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THE GREAT FIGHT OF THE TO
BACCO GROWERS AGAINST
THE TRUST.
(Continued from Page Three.)
We have put five million dollars
in the “Black Patch” of Tennessee
and Kentucky in the year of our
Lord 1907 that would have gone in
to the greedy maw of the Tobacco
Trust. \
We have raised the spirit of the
poor tobacco raiser, established his
going and let him ride for theTirst
time in a rubber-tired buggy.
We have replaced the slats that
had fallen from the window-blind,
planted the vine at the door, and
knit up the raveled sleeve of desola
tion.
Listen' Before we united in this
war my own county that gave hirth
to the organization, and is the home
of those gallant leaders, Felix G. Ew
ing, Charles H. Fort and Dr. J. W.
Dunn, sold the finest crop ever raised
at less than 4 cents per pound, now
it sells for 10 cents per pound. Then
we had hard times and a multiplic
ity of suits, now we have plenty and
no suits. Then we had only three
banks with deposits of about five hun
dred thousand dollars; now we have
nine banks, one in every little ham
let, and carrying of the farmers’ and
merchants’ money one million two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars
on deposit. Before we could not get
an appropriation for the improve
ment of the public roads; afterward
Mie same proposition, which had been
voted down by an overwhelming ma
jority, was carried by equally as
great majority.
Go to our country and attack the
Association in the presence of the
merchant, the doctor or the minis
ter, and you will soon find you are a
persona non grata. It has bene
fitted all and all return thanks for
the greatest benefactor of the age
in my native State.
I would not for the world do oi
say that which would injure or hurt.
I would upbuild. I would plant and
nurture every seed of prosperity. I
would see the beggar clad in purple
and gold. I would see a bounteous
harvest followed by generous prices
for the fruits of the soil.
All we ask, all we demand, is what
every merchant now has, and that is
that we as farmers be allowed to sell
for ourselves the crops v\e have
grown. Can any merchant say this
is not just! We want to put labor
at work handling our tobacco. Will
not this laborer spend his money
with the merchants of the town! It
is the man with the tin bucket that
builds a town; it is the laborer who
adds material wealth to a city. Un
der our methods as used in Tennes
see and Kentucky, not a bat will
roost in a single tobacco factory, not
a brain or muscle will be unemployed.
All we want is to be allowed to em
ploy the warehouse man and the la
borer to handle and work our tobac
co at a fair and reasonable price,
and sell the same at a fair and rea
sonable profit. Is there any anarchy
in that? Is there anything save jus
tice and fair dealing in that? Is it
not better that the whole people shall
prosper than that one man should
grow immensely wealthy?
Our farmers want the help of the
merchants, and the doctors, and the
lawyers, and in fact every g x>d eit- I
izen, in order that they may be able
to deal even lavi.-hly with Mi°m and
be able to pay ler the goods they
buy. We want to realize such a
price for our tobacco that there will
be no liens on crops for supppies, no
mortgages, and no cormorants to
devour the poor and needy from off
the earth.
We come not in a spirit of antag
onism, but in a spirit of love for the
general welfare and prosperity of our
common country. Merchants, law
yers, doctors and more than all,
good women of Virginia, fall in line
with us and we will make the old
waste places blossom like the rose.
We will benefit you and you will ben
efit us. It is your country and you
love it.
Heart to heart, shoulder to shoul
der, let us move on, till every plow
share will be brightened with the oil
of busy husbandry and# every wheel
of city life will whirl in unison with
the farmers’ happy song of prosper
ity-
THE OKLAHOMA CONSTITUTION
(Continued From Page Eleven.)
A singular oversight in the Okla
homa organic law is the failure to
specify how the principal executive
officers of the State are to be chosen.
Incidentally it appears that the gov
ernor is to be elected by the people,
but only by inference may we as
sume the same of the lieutenant-gov
ernor, the secretary of state, the
state auditor, the attorney-general,
the state treasurer, the superintend
ent of public instruction, state exam
iner and inspector, and the insurance
commissioner. The labor commission
er, commissioner of charities and
corrections, corporation commission
ers, and clerk of the supreme court
are to be elected by the people.
However, the intent doubtless was
that all of these high officials, like
the judges of the State, district and
county courts, should be chosen for a
term of two or more years at the gen
eral election which occurs in Novem
ber of the even numbered years. If
the legislature abides by this intent,
at least every four years there will
be some twenty offices to be filled
altogether too large a number to se
cure due discrimination on the part
of voters generally.
Four of the executive officers, to
wit: governor, secretary of state, state
auditor, and state treasurer, are made
ineligible immediately to succeed
themselves.
Another very curious and lamenta
ble circumstance is that none of these
important executive officers are giv
en any power of appointment. Their
control of subordinates will be pre
scribed by the legislature.
The governor is given the veto
power, also the appointment of a
bank commissioner. Beyond that he
has no more executive authority than
has the governor of Rhode Island—
that is to say, none at all.
That the chief executive should
thus be left helpless is quite unac
countable, unless it be that the usur
pations and tyrannies of the govern
ors of adjacent States, Colorado and
Idaho, caused the Democratic major
ity in the constitutional convention
to rush to the opposite and far more
dangerous extreme of leaving the
powers of the executive to the mercy
of the legislature.
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
What of the legislature, the real
source of government in an Ameri
can State? If that body were all
that it should be, full power of ap
pointment would be conferred upon
the governor. But in order to ex
pect such a degree of wisdom from a
legislature, it must be chosen in a
manner far different from that known
to other American Sttaes.
As a matter of fact, however, it
is to be elected in Oklahoma in the
same old way, the senators from sin
gle districts, and the representatives,
numbering more than one hundred,
also from single districts, except that
eleven counties choose each two mem
bers.
But notwithstanding the indirect
disfranchisement of the people by
means of biennial elections and the
yet longer terms of office for many
elective officials; the establishment
of an executive department which is
to possess no executive power; and
the creation of a legislature which
by no possible chance can represent
the people fully or fairly—in spite
of these fundamental defects, tue
Oklahoma constitution is the best
ever framed. By one provision, it
has placed in the people’s hands the
power to correct any and all of the
mistakes and oversights of the con
vention.
I refer to the provision for the in
itiative and referendum, and partic
ularly to that part of it which says,
“fifteen per centum of the legal vot
ers shall have the right to propuse a
constitutional amendment by peti
tion.”
Scholarships Offered
Send 100 subscribers, at full rate of one dollar each to Wat
son’s Weekly Jeffersonian; or 70 subscribers to Watson’s Jes.
fersonlan Magazine at the full rate of 11.50 each and you get
A scholarship In The Business College of Prof. Bagwell, In
Atlanta, Qa. There are three departments In the College, Book
keeping, Telegraphy, and Stenography. The choice is yours, be
tween the three.
Subscriptions* to both publications may be taken by those
working for a scholarship—3 subscriptions to the Mags wins be
ing counted as equal to three subscriptions to the Weekly.
These scholarships are worth 345 apiece. Therefore you see
*
how liberal are the terms on which they will be given as prises.
Address
r
MR. WATSON, at THOMSON, QA.
Possessing this power a majority
of the people can, in any even num
bered year, confer the appointing
power upon the governor; correct the
legislative gerrymander said by Sec
retary Taft to exist; substitute pro
portional representation for the pres
ent crude method of electing its leg
islative bodies; or do anything else
to the State constitution not in
conflict with that of the Unit
ed States. Thus, along with provi
sions poisonous to the body politic,
goes the antidote—a foresight never
before displayed by a constitutional
convention.
As a result of this wisdom, Okla
homa may confidently expect before
many years to have an organic law
less than one-fourth as verbose as
the present one. When a represen
tative legislature has once been creat
ed, it becomes unnecessary for a con
stitution to go into details. For,
then, the fundamental law, dealing
with general principles, will need on
ly to define the rights and powers of
the people, the suffrage and elec
tions, the duties of the three depart
ments of government, and modes of
changing the constitution. —Lucius F.
C. Garvin, in The Public.
z Mr. Watson, I saw and heard you
in Texas in 1896; have been reading
after you for years, and have ever
placed you in the front rank of our
American patriots and reformers
Anw now, with kind regards and best
wishes for your future happiness and
success, I am
Your friend and subscriber,
J. E. DEUPREE.
PAGE THIRTEEN