Newspaper Page Text
PAGE SIX
O1 INTEREST TO WEALTH CREATORS
A JUST DEMAND.
The demand of the Farmers’ Un
ion that the cotton producers of the
South shall have fifteen cents a pound
for their product is a just one. It
is in the interest of humanity, of
equity between man and man. Eveiy
thing else has gone skyward. Cot
ton prints have advanced from four
to eight cents, and all cotton fabrics
have advanced proportionately. The
advance of the price of cotton
should be in the same proportion and
would be if the price was controlled
alone by the law of supply and de
mand. But with cotton this law does
not control. The price of cotton is
fixed bv the jugglers on the boards
of trade in New York, Liverpool, New
Orleans and other metropolitan cen
ters. How they do it we are not able
to explain, but that they do it is as
plain, as the shining of the sun or
the falling of the rain.
The small buyers in the towns of
the cotton section's do not fix the
price, neither do they control it, but
by co-operating with the Farmers’
Union they can help control it. Ts
the merchants and cotton factors of
the South would unite with the fann
ers and say to them, (1 Your demand
for 15 cents cotton is a just one, we
will help you get it; we will, if nec
essary, advance you money and sup
plies on vour cotton so as to enable
you to hold it for fifteen cents,” then
the battle would be won. It is be
cause a large per cent of the farmers,
especially the tenant class, have to
sell, that the speculator is enabled to
control the market and fix the price
instead of its being fixed by the man
who produces it. There never was a
more just demand fostered by any
set of men on earth than the demand
made by the farmers of the South
that they have fifteen cents for their
cotton. i' 1 *
And what does fifteen cent cotton
meant
It means prosperity for the entire
people. Not the farmer alone, hut
everybody directly or indirectly de
pendent upon the farmer for pros
perity. Let us suppose that the cron
in Greene county this year is four
thousand hales, which is perhaps, in
the neighborhood of what it will he.
Four thousand 500 pound bales at
ten cents a pound will amount to
$200,000. but if it sells for fifteen
cents a nonnd it will amount to $300.-
000. What a difference there would
be in the ereneral nrosneritv of the
county with S3OO 000 for the cotton
cron as compared to s°oo 000! Tt
it is possible to get $300,000 bv the
connivance of the cotton speculator,
will not every man, woman and child
in Greene conntv. whatever his or
her condition in life, sav to the farm
er. “hold out the fifteen cents?”
The farmer has the same right to
put the price on the product of his
labor that the manufacturer has to
put the price on his goods, the me
chanic on his labor, the lawver on his
fees, the doctor on the price of his
services or the publisher on the price
of his newsnaper. Ts the merchant
had to sell his goods at the price fixed
bv his customers he would not he in
long, neither would the edi
tor. Ifoe lawyer, the doctor or the me-
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
chanic. Every man has the right, yea
the inalienable right, to price his own
labor or the products of his own
toil, and if the farmer does not do it
he had as well get off the face of the
earth so far as his prosperity is con
cerned.
Between the farmer and the mer
chant there ought to be reciprocity
based upon the demands of justice be
tween man and man. They are mu
tually dependent upon one another,
one could not very well get along
without the other, but if one fixes the
price for both it is then a one-sided
affair. Let the merchant be just to
the farmer and the farmer just to
the merchant. —J. R. Taylor, in “The
Soliphone. ’ ’
SAVE THE COUNTRY MER
CHANT.
(From the Weekly Investigator.)
The yearning solicitude that the
express companies have for the wel
fare of the country merchant hag
never been exceeded by that of a
father for a son. That solicitude
has increased since the public has
begun to comment upon the distribu
tion of $24,000,000 in an extra divi
dend by one of them after paying its
regular dividends of 8 per cent, with
the others to follow in the near fu
ture. The anxiety for the country
merchant is so great that the express
companies have established a literary
bureau to disseminate information
that will tend to prevent legislatures,
congresses and railroad commission
ers from driving the country mer
chant off the face of the earth. Be
sides that, these benevolent and kind
hearted express companies will or
ganize a lobby to work next winter
in Washington toward that end. They
hope to convince congress that a par
cels post law, or a postal check sys
tem for the transmission of small
sums of money through the mails will
be not only the destruction of the
country merchant, but the overthrow
of a republican form of government.
The Investigator has already re
ceived some of this literature and
doubtless every man who has patron
ized the express companies will be
liberally supplied, for the companies
have all their names and addresses,
as well as hundreds of thousands of
others. At present it looks as though
the country merchant will be saved,
for the express companies are spend
ing hundreds of thousands of dollars
to protect him from the villainous as
saults of the farmers who want a par
cels post and a postal check system.
He will be saved in spite of his own
apathy and indifference, for very few
of the country merchants are taking
a hand in the fight. A good many of
them say that they don’t believe a
parcels post or a postal note system
would interfere with their profits in
theh least, but the express companies
know that they would.
It is announced by a fashion paper
that shoes will be worn longer than
usual this year. Perhaps so if the
purchasers don’t wear them out kick
ing about the price,
Monticello, Ga. R.F.D. 1, Box 71,
Hon. Thos. E. Watson.
Dear Sir and Friend: Long may
you live to advocate justice and right.
“Equal rights to all, and special priv
ileges to none,” should be the slogan.
A government of the people, for the
people, and by the people, the watch
word of all. I have a monument that
stands out in bold relief to you, to
your honor, right in front of my
house, it speaks volumes. Well, what
is it ? Guess; it is aR.F. D. box, glad
to know that there are many thous
ands of those monuments all over
the United States, North and South,
East and West. I love to see a true
patriot honored while he is living
I see in you, Mr. Watson, a great
champion of the people’s cause.
Next of importance to R.F.D. as
educators and civilizers, come the
great highways of our country, both
private and public, the private high
ways (R.R.) problem can only be
solved by govei riment ownership, the
public highways, common roads,
should be built up and maintained by
appropriations from the national gov
ernment, supplemented by appropria
tions from the States and counties.
Times are changing, a higher state
of civilization is coming, pioneer and
old colonial days are gone, the auto
mobile, traction engines, etc., etc., •
have come to stay, our roads are too
narrow and crooked, they were built
in gone by days, to accommodate the
footman, the horseback rider and the
ox-carts, they don’t suit our times
and civilization. In some places in
our county (“Old Jasper”) and I
dare say in other counties, the roads
are not much better than they were
one hundred years ago. There are
places in the roads in our county, yes,
in a direct public road to our county
town market, where two buggies can
not pass in the broad open day light
without locking wheels; yes, where
the roads are crooked and rough up
and down steep hills and across dan
gerous fords, that ought to be bridged
by all means.
Imagine an aautomobile or traction
engine meeting a feeble old' man, old
woman and little child, driving leis
urely along, or three ladies in a bn
gy driving a rather spirited horse.
Well, what would they do? What
would be the result? Who is respon
sibel for the loss of the lives, limbs
or property? The public roads are
free to all; but they -are not wide
enough or straight enough in manv
places for all. I know an old public
road in our county, built probably
over one hundred years ago, that to
reach a certain place you have to
travel over a bad, hilly road two miles
when a cut through of about 300
yards would give a better road
through and reach the same place, yet
those old pioneers traveled it at a
great disadvantage during their lives
and their children are doing the same
thing today. Yes, I know another
road in our county, and a very public
road at that, and a main direct mar
ket road to our county town, that is
just about as crooked as the prover
ial dog’s hind leg ever was. Yes,
crooked, narrow, rough, with steep
hills to climb and creeks to ford, one
of them a very dangerous ford. Can
this be remedied? Yes, easily. A
straight cut through about one mile
will save going the distance around
of about three miles; save the cross
ing of two branches and one creek,
and will avoid steep hills and danger
ous ford, etc. Shall the people of the
rural districts, the people of our gen
eration and of our boasted high stand
ard of civilization, be compelled to
forever use the miserable roads found
in the country? When the govern
ment is throwing away many millions
of the people’s money, wrung from
them by unjust discrimination and
taxes and is lending many millions
to a favored few pet banks, without
interest, and building many stately,
magnificent, costly government build
ings, yet entirely neglecting the in
terest of the people, in not building
them the best of roads? Yes, the
railroads, the fat and favored few
corporations, are enjoying the favors
of special privileges, and the tax pay
ers, the common people, are taxed to
the limit to keep up the high tariff
wall, when the government is letting
the rollicking, high rolling rascals
of high financiering fame go scot
free, to live in clover on the cream
of the land, robbers of the people,
parasites on the body politic, vam
pires, sucking the life blood out of
the people. Yes, the government is
throwing away millions to subsidize
private ships, and is handing out
money lavishly to greedy corpora
tions, and for private gain. Well,
isn’t it about time our government
should call a halt, line up for the peo
ple and remember, oh, remember the
toiling masses, the real tax payers,
from whom she has extorted this
enormous surplus, that she is throw
ing away and giving away? Oh, re
member the people who clothe and
feed the world, the people who live
in the rural districts, who seldom ask
favors, though they are the many
who produce and make the wealth of
the world. Yet, the favors they get
n re “like angel’s visits, few and
far between.”
The people should be given the best
of roads; they should first be widened
and straightened and graded, when
practical. Ag I have said, the auto
mobiles, etc., have come to stay; the
present roads were not built for them.
Who should vacate them, the many
people on business, or the favored
few who use them only for pleasure?
Make the roads straight and wide
enough for all, with suitable sidings
at convenient distances, for the auto,
etc., to turn into when the people
with vehicles are passing.
Yours for justice and right,
JNO. L. G. WOODS.
An exchange says: “San Francisco
still has its Schmitz and Reuf. *' Why
remind a city of its humiliation at a
time when it is afflicted with the
other plague?
A suspicion is entertained that the
announcement that President Roose
velt is writing six more long speeches
indicates that he will not take
chances on re-election. .