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WATSON'S EDITORIALS WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN ‘ Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Government. > ~ bvblishbd BY SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: SI.OO PER TEAR THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON, Advertising Rates Furnished on Application. 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