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WATSON'S EDITORIALS
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN
‘ Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Government. >
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1///T>3-e*A\v Editors and Proprietors —— Ly /
*Tf / \j . , Entind at Ptittffici, Atlanta, Ga., January 11, IQO7, as ttttnd
Trmplk Court Building, Atlanta, Ga. dan mail mattar. f 11
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1907.
Not Enough Pie to Let the Tarmers
fcfcs*® E Habe An ?-
“From the signs of the times Tom Watson
seems to want to lead the Farmers’ Union into
politics, but just as sure as it does then disinte
gration will set in. The Alliance was a good or
ganization for the farmers and did a great
amount of good, but as soon as it turned to pol
itics it went to pieces. It will be the same way
with the Union should it go the way of the
Alliance.” —Coffee County News.
There are so many editorial sages wagging
their wise heads after the manner of our Coffee
County philosopher that it may be in order for
us go into the oracle business awhile.
“The Alliance was a good organization,” was
it?
We hope our Coffee County brother said so
while the Alliance was alive, and could enjoy
the compliment. ' A good many of those edi
torial brethren who are now telling us what a
good thing the Alliance was, had a good deal
to do with causing the funeral. They pierced
it with ridicule when it was living; they tor
tured it with misrepresentation; they burnt
it with abuse; they gave it many a treacher
ous stab in the back, even when they were
afraid to face it.
Now that the Alliance is dead, they sing its.
praises, and throw flowers on the grave.
Very human that is, after all. Perhaps, if we
told our wives oftener how pretty and good
they are, they would stay pretty almost as long
as they stay good. But we get into the habit
of saving the flowers for the funeral, and,
sometimes, alas! we thus hasten the funeral.
Now if our editorial brethren who are piling
up wreaths on the tomb of the Alliance had
taken as much pains to praise it and help it,
fifteen years ago, perhaps “our brother had!
not died.”
When Macune and Livingston organized
“Gideon’s Band,” within the Alliance, and the
tail went to wagging the dog; when every;
state and county officer of the Alliance broke
into a gallop after political position; when
hundreds of lecturers tried to court favor by
playing on the prejudices of country against
town and of poor against the rich —the edito
rial sages who now mourn at the bier, should
then have affectionately warned the farmers
against these self-evident mistakes.
Instead of that, many of these editorial phil
osophers joined loudly in the senseless abuse,
ridicule and misapprehension which was heap
ed upon the Alliance and its principles.
If the members of the Farmers’ Alliance
killed it by taking an active part in politics,
why is it that the Labor Unions are not dead?
They were here long before the Farmers’ Al
liance came; and they are here now —stronger
than ever.
These Union men go into politics—every
mother’s son of them. Their great leader, Sam
uel Gompers, takes personal part in political
campaigns, making stump speeches, just like
Bryan or Taft or Fairbanks.
Mr. Gompers will go into the Congressional
District of an objctionable candidate for Con
gress and will fight that candidate to a finish.
Mr. Gompers will not only encourage the union
men to be active but tell them it is their duty.
In that way, Labor Unions are getting what
they want.
Federations of Labor, as such, do not go into
politics, but the men who belong to them do.
If the Baptist Church went into politics, we
should be one of the first to object. The
Church has no business there. But if the
members of the Baptist Church do not take an
active part in politics, they fail to measure up
to the best standard of citizenship.
So with the other Churches, Methodists,
Presbyterians, Catholics, Episcopalians and
Christians should all do their utmost to main
tain good government by their votes.
But the Methodist Church does not go into
politics when the Methodists walk to the
polls.
We must draw the distinction between the
man and his organization. The Baptist citizen
must vote, or he neglects his duty; but the
Baptist Church doesn’t vote. So with the oth
ers.
The Farmers’ Union, profiting by the mis
takes made by the Alliance, declares its offi
cers ineligible, if they become candidates for
any political office, and puts in a two year
quarantine which makes it impossible for polit
ical ambition to appropriate the Union.
Now let us come to the gist of the whole
matter:
Those classes that are now plundering the
farmer do not want him to bother them while
they are eating the pie.
That is all there is to it.
The Privileged Few do not want their reign
disturbed by an industrial revolt. The ty
rant wants no insurrection. The robber wants
no sheriff interfering with his business.
The master wants nobody to come around
talking freedom to his slave.
Just as our imperial Government, crazy to
imitate Great Britain, made it a crime to read
the Declaration of Independence to the Filippi
nos whom we hold in subjection—so, the ben
eficiaries of Special Privilege, in this country,,
would like to keep the agricultural masses
from ever getting their rights.
“Join the Union; build warehouses; establish
weekly papers; pay your dues regularlv; make
more cotton, corn and wheat for us, if possi
ble: learn to be economical; pav the preacher
and the tax-collector; work harder, if you can;
roust out your boys a little earlier in the morn
ing ; see that the old lady doesn’t let any gra«s
grow’ under her feet, don’t watch us too close
when we are shuffling the cards; don’t look
this wav when we put our prices uo to corres
pond with 15 cents cotton —do all this, and
more besides, and when your year’s products
have all been sold and your debts paid, you will
probably have enough spare cash to buy and
carry home, for the space above your,
parlor door, one of those nice, neat
little frames which have a glass pan
el enclosing the pious appeal, GOD BLESS
OUR HOME!
But stay out of politics. Whatever you do,
don’t you go into politics. There isn’t pie
enough for you to have any; and, besides, you
art not used to pie and we are. We have got
everything fixed to the Queen’s taste, and it
suits us to a gnat’s heel; it will never do in
the world for you to have a turn at shuffling
and dealing. We know how to shuffle those
cards, and how to deal the same. Take such
a hand as you may get, and be thankful that
you aint dead.”
To get their rights, the farmers must have
a change made in the laws. And this requires
a change in the law-makers. And law-makers
are made with ballots.
There you are, my son. If you don’t make
law-makers who will truly represent you, who
is going to do it ?
•tun
Libingston and Peek
The papers report a spat between Col. W. L.
Peek and Lon Livingston at a Farmers’ Union
meeting in Newton county-.
I wonder that Livingston should have the
cheek to show his face at a Farmers’ Union
meeting.
This disreputable old libertine, whose jio
torious lack of morals makes his private life a
public scandal, ought to be ashamed to show
himself in any gathering of respectable men.
What has he done for the farmers during his
long congressional career?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
What has he been doing with himself for the
seventeen years that he has been in Congress ?
Faithfully serving the Southern Railroad,
and a lot of job hunting politicians in Atlanta,
He has had seventeen years of opportunity
to do something for the farmers, and the record
shows that he hasn’t done a blessed thing.'
But he has helped to do some mighty good
things for the Southern Railroad.
Also, for that Custom House bunch, in At
lanta.
Col. W. L. Peek is a gentleman—clean in
his public and private life—and it is a pity
that our way of classing men should be so
imperfect that such a splendid type of the
good citizen as Col. Peek should have to tol
erate, as an equal, this disreputable Congress
man. who, in the days of the Marble Lobby,
was contemptuously described by the Atlanta
Constitution as “THE THIRTY DOLLAR;
MAN.”
•tun
The Farmers’ Union Guide.
That is the name of one of the best weekly
papers now being published. Its home is Bir
mingham and it is doing a fine work in Ala
bama.
All of us are liable to make mistakes, and last
week was the week for the Guide to take the
wrong prong of the road.
In brief, the Guide took the part of the Rail
roads, against Governor Comer and the people.
The Guide says that the Railroads have done
no more than they had the right to do in re->
sorting to the Federal Courts.
Is the Guide right about this? If so, a good
many of us have gone wrong, and we must get
right. ,
But if the Guide is wrong, the Guide must