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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. .