Newspaper Page Text
PAGE SIX
Os Interest to the Wealth Creators
MISUNDERSTOOD.
The Sentinel last week said that
the farmers ought to go into business
politics and it appeals that some
have misunderstood our meaning and
have supposed that we meant that
they should elect members of the
Farmers’ Union to office. We had
no such idea. Belonging to the Un
ion, of course, should not disqualify
a man from holding office, but a man
belonging to the Union does not at
all guarantee that he is the farm
ers’ friend. He mav be in the Un
ion for the purpose of getting in
side information so that he can make
that information valuable to himself
and to the capital class to whom he
sells it. We know men in the Unien
whom we know to be hand in glove
with the crowd who plunder the
farmer. We know men who belong
to the Farmers’ Union who are
traitors to the fanner’s best inter
est; just as we know men who arc
in good striding in the church, yet
are contemptible hypocrites and
scoundrels and only use their church
membership as a cloak to cover the’r
rascality.
We know men who boast that all
they have to do to keep in good
standing in the church is to pay the
assessments liberally. In other words
they buy their membership and the
influence of the church people (a
they regard it) to assist them in
fleecing the unthinking public. These
rascals say: “The Farmers’ Union
is easy, the church is easy,” ad
they have no respect for either.
What we meant to say and what
we did say was that the farmers
should go into business politics long
enough to elect men who stand for
the interests of the farmer. Many
men who do not belong to the Union
are friends to the farmer, are true
men and stand for the farmer be
cause as a class the farmer is mo e
important than any other class
they feed all other classes. If a
man is mean enough to join the
Farmers’ Union to get the farmer's
vote, or to join the church to got the
votes and influence of the church,
or to join a lodge to get the lodge
vote, he is a traitor to all and is
not worthy to be trusted by any. It
does not take a powerful magnifying
glass for a m>n with eyes to sec th»t
men who belong to the union and to
the church, etc., have used these
memberships for all they were worth
to secure the votes of the farmers
and of the church, have gone back
on the people and pandered to the
political machine manipulators as
soon as elected, and have said by
their actions, “The people have no
rights—no privileges—which we are
bound to respect.”
Wo desire to be understood and
we solemnly declare that what the
farmers need is to look around them
and secure men who will stand b
them under all circumstances.
There are such men, but they do
not cater for votes. Farmers’ Union
men have been elected as Democrats
and as Republicans and have lain
down on the fanner. It, therefore,
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
does not matter what a man labels
himself, whether Democrat, Republi
can, Populist, Socialist, or Union, if
he lias no individuality, he is un
worthy to hold office among a free
people. If he does not himself rep
resent a principle he becomes a pliant
tool in the hands of designing men
for the purpose of enabling them to
exploit the people. Wake up and
look around you. We care not what
a man says he is, his actions tell us
what he really is. and it is our du
ty to use our brain and our eyes ai d
ears to see, hear and understand.—
Weekly Sentinel.
WHEAT, CORN AND COTTON.
High temperature and brisk, quick
passing showers have no doubt
wrought to well-cultivated fields de
voted to cotton growing remarkable
changes. The fields are free from
grass, and in district after district
the cultivators are moving betwe n
rows of vigorous plants. The growth
is beginning to be normal. As a
whole, the cotton belt is no longer four
weeks late. It is now said to be two
weeks late, and a July as favorable
as June would bring the crop we’l
up in point of growth.
Each field, however, has a spotted
appearance, and this may be said to
be a feature of the entire cotton belt
this year. The crop is “spotted,”
and it will probably remain spotted
to the end of it. Favorable weather
may, however, remove some of the
inequalities.
The government report will be is
sued today. It will aim to show the
condition of the crop on June 25, and
the acreage. Some anticipate a re
port of improvement in the growing
crop to the extent of ten points. The
crop is now well cultivated, and its
growth will be rapid if the weather
continues to be favorable. But on
the other hand the acreage has been
reduced in one way or another at
least 10 per cent, and this of itself
points to a fair crop only. A big
crop is well-nigh impossible. The
boll weevil in Texas, and a reduced
acreage everywhere forbid a full crop.
The wheat crop is also “spotted,”
and threshing returns are awaited
with interest. The harvesting of win
ter wheat has been begun. The out
look is increasingly hopeful, and
that is about all that can be pru
dently said about the crop. Spring
wheat is coming on fairly, and the
corn crop is making excellent prog
ress.
The entire crop prospect is better
than it was thirty days ago, but the
output of neither wheat nor cot tun
will be a record breaker. —The Age-
Herald.
COUNTY UNION MEETINGS AND
PICNICS.
Twenty-fifth district, at Slerreit,
I. T., July 11.
Fourteenth district, at Cartersville,
I. T., July 12.
Wagoner county, at Wagoner, I. T.,
July 17.
Oklahoma county, at Oklahoma
City, Okla., July 27.
THE FARMER NEGLECTED.
The absence of farmers in our law
making has been frequently comment
ed upon during late years, and it is
being insisted that they should he
liberally represented, as they furnish
such a large proportion of the ei'i
zens to be governed by the law;
made. It looks reasonable that the
farmer should know what is best for*
him, and what is best for him is un
doubtedly best for the whole coun
try, everything being dependent up.m
the agricultural classes. A gentle
man writing from Washington to one
of our Mississippi papers has the
following to say anent the absence
of. farmers in our National law-mak
ing body:
“During my thirteen years’ resi
dence at the national Capitol, I have
observed that every interest in the
country is organized and represented
here, except the farmer. The farmers
alone have stood aloof from consoli
dation and combination. I am glad,
however, that they are at last real
izing that if they are to secure their
rights in the nation and in the states
they must band themselves togeth
er in a compact union, in order to
have their demands more speedily
recognized. Senators and represen
tatives in Congress pay tribute to or
ganized labor, to organized capital
and to organized business interests
of all kinds, but, strange to say, the
farmer has few genuine defenders
in the legislative halls, national and
state.”
The statements made by the gen
tleman are correct and furnish food
for much thought and consideration.
The agricultural classes should be
represented according to their
strength and careful watch kept with
an eye for legislation that is fair and
right to all parties concerned. Noth
ing of a discriminating nature should
be contended for, but for “equal
justice to all and special privileges
to none.” —Mississippi Union Advo
cate.
IMMIGRATION.
The Farmers’ Union has made an
unprecedented and unexcelled fight
on foreign immigration. A few have
been astonished, others have been
scared, still others are asking, Why
does the Farmers’ Union oppose for
eign immigration so vehemently? This
latter class are inclined to think that
it is because we do not know any
better and they are right.
It has been suggested that we
should not so bitterly oppose foreign
immigration, as our forefathers some
where in the distant or more recent
past were foreigners.
The members of the Farmers’ Un
ion realize this fact fully, and if it
had not been for the fact that we
knew the old demagogues, who are
time servers of the few, and the
time foolers of the masses, we would
have been a little more explicit on
this point, but we fully realized if we
did so before the penpip were thor
oughly aroused, that these plunderers
of American freedom would misquote
us and perhaps mislead others as to
our position on the question.
The Farmers’ Union is not op
posed to limited unsolicited foreign
immigration; in other words, if you
will limit the immigration to the bet
ter classes, of which you hear so
much of late, and absolutely and un
conditionally sit down on the State s
using any part of the public funds
for influencing immigration, and
pass a law forbidding any company,
concern or corporation entering into
wholesale solicitation of foreign im
migration, you will then have met
the express wishes of the members of
the Farmers’ Union, and we might
add 90 per cent of the citizens of
Georgia. The advocates of foreign
immigration are trying to put up an
argument in its favor by saying we
need him on the farm. This is not
true. At least the man on the farm
does not so understand it, and for
one time in his life he is going to de
pend upon his own judgment in this
matter, and he will not as in the past
follow blindly the selfish, greed serv
ing politicians.
The very class who are trying so
hard to keep us in poverty and de
pendence, that they may rob us of
what is our own, are the very class
who are leading the fight in favor
of foreign immigration. They are
the very class that have fought Mr.
Watson and others, who for ten
years have been trying to get tariff
reduction, they are the very peopl*
who, while they rob us, put out the
hypocritical cry that they are only
looking to the good of the great mass
of our people.
The truth is that these fellows be
lieve that the tariff will be reduced
and they realize that, with the farm
ers organized, with high priced labor,
and the tariff wall torn down the
masses of the South would be
come independent, prosperous and
happy; and of course these vipers
are bitterly opposed to anything that
will interfere with their special priv
ilege.
This heartless gang of southern
plunderers realize that they can on
ly hope to thwart the will of the peo
ple by bringing in a flood of foreign
immigrants, who can be bought and
sold when it comes to controlling leg
islation at the same low price as the
negro; and with these immigrants
and the few negroes who under our
law are permitted to vote, and the
sorry white citizenship which we
now have, they will have the law
making powers of our State by the
throat, and as fast as we take one
privilege from them they will simply
have their political henchmen to leg
islate them another. My God! My
God! Will the American people nev
er wake up?—Union News.
COTTON AT SIX CENTS PER
SPOOL.
The fact that the thread trust has
raised the price of that useful and
necessary article has attracted little
attention save among dealers and
persons who use a great deal of i*.
The addition of one cent to the price