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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
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THE GREATEST OF THESE IS
FINANCE.
The oft repeated declaration of
Scripture concerning faith, hope and
charity, might be made to apply to
our day and environment by chang
ing it to read thus: “And now abid
eth Labor, Greed and Finance, but
the greatest of these is Finance.”
Wall Street has had another pan
ic, either real or pretended. The
$29,240,000 fine assessed by Judge
Landis against the oil trust, and oth
er prosecutions discussed or inaugu
rated, made it seem like the gov
ernment did intend to enforce the
law against the big violators, as well
as the little ones, and forthwith there
was a scattering among the specu
lators as there is among rats when a
terrier appears among them. Our
readers may have read the reports
which came on lightning flashes from
New York, but, lest some may not
have noticed them, we give the fol
lowing sample one:
“By noon (August 13) twenty
three stocks had made new low rec
ords and the bottom was rapidly
dropping out of things. Such stocks
as sugar, St. Louis Southwestern pre
ferred, Denver & Rio Grande, Colo
rado Fuel, Southern Railroad, Rub
ber, North American, Reading first
preferred and a dozen more souvenirs
of bull markets of the last century
were beginning to come out in vol
ume.
“Just at this time another cut of
one-half cent a pound was made in
copper metal and the price of amal
gamated went tumbling to the new
low record of S7O a share. Interbor
ough Metropolitan had just estab
lished itself on a new bottom. St.
Paul had broken all records of the
last century for low prices in selling
at 118 1-2, and Great Northern had
gone down to 112.”
It must be observed that this tumb
ling prices and market panic wa»
not regarding the sale or value of
anything tangible, or anything neces
sary or even useful. It was alto
gether in stocks, bonds, mortgages--
so-called securities —many of which,
though sold for money and made to
yield an income, represented no more
real value than the paper they are
printed on. Following the conviction
under the law of great corporation
criminals and their proposed punish
ment as smaller law violators are
punished, shows that these stock in
vestments depend upon corporation
immunity from law observance, and
freedom from punishment for viola
tions of the law. In proof of this we
give the following letter published
by the Associated Press as written
by Walter George Newman, a typical
railroad financier, to President Roose
velt:
“It is with an aching heart that I
refer you to the telegram which I
sent you from Philadelphia on March
1, 1907, when I said I was going
South to get away from one of the
greatest crises ever seen in the his
tory of this country and a Wall
street panic.
“Since sending you that telegram
the very base of the United States
has been shaken in such away that
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
everyone who owns any securities is
trying to turn them into gold, and
everyone in business throughout the
country is wondering what is going to
happen next, and what line of busi
ness is going to be confiscated.
“But for the good crop reports
given us this year, we would have a
panic in this country to-day that
would astound the world.
“You alone can put an end to these
conditions within a day, because the
American people love you and we
have all looked up to you as the great
est man on earth.
“I beseech, in behalf of the widows
and orphans and the millions of*hi
borers in this country, that you do
something to restore confidence, re
gardless of your present feelings. Do
this and you will go down in history
as the greatest man that ever lived
in the world.”
We are given only a portion of the
letter, and it is said the President
“listened attentively” while it was
being read aloud to him, and that he
acknowledged the receipt of it im
mediately. Then comes the most sig
nificant part of the New York dis
patches.
“It was finally reported that Sec
retary Root, of the State Department,
and Assistant Secretary Bacon, had
entered the office of J. P. Morgan &
Co. This was a signal that the ad
ministration was relenting and would
not let raiders hammer the stock
market any further at present; and as
Assistant Secretary Bacon shook
hands with J. P. Morgan, Jr., an elec
tric thrill passed through the mob
and it stopped selling. Reading felt
the advance first, and advanced two
points while the mob held its breath.
Then Union Pacific started upward,
and within a few minutes copper,
sugar, Gieat Northern, St. Paul, and
even smelters,* had joined in a wild
scramble for higher levels. The ad
vance continued until some of the
leaders had scored gains of two to six
points from the bottom.”
We give this only as press dispatch
from New York. It may be true, or
it may be only a picture drawn in
the vivid imagination of a reporter,
yet it goes out with the sanction of
the Associated Press. At all events
it is significant, and all the more so
when coupled with the announcem<>:>
coming direct from Washington that
the Chicago and Alton Railroad Com
pany is not to be prosecuted for com
plicity in the rebate cases in which
the oil trust was fined $29,240,000,
the party allowing the rebates, as we
understand it, being as guilty as the
party that receives them.
If “the man with the big stick”
dares not prosecute offendeis because
of the “bigger stick” held by Wall
street, then the law is an empty
thing, the courts are a farce, and com
bined corporate power is greater than
the government. Many circumstances
really indicate that this is true, and
the proposition is a serious one. It
means that the future struggle for
right, for law and its enforcement,
for good government, in fact, is be
tween combined corporate wealth,
with its millions of watered stock
representing income producing invest-
ments, before whose power our brav
est officials seem to quail, and the
masses of the people whose toil is
held under obligation to meet these
arbitrary and artificial demands.
This is the struggle of the future,
and its peaceful solution favorable
to good government and the people,
is for the masses to control their own
affairs, and to become independent of
Wall street and the whole stock job
bing crew. And this is not so diffi
cult a problem as it seems. Ti.
wage laborers are already organized
so as to protect themselves from the
hand of capital when it becomes too
heavy and oppressive, and to fairly
secure to themselves reasonable bene
fits from their toil. It only remains
for the farming classes to make their
organization strong enough to secure
reasonable incomes by determining
the prices at which their products
shall sell, and to secure those prices
by proper control of the markets.
This at once places the two great
classes, the classes necessary to the
world’s progress and comfort, in po
sition to secure justice for them
selves independent of all other class
es. The next and only remaining
step is to create a system of financial
institutions entirely independent of
Wall street and its stock jobbers; in
stitutions that will do a strictly ag
ricultural banking business until the
needs of the agricultural classes are
met, and that shall be prohibited from
dealing in stocks, bonds and securi
ties other than farm mortgages. Ag
riculture, the greatest business on
earth, and the only business absolute
ly essential to the life of the world’s
people, is abundantly able to estab
lish such a system, and then Wall
street may rave, manufacture panics,
discuss money markets and engage in
“frenzied finance,” still the indus
trial world can move on, unaffected or
undisturbed, whether- stocks go up or
down, and presidents and courts may
discharge their duties without fear
of a gang of greedy speculators that
plead in the name of widows and or
phans whose financial blood they suck
with the insatiable greed of vamp
ires. *
The President may know that there
is in swift preparation a biggef stick
than that wielded by Wall street. —
Up-to-date Farming.
THE GREAT FIGHT OF THE TO
BACCO GROWERS AGAINST
THE TRUST.
Friday, August 23, will be remem
bered as a red letter day for the farm
ers of Prince Edward.
Fifteen hundred sturdy men and
fair women gathered on that day in
Richardson’s grove near town, and
but for the threatening clouds this
number would have been doubled.
The picnic was given by the Dark
Tobacco Growers’ Association of the
county, and nowhere could there have
been selected a more beautiful place
for the occasion. The orators of the
day were Congressman Flood, of Ap
pomattox, and Hon. Joel* B. Fort, of
“Black Patch” fame, of Tennessee.
Preparations had evidently been made
for the feeding of twice the number
which had risked the elements to be
there, for there was everything in the
greatest abundance and of the most
palatable sort There was ham, lamb,
shoat, chicken, beef, cakes, pies, wa
termelons, ice cream, lemonade, in
fact only the customary Brunswick
stew was missing. The management
of the Farmville Lithia Springs had
thoughtfully provided several bar
rels of sparkling lithia to refresh the
thirsty, and this was immensely en
joyed.
From a stand erected for the oc
casion, the distinguished speakers ad
dressed the assembled crowd. The
first was Hon. H. D. Flood. He was
introduced, though he is no stranger
to our people, by Mr. J. Taylor
Thompson in a ringing speech in
which the farmers’ organization for
their protection was unqualifiedly en
dorsed. Mr. Thompson was given
rousing applause.
Mr. Flood spoke for more than
one hour; his hearers were complete
ly captivated and carried away by
the earnestness of his words and elo
quence of delivery. Among other
things which aroused Ms listeners
Mr. Flood said that the tobacco
raisers had not participated in the
general prosperity with which the
Nation had been blessed. The reason
was not overproduction of the crop,
nor because of the quality, for each
year there has been greater demand
and each year the quality has been
improved. The reason is because the
price of tobacco is fixed by the most
gigantic and ruthless corporation
that ever oppressed mankind. He
gave the history of the American To
bacco Company, and the appeals
made to the Government for relief,
all of which were in vain. The on
ly power and source of relief, he
said, was in organization. The to
bacco growers of Tennessee and Ken
tucky have organized and Virginia
could do likewise. Mr. Flood said
that the American Tobacco Company
had declared 22 1-2 per cent on its
common, and most of this stock rep
resented water and not money. In
1899, 106 per cent was declared on
its common stock. Tobacco sold in
Lynchburg market at an average
price of $6.66 per hundred pounds.
It cost ail of this to raise it, so the
farmers had no profit left them, and
the American Tobacco Company av
eraged 20 cents on every pound it
bought. The injustice of this ar
rangement is apparent to all. He
discussed the difference between the
tobacco growers’ organization and
the Alliance and the Grange. The
Tobacco Growers’ Association came
not to destroy but to build up. He
also discussed the concentration of
wealth in the hands of the few and
declared this to be the evil of the
day. He earnestly appealed to the
farmers to organize, and said that not
withstanding the powers against
them they would succeed because
there would be more with them than
against them. Mr. Flood concluded
his masterly speech amid prolonged
applause.
At the conclusion of Mr. Flood’s
address, Mr. 'Hiompson introduced