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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*