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Mr. Fort. He spoke for one hour
and a half, and no one could fail to
observe that from the commencement
to the close of his effort he had the
hearty sympathy of his hearers in ev
ery word he uttered.
Colonel Fort said in part:
Ladies and Gentlemen: The great,
and all absorbing question which
confronts the people of today is the
rules and regulations which must
govern the persons transacting the
business of this country. It is a
question which calls for a counsel of
painstaking, conservative men; it is a
question that calls for the patriot,
and the statesman; it is a question
that calls for the humblest citizen,
the man at the plow, the man at the
anvil, and every man who by his
brawn and muscle gpntributes to the
material development of the coun
try. Free from strife, at peace with
the whole world and enjoying the
commendation of all the earth for the
mighty strokes we have made for the
upbuilding of a new and novel Na
tion, we must need pause to reflect
on the glorious achievements of the
past, and with the “lamp of expe
rience” look as far as possible into
the unexplored future.
Throw aside our failures and re
member them no more forever. Take
up our load and with brotherly love
bear it to the goal of human happi
ness and human greatness. It can
be done without injury or loss to any
one, and must be done, or the genera
tions who must follow will read the
flaming history of impotency and
incompetency written in fadeless let
ters against us.
There are two persons transacting
the business affairs of this country,
and of them I will speak to you to
day. The one the individual citizen,
the other the corporation. As put by
our president in his speech at Provi
dencetown, Mass., the great question
is, “Who shall rule this Government
—the people through the governmen
tal agents, or a few ruthless and
determined men, whose wealth makes
them particularly formidable, because
they hide behind the breastworks oi
corporate organizations V* Behind
and underlying every evil there is a
moving power, and a disease germ,
and it behooves us as impartial, pa
triotic people to uproot and destroy
the germ.
I said that the business affairs
were conducted by two persons. An
all-wise and beneficent God made
the individual citizen, and the law
made the corporation.
God made man for a dual purpose,
to worship and glorify Him, and “to
love his neighbor as himself.” The
Apostle Paul said that ‘‘the love of
money is the root of all evil,” and
the history of mankind without ex
ception demonstrates that the man
who alows the golden chain to drag
through the garden of his heart,
withering all of the beautiful flow
ers of human love and human affec
tion, is worthless as a citizen: worth
less as a friend; worthless as a neigh
bor, and an “undesirable citizeh.”
The good citizen obeys the law. He
makes the law to protect society
against the lower element. He does
not steal, rob or murder. Why not!
For fear of the law! No! But be
cause in his heart of hearts is im
bedded the “golden rule” and he
would not do that to his fellow-man
that he would not that his fellow-
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
man should do to him. He lives
above the law, and would elevate
every one .to that higher plane of
correct and right living. He would
go out and take up his less fortu
nate brother, bind up his wounds,
take him to the inn, and have him
restored to health. He would go
down into the very gutter and take
the waif, wash his face and put him
on the highway to fame and fortune.
He would seek out the home of the
widow, and with the sweet oil of hu
man sympathy wipe away the tear of
grief, and plant the flower of hope
in her heart. He would hunt for
the orphan, educate, feed and clothe,
and give to the land the statesman
and hero from the poor, the ranks
of the unfortunate.
How about the other person en
gaged in business in our land! Obey
the law! Never. Only the power
of the law does command obedience.
Obey the law! It would precipitate
a conflict between the State and Na
tion as was the case in Alabama and
North Carolina, and sit in ghoulish
glee and make merry while the fight
was waged. Obey the law! With up
lifted hand holding the golden key
to the holy of holies, it proclaims
open defiance to the law; open proc
lamation to the world that any man
who .would eat grass on its green
is an anarchist; any man who would
stand for law and the people is a
socialist, any man who would stand
for a moment in its mad rush for pil
lage and pelf, is to it an undesirable
member of society. Obey the law
Let the records of the Bureau of
Corporations with its immense vol
umes speak; let the records of the
courts speak, but louder and more
effective let the great common peo
ple who of late are awaking to the
real issue speak, and the god of mam
mon will know his master and obey
his master.
Who shall rule this country! The
Man, or the ruthless, heartless Cor
poration ? From out the heart of the
great and patriotic President of
these United States comes the clarion
call to every citizen, to even/ father,
to every mother, and I but echo your
answer when I say in the lan
guage of ‘Old Hickory” of dear old
Tennessee, “by the eternal we will
rule this land.”
Rule it so that the poorest and hum
blest will be as safe and secure as
the proudest and haughtiest; rule it
so that when the peasant on the poon
est farm labors he will be as sure of
a full return for his labors as the
Standard Oil Co., or the American
Tobacco Co., of a dividend on com
mon stock, watered and fictitious
stock.
We would educate the farmer and
the merchant so that they will know
that in this age of civilization it is
not every man who makes a fortune
that demands respect and protection,
but alone the man who honestly
earns, who justly earns, who in the
accumulation injures and hurts no
man; but works out his fortune in
obedience to the law and fills the
place of a contributor to the general
good of the common country.
We would educate the ordinary in
dividual to feel and know that if a
corporation, or corporations, in vio
lation of law conspire to fix the price
of the staple product, fix the price
of the staple in accord with their
own ideas of money making, they are
nothing more or less than robbers.
We would educate our people so
that they will leave the familiar rut
and know that when corporations, or
individuals combine as did the Beef
Trust, and sell rotten meat to our
soldiers, they stand on the same
plane and should be looked upon as
an ordinary chicken and hog and
cattle thief.
We would educate our people to
know that when the Tobacco Trust
comes down into Virginia and takes
the tobacco of the poorest tenant at
a price fixed by its own methods,
and at a figure far below the cost of
production, it stands in the eyes of
the law and in the estimation of"
good citizens on the same footing as
the common kinky headed nigger
who slips in your barn at night and
steals your tobacco.
Obey the law! They would precip
itate a conflict between the State
and Nation in order that they may
trample on the law as was the case
in North Carolina and Alabama.
But, my countrymen, I am here to
to you on the one Trust, the
monster of greed and graft, the one
Trust which above all others was so
corrupt, so foul that its money was
not accepted by the Republican Cam
paign Committee in the last Presi
dential election. Well, when a cor
poration or individual gets so low
down that a political party of any
kind will refuse a contribution it is
about time its methods were opened
up, and its robbery exposed. We
would not tear down but build up;
we would not interfere with the legal
and just business affairs of any man,
but when a robber comes on the sa
cred soil of the Old Dominion State
and steals away the shoes and clothes
from the poor tobacco raider, and
sends his family ragged and hare
footed into the icy grasp of winter
it is time for the blood of patriots
- to boil in your veins.
Listen, while I tell you the story
of our thraldom, listen, while I re
late the story of your enslavement.
See what the United States Govern
ment says of this golden angel which
flies in the financial skies and cries
persecution, this wonderful thing with
golden wings and silver hangings, with
rings on its fingers and bells on its
toes, this monster which was too cor
rupt for the Republican party to
take its money for campaign pur
poses. Just think of it, on page 18
of the bill filed in the U. S. Court of
New York against the American To
bacco Co. and its branches, will be
found this language: “Defendants
have entered into unlawful contracts,
combinations and conspiracies to
drive out opponents, exclude all oth
ers and apportion amongst them
selves the trade and commerce in to
bacco throughout the world, and to
define the regions in which undis
turbed each might operate.”
Just think, my countrymen, of the
cheek and gall of this Robber Bar
on—not satisfied with Virginia, not
satisfied with Tennessee, not satis
fied with Kentucky, it must have the
whole world and the fullness there
of as its own.
Listen—this greedy monster came
down into Tennessee and Kentucky
and laid off our lands into territo
ries and districts and appointed lit
tle agents—a little lord of the ma
nor to rule over us—to buy! No. To
take our money crop at his own
sweet will.
Within the charmed circle of his
dominion no other man dare tread,
no other man dare offer to buy to
bacco, and all of the tobacco of ev
ery description, was parceled out
among the agents of the American
Tobacco Co., the Imperial and the
Regie Contractors. The price was
fixed before the seed was sown and
without any idea of supply and de
mand. We had these “Day Riders”
with us ever and they watched our
crops, told lies of its amount and
acreage, and continually sang the
song of “over production” till our
people as did your people believed
we did produce too much tobacco, un
til this organization made an inves
tigation and found tnat instead of
a surplus there was a big deficit.
What robbery and thievery under
guise of fair trade! Our land was in
debt, our tenants were hard pressed,
our money crop was produced at a
loss and bankruptcy and ruin stared
us in the face.
Our daily work was to fight the
wolf of poverty from the door. I
saw the poor man come from his
humble cabin of logs, and heard the
plank rattle on ‘the floor; I saw his lit
tle children follow him in the heat
and cold, toiling all day to make to
bacco to be taken at a ruinously low
price by the Trust, and I heard the
father as he called to little Mary,
“Come on, little one, just one more
row, just a Uttle longer and papa will
buy you a new dress with the tobac
co money, so you can go to Sunday
school like other children.” I saw
the greedy monster take all and leave
no dress for little Mary. Little tired
backs and little aching hearts.
Do you wonder, fellow citizens of
Virginia, that your blood transplant
ed in Tennessee and Kentucky, boiled
with indignation? Do you wonder
that the memory’ of the old Mother
State and all her glorious achieve
ments crowded on our people! We
stood all that a generous and brave
people could stand, we appealed to
the law, but the law was slow, and
we were suffering, then we appealed
to that which is higher and stronger
than the law, that which makes and
unmakes laws and constitutions. We
appealed to the manhood of the old
Volunteer State, to the patriotism
of the gallant Kentuckians, and I
said: “Let the blood of our ances
tors kindle anew the love for home
and country, fall in line and drive
the Robber Baron from our land.”
In less than six months we had the
Baron on his knees, in twelve months
he was the beggar, we the “lord of
the Manor.” It is no idle dream,
it is no theory, but an actual dem
onstrated proposition that the to
bacco grower in Kentucky, and Ten
nessee knows how to sell his tobacco
at a smaller cost than was ever
known before, and even at about
half the former cost of sale.
We are running our own business
where the Trust formerly ran it to
their own good and welfare.
We have put shoes on a thousand
feet where the Tobacco Trust sent
them barefooted in the ice and snow.
We have taken the burden from
the heart of the widow, and planted
the flower of hope in her heart.
We have put paint on the old
home, thank God, and hope in the
hear of the dispirited fanner.
(Continued on Page Thirteen.)
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