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PAGE SIX
Thos. E. Watson Speaks on Tariff ‘Reform
Warrenton, Ga., Aug. 22. —At the
Farmers’ Union rally, which took
place at Beall Springs, in this coun
ty, today, Hon. Thomas E. Watson
was the principal speaker.
The meeting was lar?gly attended
by members of the Farmers’ Union
from Warren, Glascock, Jefferson,
Washington and Hancock counties,
Mr. Watson having been invited by
officials of the union from all these
counties to deliver today’s address.
The address followed in a general
way way that delivered by him a few
weeks ago in McDuffie county, in
which he urged organization, and ad
vised all the farmers to go into the
union and to co-operate in vitalizing
the issues of the Ocala platform.
Among other things he said:
Mr. Watson’s Address.
“The consular reports, published
by our government, are the most in
teresting books that a student of hu
man affairs could find. The only
work that compares with these con
sular reports, in value of that kind,
is the statistical abstract, also pub
lished by our government.
“In the reports of the consuls who
represent us abroad, we learn how
the people of other countries are get
ting along. In our statistical ab
stract we learn how we ourselves are
getting along.
“After considering the condition
of the masses of the people at home
and abroad as disclosed in these offi
cial publications, I find it to be a
case of ‘pull Dick, pull devil’ as to
whether the privileged few are doing
worse in Europe, the land of mon
archies, or in America, the haven of
democracy. Both at home and abroad
the great fact is the same —the irre
sistable machinery of government is
being used by the beneficiaries of
special privilege to convert to their
own use the wealth produced by the
unprivileged many.
“Consider the case of Germany.
There you see a people who are sup
posed to be intelligent, courageous,
educated and capable of good govern
ment. While they have an emperor,
they also have the ballot. With the
ballot used they have the
power to control the emperor. They
can make just such laws as they
want. Once made, these laws have
to be enforced. While the empire
maintains an immense army, this ar
my is altogether different from the
standing armies of former times. It
is constantly changing—new men
coming into it to serve their time and
the older troops going out as their
term expires. The officers may con
stitute a fixed body of educated mil
itary men, and this body of officers
may grow into a castle, but the Ger
man army itself will always be a
people’s army, for the reason that
it is always coming from the people
and always going back to the peo
ple. Every few years the change
of men in the ranks is complete.
“Therefore, as I have said, the
laws of Germany are bound to re
flect the opinions and wants of the
people, just as ours do. German peo
ple are just as free to vote as we
are. If they have foolish laws, they
themselves are to blame, just as we
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Delivered Polverful Address. Ref ore Tarmers'
Union at ‘Beall Springs, Ga.
are to blame if we have laws that are
foolish.
“Now, what are the facts about
Germany, as shown in our consular
reports ?
Some Facts About Germany.
“In that land of free ballot and
open school house and compulsory ed
ucation and almost universal capac
ity to read and write —even in that
land —the privileged few who run the
government have been allowed to
make laws which have reduced the
masses of the people to the eating of
horses and dogs.
“According to the official report
of our consul at Annaburg, in Sax
only the people of that one state of
the German empire devoured, duririg
the year 1906, 3,736 dogs.
“It is not to be supposed that
Saxony is fonder of dog meat than
are the other parts of Germany—•
consequently it is fair to assume that
in other parts of the country an
equal consumption of dog meat took
place. If this be so, then the en
lightened Germans are supporting
with their votes a system of legis
lation which, for some reason, is play
ing havoc with the dogs.
“If Saxony eats no more than hei
share of dog meat, the great German
empire is annually feeding itself on
about 50,000 dogs.
“A system of government which
brings about a thing of that sort is
certainly a curious phenomenon—
and statesmen would do well to give
it their attention. But that is not
all the story. These universally ed
ucated Germans are also devouring
their horses. The consular reports
show that horse meat is regularly
sold in the markets, and that the
yearly number of horses butchered
for food purposes is 200,000.
“Think of it, statesmen! Oh think
of it, you men of the masses! The
best educated people in the world—
people whose institutions are being
copied throughout the world, people
who for ages have had the best teach
ing of Catholicism and of Protestant
ism, people who produced statesmen
like Stein and Bismarck and Freder
ick the Great—these people with a
free ballot in their hands, go to the
polls and vote for laws which put
them to eating horses and dogs!
“What started France to eatinq
horses? The miseries of the ancient
regime. The old order, with a few
thousand nobles privileged to plun
der the unprotected millions of
wealth producers, did indeed bring
down those unprotected millions to
the eating of horses.
“But even the horrors which were
the prelude to the French revolution
did not drive the suffering people int»
the regular systematic eating of
mangy curs and wornout hounds.
“What’s the matter in Germany
that such things reveal themselves in
the official reports.
Causes of the Unnatural Conditions.
Unnatural conditions suggest soma
uunusual causes. Why do the com
mon people of Germany live so large
ly on dogs and horses f
“Because they are cheaper than
than mutton, beef and pork.
“Because such horse meat as
they get comes from animals that cost
less than the same amount of cow
meat and hog meat.
“Because the useless dog sold by
its owner, or the dog stolen by some
thief costs less than a sheep or a bul
lock.
“And why is it that the common
people of Germany cannot afford to
make use of those food products
which they in common with the whole
civilized world, naturally prefer?
“Why is it that Fido must come
to the supper table in sausage, and
Dobbin be served up as steak for
breakfast ?
Because the German manufacturer
and the German landlord have made
the laws to suit themselves, and be
tween these two mill-stones the un
privileged millions of German toilers
are being ground to powder.
“The laws which give a monopo
ly of the German market to the Ger
man manufacturer also give a monop
oly of the same market to the Ger
man landlord. These two classes, the
manufacturers of legislation and, out
of the huge granite blocks of special
privilege they have built a wall
around the German empire, so that
outside manufacturers and landlords
cannot come inside and sell their for
eign products.
“There are gates in these walls,
and toll keepers are placed thereat.,
and whosoever would pass into the
German markets to compete with the
ingenious men who built the wall
must pay dearly for the privilege.
“Having paid the toll, the stran
ger may pass the gate, but when he
offers his goods for sale in the Ger
man market he must necessarily add
on to his old price the amount of
toll he was made to pay when he en
tered the gate.
“Therefore the German who buys
the stranger’s goods pays the toll at
last.
How Prices Are Set.
“How does this wall which the
manufacturers and the landlord
built around the German empire put
money into their pockets?
“How does the toll which the
strangers paid at the gate work any
benefit to the men who built the wall?
“Just this —as all the world
knows: The stranger has to add the
toll to the price of his goods, and
when the stranger fixes his price,
the men who built the wall can go to
it. They can ge as much for their
stuff as the stranger gets for his, and
thus while the stranger gets back a
toll which he honestly paid, the men
who built the wall get the same
amount without ever having paid any
toll at all.
“Therefore, the man who brings
goods inside the wall catches hail Co
lumbia all around. If he buys from
the stranger he refunds the toll
which the stranger was made to pav
at the gate. If he buys from the
men who built the wall, he gives
them just as much as though they had
paid toll at the gate.
“The net result to the builders of
the wall is this: If strangers come
in at the gate, paying toll, the gov
"ernment gets it from the strangers,
and the strangers get it back from
the people, whereas, when the build
ers of the wall make a sale to their
own people, they get as much as the
toll amounts to, and the government
does not get a cent of the money.
“The government grows fat off the
toll the strangers pay; the manufac
turers and landlords grow fat off the
tolls they did not pay, and the peo
ple who pay what the wall builders
get, grow excessively lean, and go to
eating horses and dogs.
“God! What a situation in a
Christian land!
“Using now the phraseology of
the legislator—the wall of which we
have spoken is the German custom
houses; the tolls which are demand
ed of the stranger are the import du
ties laid on foreign goods brought
into German market, and the wail
builders, and all they who aid the
same, are German protectionists who
believe it to be an unnatural thing
for the inhabitants of the earth to
freely exchange products with one
another.
“Slaying the great law of supply
and demand; scorning the divine mes
sage of ‘Peace on earth and good
will to men,’ these monsters of greed
who build these tariff walls have
inaugurated the fiercest strife
throughout the commercial world;
have set rivals trade to throatcutting
methods all over Christendom; have
turned peaceful pursuits into desper
ate and deadly struggles for suprem
acy; have made commerce more fatal
than war, and have so changed the
standards and ideals of the human
race that the stern virtues of our
fathers are fast becoming the subject
of youthful scoffs and jeers.
“The Spartan father hoped to
make a sober man out of his boy by
forcing his slaves to get drunk —so
that the boy, seeing the disgusting
sight of drunken men, would be too
proud to ever stoop to that level.
From such teaching sprang the sol
diers who died at Thermopylae.
Time to Be Acting.
“My countrymen! let us do some
thing akin to this. Let us look upjn
drunken Germany and become sober.
Debauched on class legislation, Ger
many reels with legislative intoxica
tion—is drunk on tariff and protec
tion; is feeding fortunes to the priv
ileged few, and dogs to the unpriv
ileged many.
“Let us look upon that shameful,
horrible misuse of political power and
turn to political sobriety, for we our
selves have been made drunk on the
same strong wine of special privil
ege.
“Our consular reports make the
proof against Germany; our statis
tical abstract make the proof against
ourselves.
“We have helped our privileged
few to build the highest tariff wall
•ver seen on this earth. We charge
the stranger the heaviest toll ever
paid. We put up the most expensive
custom house at every seaport on tbe
coast; and we build them also in
cities hundreds of miles from the wa
ter. We have given our pampered
pets of special privilege such profit*