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Which One of Them is the 'Real Thing ?
The above amusing cartoon, print
ed in The New York Times, aptly hits
off a more or less prevalent feeling
that Bryan and Roosevelt are really
on parallel lines as to the main issues
of present day politics.
It cannot be gainsaid that “Govern
ment Control of Railroads” and Anti-
Trusts” policies are the Alpha and
Omega of popular desires just now.
Whatever else may intervene, the peo
ple at large want men and measures in
government that will drive at and
reach those objectives.
President Roosevelt has whipped
the rank and file of his party into line
on those issues, and is proceeding in
HOLD THE FORT!
The Farmers’ Union is too wide
spread and too strong now to think
of amalgamating its interests with any
other organization pretending to have
concern for its welfare. It has become
formidable and dangerous to other in
terests that are seeking to attach
themselves to the farming interests
of the land, especially to the cotton
producers of the south. Secure in their
own organization, the Farmers’ Union
must now “fear the Greeks bearing
gifts”—must keep guard over its
gates against the Trojan horse.
The late reports that President Bar
rett and the Southern Cotton Associ
ation had come to agreement and
formed an alliance were put forth de
signedly to confuse, seduce and pre
dispose the members of the Farmers’
Union concerning such a proposition.
Undoubtedly the Southern Cotton As
sociation, a body bearing a misleading
name, dseires to scoop the Farmers’
Union and become “the whole thing”
standing for the cotton producers of
the south. But the Southern Cotton
Association is not a planters’ body.
It is a combination of men, including
politicians, bankers, manufacturers
and spinners, whose purpose is to ma
nipulate cotton production and fix cot
ton prices, ostensibly for the raisers,
but actually for the manufacturers.
Farmers’ Union Department
his own way to arrive, he believes, at
the goal of his ambitions. He holds
to the generally accepted notion that
railroads are business propositions
that can be operated on open and hon
est terms with the public. He refus
es to see any mystery in the process
of building railroads and Offering
their facilities to the people on the
ordinary basis of cost of construction
and operation, plus a fair profit upon
actual investments. All these things
he says he is seeking to establish in
strict justice to the people and with
no injustice to the corporations.
Mr. Bryan occupies no dubitable po
sition on these vital questions. He has
“The sham battle” that Harvie Jor
dan, Congressman Livingston and oth
ers appear to be making against
“speculators and bucket shops” is
wholly betrayed and made ridiculous
by the presence of Joe Hoadley, chief
among cotton speculators. The head
quarters of the Southern Cotton Asso
ciation is really in Hoadley’s office in
New York —it is only the hind-quarters
that is in Atlanta today and in Bir
mingham tomorrow.
There are no cotton raisers In New
York —what business, then, has a real
cotton raisers’ organization with head
quarters in the den of the gamblers
who have grown rich by despoiling our
cotton fields?
There are no cotton raisers in Eu
rope—only spinners and manufactur
ers, whose every and only prayer to
God is for “cheap cotton” —and why
should any true friend of the southern
cotton producer wish to go to Liver
pool, Berlin, or Basle, to consult the
cormorants in the interests of the
man in the south whose planting, plow
ing and picking of his cotton crop is
his sole dependence for life and pros
perity?
The Farmers’ Union must “stand
pat” on its own hand and on its own
ground. The Southern Cotton Associa
tion and Harvie Jordan have never en
riched them one dollar. “He who
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
from the beginning of his political ca
reer attacked monopolies mercilessly.
He has fought railway tyrannies as
Paul fought as with beasts at Ephesus.
He made his earliest reputation as an
orator and statesman by his brilliant
and flawless arguments against the
prohibitory protective tariff laws of
the nation.
Mr. Bryan has been brave enough
to declare that while he favors “gov
ernment control” of railroads to the
uttermost that regulation can do, he
yet “feels it in his bones” that such
control will not finally suffice, but
“ultimately” government ownership
must be the final and fixed solution
would be free himself must strike the
blow!” The farmers have their union
now and have the power to control
their best interests. Let them not sur
render it to anybody on earth!
S. W. S.
COTTON TO BE HIGHER.
Recently Mr. Sterrett Tate, of a
large cotton exporting house in New
York, has been touring the south. On
his return he frankly sums up the
situation, reporting mill stocks of good
staple cotton to be exceedingly low
and the holdings of the farmers unus
ually small for this season of the year.
On this situation he comments as fol
lows:
“With these rather discouraging con
ditions prominently evident at the end
of the seventh month of the season,
and at the same time a trade condi
tion and demand for the manufactured
product of all classes, covering knit
goods, piece goods, as well as yarns,
unequaled in the past, and manufac
turers actually declining to make con
tracts any farther in advance, a nat
ural and steady advance, based on the
supply and demand feature of the
market, looks to me assured before
any new cotton can be secured.”
It is plain that the labor problem
is going to be even more difficult of
solution by cotton raisers than ever
of the railway problem.
At present Roosevelt is able, by
sheer force of power and audacity, to
train his party in the way he wants
it to go. But when he is no longer
the party master; when a weaker and
less egotistic president succeeds him
—who then shall regulate the regula
tors of his party?
Here we have “two souls with but a
single thought.”
As between the two the hope of
the country, seriously adjusted, must
depend more upon the courage and
persistency of Bryan than upon the
lessening power and opportunities of
Roosevelt. S. W. S.
before. For that reason the larger
planters, who had overstocked with
mules, fertilizers and other supplies,
are economizing and the promise, at
best, is for a crop not equal to the
market demands.
Mr. Tate does not suggest a falling
off in the current crop; in fact he does
not predict that it will not be large,
but he does hold, and with good rea
son, that stocks of cotton all over the
world will be practically depleted be
fore the new crop comes in, that de
mand for that crop will be enormous
and that prices are due to advance
from one to one and a half cents by
next fall.
CANADA’S SUNDAY ACT.
(N. Y. Tribune.)
Canada’s Lord’s Day act, recently
passed, provides that it shall be unlaw
ful on Sunday to engage in any pub
lic game or contest for gain, or to
be present at any performance or pub
lic meeting, elsewhere than in a
church, at which a fee is charged, or
to run, conduct or convey any excur
sion on which passengers are con
veyed for hire, or to advertise any
performance, or to bring into Canada
for sale or distribution or to sell or
distribute on the Lord’s Day any for
eign newspaper or publication classi
fied as a newspaper.