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“It is not often the first charge that carries the attacking force over the breastworks.. None of the great inventions ,that have made a new world out- of the old world of our fathers are following the first mod els. ‘Try again,’ says the inventor, whose first attempt is a failure. ‘Try again,’ says the soldier whose first assault was beaten back. ‘Try again,’ says human ambition on every field where courage and fortitude unite to snatch victory from defeat. So, the farmers must try again. It is never too late to mend. There’s life in the old land yet! We won’t make the mistake which wrecked the Farm ers’ Alliance. Danger of Indorsing Candidates. “Tomorrow there will be a cry that Watson is trying to lead the Farmers’ Union into politics. “Pay no attention to the clamor! The mistake which the Farmers’ Al liance made was that it indorsed candidates for office. Leaders of the alliance tried to deliver its vote first to one candidate and then to another. This split the order into factions. “Then, again, nearly all the ofH cers of the alliance wanted office. You remember how it was here in Georgia, in one campaign every bless ed state officer of the alliance, ex ecpting the lecturer, Rev. Thomas Beck, was running for office. From Livingston down to the county presi dent and vice-president, they every one made a break for the public crib. “This very thing had as much to do with killing the Alliance as any other. “The Farmers’ Union is avoiding this fatal mistake. Their officers are not allowed to run for office while holding their positions in the order. “Another thing helped to kill the Alliance. A few of the leaders or ganized a secret order within the Al liance, for the purpose of controlling it. This wheel within the wheel was called ‘Gideon’s Band.’ Livingston was one of the main leaders of this secret ring. “Such doings as this would kill any order, and they killed the alli ance. “The mistake of the past teach us wisdom. our failures we press on to success. “With all my heart I warn you to keep out of politics. But here is what I mean: Don’t run your own officers as candidates for political of fice; don’t indorse the candidacy of men running for office; let each mem ber of your order go to the polls and vote as he chooses; don’t tie his hands with instructions given in a se cret meeting. “But do not deceive yourselves in to believing that laws are going to be made as you want them without some effort on your part. Th(i*gov ernment made laws to suit the manu facturer and banker, because the manufacturer and banker put the necessary pressure w’here it would do the most good. Banking associations and manufacturing associations do not openly put out candidates for congress; yet congress gives these bankers and manufacturers just what they want. Study Public Questions. “You cannot always be satisfied with co-operative buying and selling. WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. These are good things, but after a while you will want to modify a pro tective system which robs you of forty bales of cotton out of every hundred. You will want to modify the banking system which puts you at a hopeless disadvantage. You will want to exert more control over transportation companies and over public utilities ~ of all kinds. Yon will want special privileges rooted out, and the laws made according to the Jeffersonian gospel of ‘equal rights to all.’ “You must study questions of na tional policy and legislation. You must pass resolutions embodying your views. You must show by your res olutions how you intend to vote. The politicians will do the rest. “See how you managed that ques tion of immigration. You did not in dorse any candidate: you had no elec tion. You simply passed some resolu tions. That was enough. The immigra tion business died quickly, without so much as a death rattle in its threat. “Why can’t you do the same with other public questions? You can do it. You can take up every demand of the Ocala platform and have it made into law by presenting a bold front in its favor. Once impress the politicians that you are deter mined to have these things, and that your voting strength is sufficient to mean defeat to one who defies you and the reforms which you approve will become laws. “Statesmen create currents, but politicians float with the current. “Statesmen often tell you things you don’t want to hear, but the poli tician seeks always to tell you what you wish to hear. The statesman may defy your pleasure, telling you that you are wrong, but the politi cian will seek to please you by doing what you command, although he may know that you are wrong. The staes man thinks only of your good, and may often go against your present wishes for your future welfare, but the politician thinks only for his own good and to get what he wants from you, will go your way, even though he feels it to be to your hurt. There fore, you have nothing to fear from them. You show them which side the butter is on and they will know how to select the bread. Plea to Adopt Ocala Platform. “Why shouldn’t the Farmers’ Un ion declare itself in favor of the Ocala platform of the Farmers’ Al liance ? “Sooner or later the union must set forth a national creed, and a na tional policy. In no other way can it be kept together; kept growing and be made a controlling factor in national affairs. “This is self-evident. Then what better creed does the union want than that upon which the Alliance united the farmers of the West and South; the laborers of the fields and the shop, the toilers of country and town? “Examine the Ocala platform, plank by plank. “Does any member of the Farm ers’ Union object to direct election of senators by the people? Certainly* not. “Who opposes the income tax? No body but the millionaires, who now escape national taxation. ■4 “Does the farmer opose the re moval of tariff taxes from the neces saries of life? Os course not. “Where is the intelligent member of this great order who does not know that our national banking sys tem is the grossest class legislation and ought to be abolished? “How could any farmer oppose the government control of the rail roads? Or governmental loans to farmers at 2 per cent interest? “Why should the farmers rest easy under a financial system which puts them at a disadvantage in the borrowing of money and makes them pay higher rates than anybody else? * “Men of the Farmers’ Union! You must have a national purpose, a national creed, if you would be felt as a national power. “Take the Ocala platform and breach the walls of privilege with it. Batter down our monstrous system of class legislation and restore the system of equal rights. “In this way you safeguard the future of the republic against the plutocrat on the one hand, and the socialist on the other. “Do away with special privileges, compel national legislation to foHow the Jeffersonian rule of ‘Equal and exact justice to all men.” When our government is thus redidicated to the principles of our fathers we shall have* conditions which are as perfect as are possible to imperfect human beings. Glorious Promise of Future. “With the principles of the Ocala platform enacted into law, I can see as in a glorious vision a new world coming into existence for the agri cultural classes, and for the country as a whole. “Blessed with a fair share of the wealth which he creates, the farmer becomes prosperous and happy. Coun try life takes on again its ancient dignity, and beauty and comfort. This fearful crowding of people into the cities comes to an end. Labor and wealth distribute themselves in stead of congesting, and the cry of the socialist on the street corner dies away. “The frightful commercial spirit which exalts the dollar above the man is rebuked and cowed. Public and private morality steadily advance their standards; and as general com fort spreads among the people crime almost disappears. Education knocks at the humblest cottage door calling to the school room the children of the poor. The golden doors of oppor tunity swing wide open, and a voice from within constantly calls, ‘Who soever will, let him come.’ “Five years ago who could have ' believed that a Republican president would be leading the hosts of re form? Five years ago who swuld have believed that the big criminals would be on the run, and the monster cor porations quivering in every limh? “Let the agricultural classes rouse themselves and put forth their strength. In five years more we shall see still greater things, and one of the greatest will be—the government dealing justly with all classes, giv ing justice to the manufacturers and nothing more; justice to the banks, and nothing more; justice to the rail roads, and nothing more; justice to the farmer—-and nothing Im” FARMERS’ BANKS WILL SOLVE CORN PROBLEM. Grain Growers are Elated With Prop osition of American Society cf Equity—Farm Lands Come High- Owners See More Safety for Their Money in the Soil Than in De posits. Des Moines, lowa, August 10. —A proposition emanating from President J. A. Everitt, of Equity, to finance with farmers’ money a comprehensive scheme for controlling the crops of the country is attracting considerable attention throughout the corn belt where wealth has accumulated in agrarian circles during recent years with gratifying rapidity. As his money accumulates the corn belt farmer is the more seriously con cerned regarding its care. Most cf them, respecting the French proverb, believe that money being flat is made to pile up, although a few adhere to the round theory, which teaches them that, being round, it is made to roil. How properly to care for his in creasing cash reserve and keep it in tact for the inevitable period of finan cial stress is the problem of the hour. Consequently, the project outlined in the Examiner in an interview with President Everitt is attracting much attention. Bankers are agreed that if the farmers could get together and “stick”—that word affords the key to the situation—they would be able to control crop marketing and put agriculture in a position of indepen dence. Favors Farmers’ Banks. “As a banker I am in favor of giving the farmer all possible finan cial accommodation,” said a man who controls a national bank in central lowa. “Take farmers’ deposits out of the banks of the corn belt and a big hole would be made in their liabilities, and, by the same token, they would have very Irttle to operate on. “President Everitt, of the Ameri can Society of Equity, takes a posi tion that deserves commendation from every banker in the country. As I take it, the society he repre sents does not assume antagonism toward existing financial institutions, but merely wants the same accommo dation given the merchant and specu lator that would seem to be reason able. “An elevator operator has no trou ble in using the grain in his posses sion as a means of raising money, and why should the farmer be han dicapped in that manner? A drove of cattle or hogs or a crib full of corn ought to be a better security for the banker than a bundle of stocks, the value of which is liable to shrink anywhere from 10 to 50 per cent in response to a bear raid in Wall Street. “I do not know, but as a banker I would be justified iij making ad vances on growing crops, the re sponsibility of the growers being, of course, a factor. The question of credit comes in here as everywhere else, but the point I am trying to make is that we ought to stretch a point as long with the farmer as the merchant in town or the specu lator. We lend our surplus in the (Continued on Page 14.) PAGE SEVEN