ROOSEVELT.
To the Editor of the N. Y. Sun:
Sir: —Why did President Jackson be
gin his war on the United States
bank?
Why did President Roosevelt begin
his controversy with rich men, corpo
rations and railways?
Numberless historians have endeav
ored to answer the first inquiry. The
latest biographer of Jackson thinks
“the real truth may some time be
learned and told,” but he comes to
no conclusion excepting that “the
bank,” whether constitutional or not,
was “in its best days” useful, and that
Jackson really thought it wrong for
the government to aid “any chartered
monopoly.”
Mr. Roosevelt wrote in his biogra
phy of Benton that “the question had
been worn threadbare in countless dis
cussions.” He expressed the opinion
that Jackson’s attack was on his own
initiative and alarmed his “prominent
friends”; that Jackson cared for a
fight because it was a fight,
and that while there were ex
cellent grounds for much of his hos
tility, yet many of his actions toward
the bank “were wholly indefensible.”
Mr. Roosevelt leaves his reader to
infer that a main purpose was to get
a winning issue in a partisan sense.
He wrote (p. 115) that “an assault
upon the money power is apt to be
popular in a democratic republic,
partly on account of the vague fear
with which the poorer and more ig
norant voters regard a powerful insti
tution whose working they do not un
derstand, and partly on account of the
jealousy they feel toward those who
are better off than themselves.”
Whether or not that was the chief
reason, “the old man” builded shrewd
ly. He was up against formidable
odds. The Supreme Court had decided
that the bank was an agent employed
by congress in the discharge of gov
ernmental functions, and that congress
had the right to charter such a corpo
ration, not because of any “expressed”
power, but because the bank was “nec
essary and proper” for carrying ex
pressed powers into execution. “Very
well,” answered Jackson, “then I deny
that the bank was thus ‘necessary and
proper.’ ” On that question he insist
ed that he and congress had as good a
right to an opinion as the supreme
court.
History tells us the proximate and
remote results. The bank was super
seded under Van Buren by the inde
pendent treasury system, which has
been gradually whittled away, the last
congress taking off another shaving. A
business and trade depression ensued,
something like that now thought by
many to be on foot, which enabled
Harrison to put an end to Van Buren,
elected a Whig congress in 1840,
brought Webster and Clay back to
power, restored “the bank” so far as
congress could, but Tyler prostrated
it again by his two vetoes, till its sub
stance reappeared a quarter of a cen
tury later in the national banking
system. Os what avail had it been to
resist a fiscal and economic demand
of the times?
The inquiry returns: Why did Jack
son begin the war? Has Mr. Roose
velt given the true reason? Was it
party politics?
The author of the latest and best
biography of Jackson dedicated it
three years ago to President Roose
velt as “the embodiment in our times”
of the spirit of his illustrious demo-
cratic predecessor in the white house,
whose election achieved a greater po
litical revolution than did that of Jef
ferson. In many aspects the dedica
tion would be natural now.
But why did President Roosevelt
begin his war on rich men, corpora
tions and railways? It is risky for
the country, as was Jackson’s on “the
bank” and on Biddle, its representa
tive. Who, by the way, is to be the
scapegoat of the railways? Jackson’s
war turned out to be a winning issue
for himself and Van Buren. Webster
and Clay fell. Is there not as much
historical reason to commend Jack
son’s Democratic war on “the bank”
as to applaud Roosevelt’s Republican
raid on rich men, corporations and
railways? Is not the personal and
party equation prominent in both?
New York, March 16. FLANEUR.
THE RIGHT SPIRIT.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
The farmers of Georgia should feel
the high honor of having the head of
the Farmers’ Union chosen from
among them. The way to show their
appreciation is to have a stronger or
ganization of the union in this state
than in any other. We ought to do
great work this summer after the
crops are laid by in drumming for
new members and organizing to pro
tect our interests in future legisla
tion. F. W. B.
Vienna, Ga.
MARCH 15, 1767.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
When was Andrew Jackson born?
A READER.
(Note. —Why not know the best
about “Old Hickory” by reading “The
Life and Times of Andrew Jackson,”
now running in “Watson’s Jefferso
nian Magazine”?)
CHICAGO TO THE SEA.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
I am much pleased with the project
advocated by Governor-elect Hoke
Smith to secure a through line of
railroads from Chicago to a Georgia
port, controlled by the public—by the
states and cities through which it
would pass. The plan has tremendous
possibilities in it, if it can be arranged.
Let Georgia lead the way by extend
ing her own state road to the sea.
L. B. SANDS.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
I?
BOTH CONTRIBUTED.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
I see that Mayor Dunne of Chicago
has bees renominated by the Demo
crats of that city. Is the result due to
his advocacy of municipal ownership
of public utilities or to the economy
of his administration?
R. P. MOORE.
Evansville, Ind.
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IT WAS TALKED TO DEATH.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
Please tell me what was the fate of
the woman’s suffrage bill in the En
glish parliament.
MARY D. MALLON.
Andover, Ark. . : .
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sll A HEAD ALL ’ROUND.
Editors Weekly Jeffersonian:
Please figure out for us readers of
your valuable paper how much con
gress taxed us for enjoying life in this k
land of the free, and oblige.
FAIRVIEW UNION.
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