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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. PAGE THREE