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PRESIDENT ‘BARRETT’S ADDRESS
Following is President Barrett’s
address, delivered before the Nation
al Convention at Little Rock, Septem
ber 3, 1907:
Brethren: x
It is my happiness once more in
an official capacity to greet you in a
great, general convention, and to wel
come you to a period of fellowship
and deliberation which has al wavs
been pleasant to yourselves and prof
itable to the country in which we
live.
* <
I cannot forbear to express upon
the occasion of these annual assem
blies my high and abiding sense of x
appreciation to you for the distin
guished honor which has made me
the president of your association.
Without solicitation on my part I
was elected one year ago to preside
over this great organization, and
with a grateful heart and an humble
mind I appreciate to the core of my
being the signal and illustrious hon
or conferred upon me and the sacred
trust reposed in me by your choice.
I can only say that I have laid aside
every personal interest and have
gone into the field with absolute con
secration, giving all my time with all
the capacity that I possess and all
the means that I could employ to
ward the upbuilding, the promotion
of harmony, peace and prosperity
within this great organization.
The growth cf the Farmers’ Union
has been so marvelous that it has as
tonished the world, and its mighty
and unequaled development must be
recognized as a positive proof of the
justice and benefiqence of the farm
ers’ determination to secure just and
equitable rights.
In the growth of this great body
the u doubting Thomases” and the
prophets of evil have been smitten
dumb, and are today, each one of
them, as silent as a clam.
The limit of possibility for the
Farmers’ Union is beyond compre
hension, and this is so because the
Providence which shapes the destiny
of man and guides the best endeavors
of a people, must realize that we are
proceeding upon that high and hon
orable plane of self-preservation, self
protection and the advahcemetn of
our common country through the leg- /
itimate promotion of our own reason
able and natural interests in the
world.
Already the influence of the .Farm
ers’ Union is manifested, not only in
the industrial world, but in commer
cial circles and in the political arena
as well. In the face of a crop •»£
thirteen and a quarter million bales,
the Farmers’ Union has resolutely
held prices to a living point, and
when 6-cent cotton was a drag on the
market, with not over eight million
bales in sight, this organization—
through its influence —marketed a
crop of thirteen and a quarter mil
lion bales at a splendid average of
II cents.
No higher vindication of the jus
tice and the necessity of our ’ife and
of our activity can be given than this
superb and splendid record. *
Now that we have inaugurated a
system of warehouses, something more
than two thousand of them have al
ready been built and are in active
and wholesale operation. Great as
are their results today, we may con
servatively estimate that greater re
sults than ever before are to flow
from these institutions in the future.
I am loth to indulge in any ex
travagant speech before a body of
conservatives and before individuals
so temperate and so factful as the
farmers of America. y
And yet I feel that I should be less
'than loyal to you and to myself if
1 did not challenge your self-respect
and your individual and professional
pride in the magnificent advance
which your great representative or
ganization has made among the co.
herent forces of the world. There
is not today in the republic in which
we live any one body of men engaged
in a single profession whose motives
are so clear, whose plans are so co
herent, whose unity is so perfect and
inspiring, and whose numbers are so
magniiicent as the Farmers’ Union of
America.
It is utterly impossible to believe
that such an organization could have
been founded out of such elements
upon any other basis than that of
wisdom and justice and truth, and the
fact that we today as we are,
foremost among the organizations of
(the republic in which we live, is a
joint proof of the wisdom and the
forecasting judgment of the princi
ples upon which we are founded, and
of the intelligent loyalty and splen
did fidelity of the great body of the
people whom we represent.
We cannot fail, my friends and
fellow-countrymen of the soil, to real
ize that power always, carries with it
a high and noble sense of great re
sponsibility. We hold such power;
we wield such influence; we exercise
such force upon the judgments of
this republic that we will be un
worthy of ourselves and of what
the Almighty God has given us if
we do not hold ourselves nobly and
fairly and reasonably toward our fel
lowmen.
The perpetuity of this organization
.depends upon the fact that it must
continue to be right. We cannot af
ford to be either cruel or unkind. We
cannot afford to be unjust or insin
cere. We cannot afford to be oppress
ive or to destroy any of the great
agencies of civilization or of prog
ress which surround us.’’’The one
clear, crystal thing we must keep in
our minds is the fact that we are here
to demand and to secure every right
and every liberty for ourselves and
for our wives and for our children
that our numbers and our influence
and our importance to the republic
will justify.
But when this is done, I am sure
that I speak -the sentiment of the
great and intelligent body over which
I preside when I say that we do not
wish to curtail the legitimate pros
perity of any class of industry, high
or low, in the republic. We wish
our rights, we demand our privileges,
we insist upon our full equality in
the privileges of the government and
in the conditions of transportation,
of prices and of representation. But
with these accomplished we are and
we must continue to be American
citizens, standing without malice and
without bitterness or narrowness in
our own places in the economic and
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
moral life of the republic and recog
nizing the right of every other class
and of every other man to live, and
'willing in our own minds and with
our own hands to help in the pros
perity of our fellow men.
The age in which we live is a great
age. It is a liberal age. It is an
intelligent age. The grafters, the
tricksters and the mere politicians
are being trampled under the foot of
rignteousness and justice and patriot
ism, and we should hold ourselves in
high equality among the best and wis
est forces of our time.
1 trust in the Almighty God that
we shall never see a time when thg
Farmers’ Union shall be fretted by
political life to defend and to ad
-1 trust that no representative of tnat
baneful class snail ever hold an of
fice in this Union. 1 piead with you
never to suiter the Union to be con
taminated by an affiliation with any
political party. But while we hoid
fast to the splendid neutrality of our
position, we must never hesitate in
political life to defend and to ed
vance the original purposes of this
organization. To this end as indi
viduals and as an organized body,
without party names, we must not
hesitate to ballot as a unit against
those things which would seek to op
press or degrade us, and we must
give the world to understand that by
joining this non-political union, we
have not surrendered a single polit
ical right that belongs to each and
every citizen in the American repub
lic. Moreover, it is our solemn duty
as free and honest citizens of Amer
ica, to take a deep and abiding in
terest, not only in the making of
laws, but in the courageous enforce
ment of laws, for the general good
and prosperity of the republic in
which we live.
I need not appeal to you (who have
never needed the appeal) to remem
ber in conclusion that above all
things, we are American citizens.
Like wise men and honest men, we
have banded ourselves together to
secure the rights and privileges to
which we think we are entitled. We
are making our fight now and forever
under the edicts of the constitution
and m the high and holy name of the
law. Let us 1 remember that we, above
all people, stand resolutely and per
manently as the champions and advo
cates of law and as the earnest and
unfailing defenders of the govern
ment Let the n
And in this great organization in
which all sections are mingled on
equal terms, and in which there is in
fact and in theory no North, no
South, no East, and no West, let ns
resolve that we will in all the regions
of country from which we come, pre
serve the ideals z of good citizenship
and the honor of the government, and
that we shall so live and so labor
and so legislate that the time shall
never come when we shall blush to
look upon the flag of our country or
fail to realize that its stars and its
stripes wave above an honest, a un
ited and a patriotic people.
We are today happily united with
no division in our ranks, but here it
might be well to inform you that, in
effecting harmony and the organiza
tion of four state unions and start-
ing the work in several other states
and territories, our expenses
have been heavy, made so by circum
stances over which we had no con
trol. To illustrate, in effecting this
harmony and organization, it was nec
essary for me to (which I have) trav
el more than thirty-five thousand
miles. This, of itself, has cost money,
but I am glad to say that the ex
pense is but a small item when con
sidered from the viewpoint of the
great good that has been done in ef
fecting organization and bringing all
factions to terms of organic unity.
Therefore, I feel justified in making
this prophecy, that henceforth, we
will have no reason for any more
dissensions among us, and that the
conditions now will warrant a less ex
penditure of money in the future in
effecting our work.
DRUNKARDS AND PROHIBITION.
Problem to Be Solved In Connection
With These People.
Last night at the Kimball several
gentlemen were discussing the recent
prohibition bill and its probable effect
upon such persons as are hopelessly
addicted to the use of whiskey in
some form or other.
A prominent member of the house
said: “I feel sorry for this class of
people because if there is anybody who
will go to the most extreme means to
get a drink, it is the habitual drunk
ard. If the law is rigidly enforced, and
I believe that it will be, there ought
to be a substitute or treatment provid
ed for this class of people.”
“You are right,” said a gentleman
of like sympathies, and who at one
time himself used too much liquor.
You are right. I have been there my
self. I know the pangs of a drunk
ard when he can get no whiskey. My
suffering was so great that I decided
to either kill myself or overcome the
habit. A friend of mine one day in
talking to me about my ruin and that
of my family asked if I had ever been
treated for the alcoholic habit by Dr.
B. M. Woolley, of Atlanta, stating at
the same time that he was quite sure
that this noted physician would help
me a great deal if he did not cure
me. Immediately I wrote to Dr. Wool
ley and received a most kind and
courteous reply. In fact, his letter was
quite fatherly, and. he sympathized
with me right in the beginning over
my trouble. Dr. Woolley wrote that
for over thirty years he had been
treating cases just like mine—that he
considered it a disease and not a hab
it, and would, with my assistance,
endeavor to help me. I want to say
right here, without going into details,
that he is the greatest specialist in the
world in the treatment of whiskey
and opium diseases. His theory and
treatment harmonize, and I was practi
cally redeemed. If every drunkard in
the state of Georgia when prohibition
goes into effect will have Dr. Woolley
treat him, I am sure that he, like my
self, will be cured of'this awful dis
ease.”
Just then an antl-prohlbltlonlst said:
“Well, I am an anti, as you men know,
yet at the same time I can vouch
for what my friend here says. He has
been made a new man by the treat
ment of Dr. Woolley.”
The crowd, before adjourning,
agreed that Dr. B. M. Woolley was
the hope of the drunkards of Georgia
now that Seab Wright and his follow
ers had made it practically impossible
to get. liquor from any place In the
state.—From Atlanta Constitution.
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