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COTTON HOLDERS SOLID.
If They Have the Goods They Can
Get Cash.
One of the best authorities on cotton
expresses himself as follows:
“The holders of small remnant of
spot cotton in the south, whether it
be high grade or low grade, have only
to exercise a little patience to realize
much higher prices.
“The demand for cotton goods is
enormous. It would absorb a crop of
15,000,000, if it were available. A
crop of 13,000,000 means acute scarc
ity, and 14,000,000 a bare sufficiency.
Because gold is depreciating, the
value of cotton, as expressed in terms
of gold, is sure to rise. Manufactur
ers are selling their product on a
basis which allows them to pay from
15 to 20 cents for cotton, and they are
perfectly willing to pay those prices
if they cannot buy for less.
“The vagarious reactions of a dis
credited future market need disturb
no bona fide holder of cotton, and
sooner or later the future market it
self will respond to the radical con
ditions existing, and its response will
be all the more sensational because
of its long repression.”
The above is, of course, encourage
ment for the actual holder of cotton —
not for speculators.
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IMMIGRATION COMMISSION.
Congress authorized the appoint
ment of a commission of nine to study
and report the immigration situation
both in this country and in Europe.
This commission is to consist of three
senators, three members of the house
of representatives and three civilians
to be named by the president. Sena
tor McLaurin, of Mississippi, was com
pelled by home affairs to decline a
place on the commission, and so Sena
tors Dillingham, of Vermont, Lodge, of
Massachusetts and Latimer, of South
Carolina, were named. The house
commissioners are Howell, of New
Jersey, Bennett, of New York, and
Burnett, of Alabama. The president
has not yet announced the three ap
pointments he is to make. When he does
he is to name their salaries. The ex
penses of the congressional members
of the commission will be paid, and it
is expected that the commission will
visit every country in Europe from
which immigrants come to us.
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A NEW FARMERS’ UNION.
(Chicago Journal.)
Former attempts to unionize the
farmers of the United States have
generally ended in politics and
disaster. The Grange and the
Farmers’ Aliance, while they lasted,
had some power, but they passed
away, as soon as politicians began to
control them.
The “Farmers’ Union,” recently
born in Texas, and now numbering
nearly 1,000,000 members, is organized
on different lines. Instead of trying
to force down the prices of goods
they buy, its members aim to get bet
ter prices for what they sell. They
aim, by cutting out middlemen in both
buying and selling, to get the best
possible prices for farm products.
The new “Farmers’ Union” is alli
ed with the labor organizations of the
various states and with the American
Federation of Labor. The union is
strongest as yet in the south and west,
but if present gains continue for a
year there will be 4,000,000 organized
farmers in America, or nearly 50 per
cent of the entire farming population.
This Is perhaps the first time that
farmers have entered the ranks of
union labor for the avowed purpose of
forcing up prices. The theory of the
new union is that if working men, in
all branches of industry, receive high
wages they can pay higher prices for
farm products and will consume more
of them. The farmer and artisan thus
pool their interests.
The main purpose of the Farmers’
Union is to make prices for farm prod
ucts. The farmers have learned, by
repeated experiments, that they can
beat grain and cotton speculators at
their own game. When prices are low,
they can, through organization, hold
back their crops until normal prices
again prevail. Even with partial or
ganization they have done this repeat
edly in the south. Another aim is to
establish a system of exchange by
which surplus crops of one section
may be shifted to other sections where
there is a shortage, without giving all
the profits to middlemen. The princi
ple is to corner the market on the
farm, and not in boards of trade.
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SOUTHERN FAIR CIRCUIT.
(Nashville Banner.)
A charter registered recently at the
court was that of the southern fair
circuit. The incorporators are R. M.
Williams, T. B. Anderton, N. C. Collier,
F. D. Chaffin, W. F. Garth and Harry
S. Stokes. The capital stock is placed
at $2,000. The corporate purposes are
stated to be those of promoting agri
culture, etc., and improving the live
stock of the country. This association
will, as has been published, have
charge of the southern fairs to be held
next fall.
THE FEED OF A HORSE.
(Dr. Butler, of Raleigh.)
Dr. Butler: “An average ration for
a thousand pound horse doing very
hard work, is about 15 pounds of grain
and 12 to 15 pounds of hay. Instead
of 15 pounds of fodder and 15 founds
of corn, I would take 5 pounds of pea
vine hay and 7 to 8 pounds of stover,
and then add 10 pounds of corn and 2
pounds of cotton seed meal, and get
better results. If I had oats to feed
and had some peavine hay or clover
hay, I do not think I would feed any
cotton seed meal at all, because it is
bad to feed unless you can mix it with
something else. If I did not have any
peavine or clover hay, I would certain
ly put some cotton seed meal in the
ration of a hard working horse, unless
I had plenty of oats, and they were
cheap.”
This is important testimony from
the highest authority, and should in
terest every farmer and horse owner
in the south. We send thousands of
dollars into the northwest every year
for corn. We send into the northwest
every year thousands of dollars worth
of our cotton seed meal. Nobody is
benefited by this but the railroads.
If we keep our cotton seed meal at
home to feed it will help us, and Dr.
Butler says it will help our horses —
and Dr. Butler knows.
LOW FARES IN WISCONSIN.
Madison, Wis. —The state railway
commission has handed down a deci
sion in the two cent railroad fare
question. It is ordered by the com
mission that the railways in the state
give a flat two and one-half cent pas
senger fare, and it is recommended
that family mileage books of 500 miles
be issued for $lO.
The last legislature enacted a law
creating the state railway commission
with power to fix rates and regulate
service. The decision just handed
down Is the result of an extended
hearing before the state railway com
mission, during which time represen
tatives of the various railways operat
ing in Wisconsin have appeared be
fore the commission, when the ques
tions of rates and service were thor
oughly reviewed.
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
TO HIRE IMMIGRANTS.
Negro Plantation Laborers Will Be
Supplanted By White Immigrants.
(By Associated Press.)
Baton Rouge, La., March. —A plan
which contemplates supplanting negro
plantation laborers of Louisiana with
state imported white immigrants from
Europe has been announced by
Charles Schuler, state commissioner
of immigration and agriculture. This
plan is an outgrowth, both of the im
migration station authorized for New
Orleans by congress and the fact that
labor is scarce.
The state proposes to enable the
Louisiana planter to engage immi
grant labor in advance and with a fix
ed wage without violating the contract
labor law. By July 15 next every
planter desiring such labor is to de
posit $l5O for every family he wishes,
this sum to be a guarantee that he
will repay the state for its expense in
bringing over the immigrants. A state
employe will then engage in Europe
the required number of immigrants
and the state will pay their way to
this country.
NEED OF FARM LABOR.
(Senator Latimer of S. C.)
“The matter of immigration is not
only of vital importance to the whole
nation, but to us of the south, it is of
extraordinary interest.”
“For that reason I appreciate being
a member of the commission author
ized to examine into conditions both
here and in Europe. The senatorial
members of the commission are Sena
tors Lodge, Dillingham and myself;
from the house are Messrs. Howell, of
New Jersey, Bennett, of New York,
and Burnett, of Alabama. Then there
are to be three commissioners from
private life, to be named by the presi
dent. I do not know just when we
will meet to form our organization,
but we will be compelled to await the
president’s action in the matter of ap
pointing the rest of the commission.
“My opinion is that the majority of
southern people are anxious to secure
labor from foreign countries if we can
get the right sort of immigrants.
“Perhaps an influx of Europeans
will help us to solve the negro ques
tion in the south. In my state we
have 700,000 negroes, as against some
thing more than 500,000 whites. I be
lieve the proportion is about the same
in Mississippi. All over the south the
cry is for more labor. The negroes
are deserting the farms, preferring
life in the towns or seeking employ
ment in railroad or lumber camps. I
was obliged to let a considerable
amount of land go uncultivated this
year because of the inability to se
cure farm laborers.”
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ENDORSED IN LOUISIANA.
Hardshell, La., March 9, 1907.
Hardshell, F. E. C. Union No. 136
met in regular session and the follow
ing resolution was offered by A. M.
Nichols, our lecturer:
We, the Farmers’ Union of Hard
shell Union, No. 136, of Vernon par
ish, La., do most heartily endorse the
great speech made by that most wor
thy son of Georgia, Hon. Thomas E.
Watson, in Atlanta on the night of
January 22, 1907.
Resolved, first, That we also most
heartily appreciate and hail with joy
his willingness to co-operate with us
and help us in our strenuous efforts
to throw off the chains of slavery
which bind the toiling millions to the
moneyed oligarchy of Wall street,
New York City
Second, That we know we have in
Mr. Watson a friend that has been
weighed and not found wanting.
Third, That we believe that it
would be a blessing to every farmer
and laborer in Louisiana and the en
tire south land to subscribe for his
papers, known as the Jeffersonian
Magazine and the Weekly Jefferson
ian. Both are defending the rights
of the common people and pleading
for the cause of millions yet unborn.
Fourth, That we invite Mr. Watson
to come to Leesville, La., that we
might hear him deliver one of his
great speeches to the Farmers’ Union
of this parish.
Fifth, That we send a copy of these
resolutions to the Co-operator and the
Weekly Jeffersonian for publication.
Respectfully submitted,
A. M. NICHOLS,
Lecturer Hardshell Union No. 136,
and endorsed by the union in regular
session.
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RUINED BY CAR SHORTAGE.
Reports from Indian Territory state
that millions of bushels of corn are
rotting because of lack of freight cars.
At one station 400,000 bushels await
shipment. The agent says not an emp
ty car has been there for ninety days.
At another point 60,000 bushels are
piled on the ground. Three weeks
of rain have left the corn in the middle
of a small lake, where it is decaying
in the mud and water. Similar con
ditions are general throughout the
Territory. As a result farmers are
being ruined and their distress is in
turn affecting banks and elevators.
To aggravate the case local shippers
say the car famine is unnecessary.
They assert that with a little fore
thought and management the railroads
could have sent back the cars used
in shipping the cotton crop, thus
saving ail this loss.
It was to cover exactly such a situa
tion that the Car Shortage bill of
Representative William Randolph
Hearst was introduced. Under the
present law the burden is on the ship
per to prove that he is being discrim
inated against—that some other ship
per is receiving more cars. This con
sumes time. If the railroads desire
to fight the case, the delay can be
protracted indefinitely, which defeats
the whole object of the law. In a car
famine relief is needed at once.
The Hearst bill would change all
this. The burden is placed upon the
railroad. The shipper does not need
to show discrimination. He only has
to apply for the cars and the road
must either furnish them at once or
show an adequate reason why it can
not.
With such a bill enacted into law,
the Indian Territory farmers could go
to the courts for a mandamus to com
pel the railroads to supply cars. The
roads then w r ould have to find away to
overcome the mismanagement which
prevented the empty cotton cars from
returning. A court order may some
times advance efficiency, as well as
correct injustice.
The Indian Territory case is only
an example of what is happening all
over the west, and to some extent
throughout the country. Car short
age is one more count in the indict
ment against railway management
In the case of the Standard Oil, in
the anthracite coal regions, and in
numberless other instances, the rail
roads deliberately withhold cars for
the purpose of destroying independent
shippers.
In purloining most of the provis
ions of Mr. Hearst’s original rate bill,
and then amending them to meet polit
ical exigencies without harming the
railroads, the administration party in
congress failed to cover the car short
age feature. It is to remedy this de
fect that the present Hearst bill has
been introduced. Until it is passed,
or some measure modeled after it,
the car famine evil will continue and
become aggravated.—N. Y. American.
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