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WATSON’S EDIT ORIAJLS
W WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN feWS?
A Newspaper Devoted to the Advocacy of the Jeffersonian Theory of Government, '
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published BY SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: SI.OO PER TEAR 7>®r (•/SSS
THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON, Advertising Rates Furnished on Application. yyrMfIFCJKSS*
Editors and Proprietors *—— ’ vUj
_, —, „ . Bnltvtd at Pttt.JSci, Atlanta, Ga., January 11, iqoj, at tattna VUrjf v\Xr
Tb>mplk Court Building, Atlanta, Ga. dan m*u mattar. i 4"
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1907.
Kit M lexander and the 'Robber.
When I was a boy, there used to be, in one
of the “Advanced Readers,” a story which
made an indelible impression on my youthful
memory.
Under the heading of “Alexander and the
Robber,” was given a spirited conversation
which was alleged to have taken place be
tween the Macedonian Conqueror and a rob
ber-chief, whom he had captured.
In this conversation, Alexander the Great
upbraids the robber-chief for his crimes, and
the robber-chief defends himself by comparing
his own methods to those of Alexander him
self. My recollection is that the Macedonian
King started out promisingly in the discussion,
but that he steadily lost ground. At the close
of the conversation, the robber-chief had every
thing his own way. To speak in up-to-date
phraseology, the King had got himself “balled
up.”
In brief, the argument of the robber-chief
was about this: “I do just as you do; but I
don’t do as much of it.”
It is a pity that our “Readers” no longer
carry this story of “Alexander and the Rob
ber.” It would apply mighty well to latter
day conditions.
The world acclaims Alexander the Great
because he burnt the whole city instead of one
house, murdered a thousand instead of one
man, and robbed provinces instead of individu
als.
But after all, he was a mere robber. Fan
ciful theorists may prattle about the Helleniz
ing of Asia, but that is mere academic talk.
The world gained nothing, and lost much, by
the raid which Alexander made into Asia.
Hardy, enterprising Greece did not Hellenize
Persia and Assyria; on the contrary, the
effeminacy of the East flowed back to Greece,
along the lines of Alexander’s march, and
Greece lost her hardiness and enterprise. Per
sia, in the end, conquered Greece; as effeminate
Greece, in turn, conquered her conqueror,
Rome.
“Alexander and the Robber,” —the story
in the old time Reader came back to me when
the papers announced that the Chiefs of the
Standard Oil Trust were to hold a conference
at Fairhaven, Mass. That’s where H. H. Rog
ers lives. And H. H. Rogers is the Standard
Oil Chief who is being sued for $50,000,000
by a man who alleges that Rogers cheated,
him out of that amount of pocket change, in a
transaction concerning an improved process for
refining oil. And the Plaintiff must have had
the Defendant in a tight place, for Rogers’ son,
and Doctor, and Preacher went into court and
swore loudly that Rogers was too sick to come
to court. And the Judge continued the case
indefinitely, stating that it would be “cruel and
inhuman” to force such a sick man as Rogers
was to come to court. And immediately after
the case had “gone over,” I saw, in the Wash
ington Post, that Rogers, the sick man, had
taken Mark Twain out for an automobile ride,
and that Rogers, the sick man, had acted as
chauffeur.
Whether the Judge who continued the lit
tle fifty million dollar case has gone out and
hung himself, I do not know; but I guess that
Young Rogers, and Old Rogers, and Rogers’
Doctor and Rogers’ Preacher, laugh a good
deal among themselves at the neat manner in
which they tricked the Judge.
What I meant to say was this: When those
chiefs of the Standard Oil Trust meet at Fair
haverf, there will be, bunched together, the
most ravenous and remorseless band of robbers
this world has ever seen.
Long before Ida Tarbell had published her
magazine articles, Henry Demorest Lloyd had
given, in his “Wealth and Commonwealth,” a
complete history of the criminal methods of
this robber band. From Courthouse records
and other official documents, Mr. Lloyd proved
that the Standard Oil Company, with John D.
Rockefeller in active control, had violated al
most every penal statute of the Code.
These banded criminals had made use of the
vilest men and the vilest methods to stifle
competition and to kill off rivalry. The com
mon thief, the brazen perjurer, the house
wrecker, the murderer were useful instru
ments, used by this gigantic‘monopoly. Above
and beyond this lower level of criminal meth
od, came the corrupt influencing of elections,
the bribery of men in office, the subsidizing of
the Press, the corrupt control of the State
Legislatures and of Congress. In municipal
politics, in state politics, in national politics,
these rascals, who were gaining $125,000,000
every year, from one Trust alone, have exerted
their baleful influence—corruptly and crimi
nally.
Touch dozens of the Pet National Banks,
in whose behalf nearly $200,000,000 of the
nation’s wealth is annually laid aside—to be
used by them, free of interest, and you touch
the Standard Oil band.
Touch the monster railroad corporations,
which are taxing commerce to compel divi
dends on about seven billion dollars of fraud
ulent stocks and bonds —and you again touch
the Standard Oil band.
Touch the Cotton Seed Oil Trust, the Lum
ber Trust, the Copper Trust, the Steel Trust,
the Harvester Trust—and again you touch the
Standard Oil band.
For, these Alexanders of modern commer
cialism have not yet had to weep for more
worlds to conquer; their tired troops have not
mutinied at the Hyphasis, refusing to march
farther! No; these omniverous, insatiable,
irresistible men of the Oil Trust have continu
ed to add province to province, until in scope
of territory and richness of loot, their empire
is greater than that which fell before the
onset of the Macedonian King.
Not only the New World, but the Old bows
to the Rockefeller band. Not only the general
Government of the United States, but every
state in the Union, and every city in every
state, knuckles to the Standard Oil band.
The direct revenues of the Oil Trust is theirs
—5490,000,000 net profits in seven years. Then,
the profits of their banks, their railroads, their
copper mines; their holdings in the Steel Trust,
Lumber Trust, Harvester Trust, and many oth
er commercial enterprises, are theirs.
Think of what the Grand Total must be!
Compared to it, the National Treasury
shrinks into comparative insignificance.
The average increase of wealth in this coun
try is not more than five per cent.
When Express Companies pocket net earn
ings of 200 per cent; and the Standard Oil
Trust 1,000 per cent; and we have a dozen
other Trusts increasing their wealth in the
same proportion, there is bound to be some
class, or some classes, which are increasing
their wealth at a smaller rate than the average
five per cent, OR NOT INCREASING AT
ALL. Where some exceed the average, some
must fall below it. When the Steel Trust
gets so much more than the average; when
Express Companies, Railroads, Banks, Oil
Trusts, Whiskey Trusts and Sugar Trusts
get so much more than the average—there
must be many a million of men in America at
whose expense these Trusts get more than
their share.
When a band of robbers meets in their cave,
and gloats over the loot which fills it, one nat
urally thinks of the folks who were robbed.
Somebody had to lose what these robbers
stored away in the cave.
When the Standard Oil band meets at Fair
haven, the robbers will gloat over the vastest
accumulation of loot disclosed in the records
of the human race.
They have had a free rein for a full genera
tion. They debauched Public Opinion by
gifts to churches and schools; by the purchase
of public men, and by the employment of
Press Agents. They have enjoyed immunity
from punishment by hiring the best lawyers,
intimidating the witnesses who could not be
bought, and bribing the Judge where they
could not hire the Judge’s son or son-in-law,
or nephew to act as their “Attorney.”
From whom did the robbers take the loot—
THE ONE THOUSAND PER CENT NET,
PROFIT?
And how did they ever manage to steal so
much? /
The American people are the victims; and
the two old political parties supplied the ma
chinery by means of which the robbers filled
the cave.
The Standard Oil band have been enabled
to steal $490,000,000 from the American people
in seven years because the American voter
is so fond of the Democratic and Republican
parties that he would rather be robbed by
those Twins than to be protected by any new
political organization.
In other words, the fools are Wedded to the
Knaves AND NEITHER WILL SUE FOR
A DIVORCE.
* W M
The Story of Trance.
We are receiving so many orders for the
book above named that we think best to ex
plain why there will be some little delay in
filling.
The present supply being exhausted, the
MacMillan Company is bringing out a new
edition.
Mr. Watson has asked the publishers to al
low him the privilege of making a revision