Newspaper Page Text
PAGE SIX
THE PRICE OF BEEF FROM THE
POINT OF VIEW OF THE
SMALL FARMER.
The writer, an old farmer, who will
soon pass to other fields but loves the
smell of fresh ploughed ground, the
fragrance of the meadow, the breath
of his cows, loves the trees, the grass,
the wild flowers, the little streams of
water, the rustle of the corn, the tan
gle along the old rail fence for its
unkempt beauty, and the shelter it
gives his little friends, loves his coun
try and his fellow men, wants to
yas a few things on what Mr. Hough
miscalls an Industrial War “in the
price of beef,” being the Packers’ side
from Messrs. Swift & Company, Satur
day Evening Post, February 9, 1907.
Over a generation ago in the middle
west we were much concerned about
insects, thought at that time to be our
greatest foe. To our relief Prof. Riley
discovered that these insects propaga
ted and carried with them a parasite.
He produced these parasites from dis
eased bugs, inoculated other bugs, sup
plied them to us, we planted them in
our fields and the chinch bug was no
longer feared.
Ry the time we had mastered our
natural enemies we were confronted
with another, greater and more re
lentless than the chinch bug, army
w'orm and hessian fly combined, or
man’s greed for it. We think we will
be able to show that money used
as an instrument of wrong and op
pression, breeds its own parasite.
It is necessary to go back to a Cen
tral western state more than a genera
tion, to begin. It was peopled by the
youth and brawn of the country, fresh
from the college and school, old sol
diers of the Civil war, young in years,
old in scars and decrepitude, a more
patriotic people could not then, or
now, be found on earth. All agreed
that to properly develop the country
railroads were a necessity. Commu
nities turned out as one man to meet
railroad promoters and builders, wher
ever they could be found, sent distin
guished citizens across the state, or
out of the state to meet them. When
they came our way they were treated
like conquering heroes and given the
fat of the land. We begged them to
take our laiul, our bonds and other
subsidies for more than enough to
build a road, use their knowledge and
skill in building it, make money for
themselves in doing so, as also in
operating it. For us we were willing
to pay for it, just to have it. A com
pany representing itself to be part of
a trunk line finally proposed to build
a line across our county, and part
of the state. We subscribed as a coun
ty $165,000 to the capital stock of the
company, paying for it with 30 year
7 per cent bonds. The state gave
millions of acres of fine land, all
counties, many townships and towns
gave bonds, all giving the right of
way. We think it can be shown that
enough was given to pay for the road
and all the equipment it had for ten
years, but we had a railroad and were
stockholders in it. The road was push
ed rapidly to the borders of the state,
conditions complied with, lands,
bonds, etc., turned over, transaction
complete and all happy.
At this time before the matter was
cold, the railroad company held a
meeting in New York, or elsewhere,
took in one new stockholder, changed
the name of the company, and our
stock was in a company no longer ex
isting.
This was our first experience in
Farmers’ Union ‘Department
Foster of National and State
Officers
NATIONAL OFFICERS.
C. S. Barrett,' president, Atwater,
Georgia.
J. E. Montgomery, vice-president,
Gleason, Tenn.
R. H. McCullough, secretary-treas
urer, Beebe, Ark.
L. N. Holmes, chaplain, Bernice,
Louisiana.
STATE OFFICERS.
Georgia Headquarters—Barnesville..
• R. F. Duckworth —President.
W. P. Quinby—Vice-President.
J. L. Barron —Secretary-Treasurer.
J. L. Lee —State Organizer.
G. M. Davis —Lecturer.
J. G. Eubanks —State Business
Igent.
Alabama —I. A. Worley, president,
Guin, Ala.; E. J. Cook, secretary-treas
urer, Pell City, Ala.
“skinning the cat,” Mr. Hough so mer
rily tells about. From our own knowl
edge, and information otherwise ob
tained, we have no doubt that condi
tions in building our railroad were
essentially the same with all western
roads.
There is no use crying over “spilt
milk” so all went to work, were soon
shipping oats, corn, wheat, cattle and
hogs to St. Louis, Mo., and steadily
gaining on it. After a considerable pe
riod of satisfactory business, returns
from cattle began to fall off, and
sales to drag. An inquiry developed
the fact that the railroads were pay
ing a combination called the “eveners”
fifteen dollars per car on all cattle
shipped beyond St. Louis as “draw
back.” It was thought the same con
ditions applied to other centers. To
be clear, the railroads were levying a
tax of about one dollar per head on
all cattle shipped and giving it to
the “evener.” Here was another les
son in “skinning the cat.” We think
it within the bounds of truth and
probability that the packer through
“drawbacks, rebates, rent on private
cars and other methods,” specially de
vised for “skinning the cat,” with the
help of the railroad, collected a direct
tax of at least one dollar per head
on all cattle shipped within his reach,
before an independent buyer could get
to them from that day to this.
We say this without malice or pas
sion, believing it to be true, and never
found serious fault with it, regarding
it as a sort of perquisite of
the packer. Only want to say in
passing that perquisites of this kind
demoralize the recipient, and like
Mark Twain’s government mules fall
ing into the dugout, come to be mo
notonous to the other party.
Next enters the “Cattle Baron,” not
a warrior bold like the knights of
old, but a true knight of “skinning
the cat”; in some mysterious way
known only to the adherents of “ad
dition, division and silence” they got
control of millions of acres of public
lands, far from the haunts of men, the
reach of the humane society, or tax
gatherer, where they could turn hun
dreds of thousands of cattle on the old
buffalo ranges to “rustle,” let ten to
thirty per cent of them die and still
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Arkansas —J. B. Lewis, president,
Jonesboro, Ark.; Ben L. Griffin, secre
tary-treasurer, Conway, Ark.
Indiahoma —J. A. West, President,
Shawnee, O. T.; B. C. Hanson, secre
tary-treasurer, Shawnee, O. T.
Louisiana —L. N. Holmes, president,
Bernice, L,; J. W. Boyett, Jr., sec
treasurer, Tanhill, La.
Mississippi—J. M. Bass, president;
Hazlehurst, Miss.; G. W. Russell, sec
retary-treasurer, Hazlehurst, Miss.
Tennessee —J. E. Montgomery, pres
ident, Greenfield, Tenn.; J. T. Brooks,
secretary-treasurer, Atwood, Tenn.
Texas —E. A. Calvin, president. Dal
las, Texas; B. F. Chapman, secretary
treasurer, Dallas, Texas.
South Carolina —O. P. Goodwin,
president, Anderson, S. C.; B. F.
Earl, secretary-treasurer, Anderson,
South Carolina.
turn out a three year old steer cheap
er than a small farmer could a goat,
with his capital in plant, paying tax
es on everything.
The farmer standing for the law of
contract, the survival of the fittest,
and that “every man take his med
icine” promptly faced about, quit rais
ing steers, went in for butter, and if
in the corn belt, bought feeders
through his commission man to eat
his surplus corn.
Not long after this the small farm
er began to take notice. Butter that
was not butter came on the market
in large quantities. To illustrate, it
was said that one “dairy” near a large
city owned thirty cows and shipped
ten cars or more butter per day. At
this point the farmer claimed a foul,
and after much effort has whatever
protection the law under present con
ditions will give him, that is: the
packer’s butter is taxed and required
to be sold for what it is.
Now, the Cattle Baron has passed
away. The production of beef has
got back to the small farmer, adversi
ty has given him the skim milk calf
and he ought to get on. Still there
is a feeling of unrest, doubt; no man
will speak for tomorrow. What is it?
Let us talk frankly nor aught set
down in malice. As we see it, it is
the blind arbitrary rule of power, con
tempt of wholesome restraint, indif
ference to the good of the whole. It
began with the declaration of one
railroad president, “the people be
damned,” echoed a score of years la
ter by another, “if you don’t like our
road, walk,” followed by the system
that sends the small proprietor to
the meat block as in Mr. Hough’s
picture, “afraid to talk because he has
a family.” It is the disappearance of
the individual, the small proprietor in
to employes, it is the subversion of
law. We delegate power to govern,
instead of civic virtue we are given
to moral degeneracy, the disappear
ance of free speech, freedom of the
press, and liberty.
From the statesmen of our boyhood
who came from congress and said
, to us we are wrong in this, and this,
let us reason together and get right,
at first emissaries were sent among us
to find out our particular hobby so as
to agree with us thus “keeping on
top.” Now not even this is done.
Money is unblushingly sent through
barely disguised channels to pay the
election expenses of enough members
to the state legislature to control that
body.
We select a young man of good mor
als, a self respecting citizen to rep
resent us in our state legislature, to
make laws just to all and help elect a
man to represent us in that body, fond
ly supposed to be the most profound
and patriotic on earth, the United
States senate.
Our young representative knows
whom we prefer, we have too much re
spect for him to instruct him. Before he
goes to the senatorial caucus we ask
him as to his choice. To our astonish
ment “he has not made up his mind,”
pressed a little harder he admits that
he doesn’t know, that he would follow
the lead of Governor this, State Sen
ator that, or Congressman the other;
that all he does know is that whoever
is elected will be “a corporationist.”
Right here is an object lesson. A
young man at the threshold before
whom is a long useful career, an hon
orable old age, who stands with down
cast eyes abashed, knowing that he
in a moment of weakness, hardly real
izing what he is doing, has wronged
his friends, neighbors, country, and
sold the only thing making one man
as good as another for a mess of pot
tage.
But to go back to the price of beef,
we take off our hats to Mr. Swift and
others composing the “big six” whose
“ante” is in the big game “and always
up” and say that to our unskilled
minds it is wonderful how the prof
its on hogs dying in transit could
put a man into the big game in one
generation, or it would be instruct
ive and entertaining to follow the rise
of “the young man who peddled beef
from a wagon in New England” to a
seat at the same table, in fact to
preside over the game. But however
these things are, you are in many ways
public benefactors and far and away
the best of the lot. Only you appear
to think it ncessary to go into a sort
of offensive and defensive partner
ship with “Big Business” whose meth
ods from our point of view lead to
inevitable disaster. Right here we
want to say to “Big Business” that
as we are able to see it you at this
moment are more vitally interested in
a “square deal” than all other citi
zens in the country. We beg you to
stop while there is yet time. The
country is willing to reaffirm the doc
trine that we are confronted with a
“condition and not a theory,” let the
dead past bury its dead, begin from
a new base, keep your money, you
have enough, govern the country in
such away as to give to all persons,
rich and poor, exact justice, no more,
no less. Mr. Swift seeks a new and
extended market through reciprocity.
This would only help a little, a few,
why not go to the root of the mat
ter and cut out whatever is wrong?
You can’t take money from the poor
in every way and every day with one
hand, give it to higher education with
the other, and get us to call It Benev
olence. There has recently come
among us the American Farm Prod
ucts Company, among other things
buying milk, recently a few of its
patrons being dissatisfied with their
rating asked that part of the execu
tive branch of our state government,
whose business It is to do these things,
test their milk; the test was made