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billion dollars. To be exact, the sales amount ed to $3,764,000,000. Now, if we admit the right of the persons en gaged in agricultural work to the same wages paid in manufacturing industries (about $478, on tlie average to each laborer), then we have, the astonishing result that the farmer .fell short by hundreds of millions of dollars, of clearing enough to give themselves good wages! Does The Business Magazine consider these conditions healthy or just? Is it right for the Government to use its irresistible power so much to the advantage of some, so much to the disadvantage of others? Nobody objects to the earning of legitimate profits by manufacturers, railroads and banks, but who can defend so glaring a wrong as these official reports uncover? There are twice as many laborers employed in agricultural pursuits as we find engaged in manufacturing. There are five million farms, and but half a million factories; yet here we have one manufacturing combine clearing net earnings of $39,000,000, in three months, when the five million farms, and the ten mil lion farm workers, cannot earn enough to give themselves good wages. How does The Business Magazine manage to extract comfort and satisfaction out of this state of things? Well, for one thing, it says that wage-earn ers in the iron and steel works will get $6,000,- 000 more in wages in 1907 than in 1906. God help us all! Here it is again—the old, old fable that the Capitalist makes laws in his own favor, in order that he may pay big wages to Labor! In the first place, that increase of wages— six millions of dollars —must be divided around among nearly three hundred thousand, employes. This pitiable sum of about twenty dollars apiece is barely enough to cover the increased cost of living which has crept up on all of us. Therefore, while Protection ap peared to be giving an advance in wages of twenty dollars to each employe, it took the money away from him, by advancing the price of those things which he was necessarily com pelled to buy. But again, it is a frightfully unjust thing to say that the million agricultural laborers must work rive million farms for less than good wages in order that five million fellow’ crea tures, working in factories, shall not only keep the good wages they were already earning but get an advance of twenty dollars each. And again, what shall we say of a legisla tive policy which, by granting a monopoly to the iron and steel Capitalists, gave Carne gie, Frick, Schwab, Morgan, Phipps and Corey the leverage which enabled them to float ficti tious capitalization to the amount of five hun dred million dollars? The Common Stock had absolutely no real value at all when the Steel Trust was formed, rt represented no actual investment of dollars. “Steel Common” was just ink and paper and the Privilege to tax the unprivileged. Now, however, the breath of life has been breathed into it. The Common Stock is valua ble—and will continue to be valuable, and may soon be going at its full face value, if the man aging clique of the Trust wants it to do so. In other words, the Steel Trust, owing to its advantages under the law, can put full value into five hundred million dollars’ of mere pa per. But the farmers, living on the firm earth, and producing such crops as were never seen before, cannot make wages! The Business Magazine asks, “How has ihe Steel -Trust hurt the farmer?” Answer ing its own question, it says that the farmer is not hurt, for the reason that he can buy the Oliver Chilled Plow at the same price that it sold for before the Trust was formed. Suppose that The Business Magazine con’d demonstrate that the Steel Trust was net WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. gouging the people worse than they were be ing gouged by the separate iron and steel plants of which the rust is composed—what good would such a demonstration do? How would it answer Mr. Watson’s proposition that Protection enables the Manufacturers to rob the farmer? One large leech may not suck more blood from the body than a dozen small leeches were drawing—but what relief is that to the man who loses the blood? What Mr. Watson contends for is that the Principle of the thing is all wrong. One in dustry should not be built up into such enor mous profits at the expense of another which is allowed no profits at all. If the Steel Trust and the Cotton manufacturers can afford to compete with “the Pauper labor of Europe,” in Europe, why can’t they compete with it on this side of the Big Water? We never hear the last of this mythical “Pauper labor of Eu rope” with which our manufacturers cannot be expected to compete, yet The Business Magazine has to acknowledge the corn and confess that our manufacturers invade the markets of Europe and undersell the man who hires “the Pauper Labor of Europe.” Now tell us how that is done! Our manu facturers cither lose or make on goods sold abroad —which is it ? If they make on the goods sold abroad, then we home-folks are entitled to just as good prices as are given to the foreigners. If they lose on the goods sold abroad, who makes good the loss? Our manufacturers are nobody’s fools. They would not continue to sell goods abroad at a loss. 1 he I’ouest truth is, that they can undersell the foreigner in his own market and still have a profit—hut a smaller one than in the Ameri can m.uk.'t, where the Protective System, giv ing him a monopoly, enables him to rob his own flesh and blood. n h n The President and Pldrion "Butler. The town of Cordele, Ga., is an up-to-date little city but, like several other little South ern cities, it lias a daily paper edited bv a man compared to whom Rip Van Winkle was a get-there hustler. Just wade through this extract from The Cordele Daily Pest: “Populist Rally to Republicans. “Washington, D. C. May 7. —From all ac counts the Democrats are not to have the sup port of the Populists at the next presidential election. President Roosevelt has captured that crowd, lock, stock and barrel. The deal was made through the Chairman of the Popu list National Committee, Marion Butler, of North Carolina. Butler, by the grace of a combination of Populists and Republicans, represented North Carolina in the Senate of the United States for six years. The Pres ident has commissioned Butler his ambassa dor extraordinary, minister plenipotentiary to the South to gather in delegates favorable to him in the next convention of the Republican party. He has entire charge of the Southern situation, and all Republicans, Populists and Socialists visiting Washington for the purpose of pledging loyalty to Roosevelt are referred to Butler, who receives their manifestations of loyalty, records their pledges and measures their strength, all of which is carefully noted and laid before the “doer of all things great,” in his most seclusive chamber at regular in tervals. There is little surprise in Washington polit ical circles over the action of Butler in turn ing the Populist organization over to the Pres ident, as it has been known for many months that Mr. Roosevelt’s extreme Populistic and Socialistic policies have outstripped the fond est desire of the veterans in the cause of ca lamity.” All things considered, The Jeffersonian con siders the above one of the most delicious mor sels, in the way of journalistic creation, that it ever tasted. In the first place, Marion Butler is not chair man of the National Committee of the Peo ple’s Party. In the second place, Marion Butler is not a member of the Populist National Commit tee. In the third place, Marion Butler is not a member of any sort of Populist Committee. In the fourth place, Marion Butler is not a member of the People’s Party. Tn the fifth place, Marion Butler is an jput and out Republican, and has been so for sev eral years. In the sixth place at the time Marion Butler was Chairman of the Populist National Com mittee—in 1896—he sold out to the Demo crats, and not to the Republicans. In the seventh place, Marion Butler, when a Populist, made deals with the Republicans in state politics, in North Carolina. Ready at all times to sell himself and to betray anv friend, he nevertheless did business upon the idea of selling to the Democrats in national affairs and to the Republicans in local affairs. He played the game so well that he rose from the honorable poverty of a country editor into the tainted wealth of a national political pros titute—his riches being augmented occasion ally by impartially swindling the Government and the Indians in lobbying mysterious clauses into appropriation bills. There isn’t a Populist in the South who does not loathe the very name of Marion Butler. He could no more “deliver” the Populist vote to Roosevelt, or Taft, or any one else, than he could change his nature and become an honest man. As to the statement that Populists and So cialists are hurrying to Washington to pledge their support to Roosevelt, The Jeffersonian can only gasp and ask somebody for a fan. The assertion makes us have that lainty feel ing—don’t you know. The idea of the fol lowers of Debs and Moyer and Haywood and Pettibone “visiting Washington for the pur pose of pledging loyalty to Roosevelt,” whose characterization of “our brothers,” Debs and Moyer and Haywood, as “undesirable citi zens” has caused every Socialist in the Unit ed States to get up on his hind legs and howl — strikes us as being a climax in journalism that can only be described as dee-licious. What a luxury it must be to the good peo ple of Cordele to have a daily paper equal to stunts of that kind! What a privilege it must be to see the editor walk the streets daily and to feel that while he might have settled in a bigger place, he chose to consecrate his intel- Ictual powers to the illumination of Cordele. Chew on that last line, again: “Mr. Roosevelt’s extreme Populistic and So cialistic policies have outstripped the fond est desire of the veterans in the cause 01 ca lamity.” Assuming, as it is but fair to do, that Mr. Roosevelt reads the Cordele papers regularly, we think it is up to him to write a card which will pacify and soothe our unhappy journalis tic brother and, at the same time, allay the apprehensions of those who might otherwise honestly believe that he has become an ex treme Populist, and has become an extreme Socialist, and has outstripped the fondest de sires of the veterans in the cause of calamity. r, R H Editorial Note. The marshalling of the lobbyists for the railway and other interests in Atlanta in July and August will be a sight to seeL Those who cannot go to Jimtown to see Ihe expo sition can find entertainment and many sur prises by watching the cannibals and pvthons do their bloody stunts in the side tents near the Georgia legislature, PAGE NINE