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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