Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PAGE TEN ZETTEftJ' PROM THR PEOPLE Sioux Falls, S. D., July 30, 1907. Editor Jeffersonian: On the sth-7th of June, the Nation al Grain Growers’ Convention was held at Omaha, and a permanent or ganization was made. In that con vention the writer introduced the fol lowing resolution. He, as a delegate to the Trans-Mississippi Convention last November, had introduced a sim ilar resolution, but in that railroad ship-subsidy-corporatiou-plugged con vention nothing could pass that meant anything, if John P. Irish, corpora tion advocate from San Francisco, could prevent, and the resolution was lost. 1 ' Resolved, That it is the sense of The National Grain Growers’ Con vention that the United States Con gress should at once set itself to the work of ascertaining the cost of re producing the railroads of this coun try, and that it should pass a law re stricting the capitalization of said roads to the amount of said cost of reproduction, and that the rate of tar iff should be so reduced as to allow only a reasonable profit upon this capitalization. This resolution went through al most unanimously. It seems to the writer that the sentiment of this res olution is due from every political convention that pretends in any mea sure to represent the interest of the masses. There is no right either in law or morals for the fictitious values known as watered stock, and the on ly way the robbery will ever be end ed is for the people to demand the reform, and demand it at all times. This is one of the questions that the people must not for one moment for get. It must come BEFORE gov ernment ownership. We do not care to have the government buy goods at twice the cost, not even the railroads. The dishonest methods our govern ment has permitted for years must be discarded. It is not business, it is robbery. All the highwaymen since the days when one cave dweller way laid another to take from him by strength and skill in the use of the robber’s club, the wild animal he had slain, are as a pebble to the laige New England boulder when compared to the amount stolen from the pro ducers and consumers of this “land of the free and home of the brave” —(brave in time of war, cowards we are, in time of peace)—by the magic theft of WATERED STOCK. J. A. ROSS. Moravia, N. Y., Oct. 12,1907. Enclosed find money order for one dollar and fiftv cents for which please send me “Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine,” for one year. Yours truly, COE WILSON. HERE’S ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE LITTLE GIRLS. Lumpkin, Ga., Oct. 16, 1907. Dear Mr. Watson: I wish you could hear papa reading your paper. I am the daughter of one of your subscribers of your paper, Mr. J. N. Simpson. When he is reading along he will stop and say, “Tom Watson is the smartest man in the United States.” WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. I am glad when your paper comes. Papa is mad when his paper doesn’t come. I am a little girl going to school in Lumpkin, Ga. I am eight years old. Papa said he had three more sub scribers for you but he saw that vou had changed your price and he never did ask them about the dollar. He doesn’t know that they will take the paper. Papa reads the paper at home and when he gees up town he talks about what he saw in your pa per. Yours truly. MARY LIZZIE SIMPSON. Note: The Jeffersonian feels very sorry for those three men. But it is not too late for them to come right along. Aragon, Ga., Oct. 18, 1907. Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. My Dear Sir: In reply to yours, would say, Yes, I am one of those who stood with you in the real days of long ago. I w r as proud of you then, and proud of you still for the great work which you are doing. But few men have stood for the great principles of a free people as you have stood. You have my profound est thanks for the way you have fought for great principles. I be lieve some day you will come into your full glory. Yes, I deem it a great privilege to sit at your feet and learn the great truths that fall from your pen. May prosperity ever attend you. Os course, I can’t do without the Jeffersonian. Enclosed find P. O. or der for sl. Let it continue coming. Your friend, THOS. A. LAWSON. THIS ONE COMES FROM AN OLD VET OF THE UNION ARMY. Hon. Thos. E. Watson. Dear Sir: Enclosed find sl. for which send me the Watson’s Week ly, which contains Jeffersonian Democracy as I view it, and Oblige yours, CAPT. ADDISON R. TITUS. National Military Home, Ohio, Ward ' 12. * Note. —Capt. Titus wrote to Mr. Bryan’s paper for a copy of the Jef fersonian, and the above shows what this aged soldier thinks of it. I sa lute you, Captain. Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Esq. My Dear Sir: Find post-office order for $1 for renewal to the Weekly Jef fersonian to October 11, 1908. I got October 10. Three numbers back I have not got yet. Please send them and my October number of magazine has not come. Please send isl sure, as I am out a lot when I miss either one. s Ever your friend, W. H. H. DAVIS. Mobile, Ala. Bodcaw, Ark., Oct. 8, 1907. Hon. Thos. E. Watson. Dear Sir: Fourteen years ago, when my first boy came to bless my home, I was such an admirer of you that my neighbors called him Tom Watson. He now reads your Jeffer sonian, and lately when he noticed you were going to take all the Tom Watsons to Yellow Stone Park, he was so glad he could not behave him "self. Hoping you may live long to fight battles of those that are not able to fight for themselves, and finally see the principles which you have so long advocated, finally triumph and finally receive what you justly deserve. Yours truly, O. D. MAY. Bardwell, Ky., Oct. 12, 1907. Hon. Thos. E. Watson. Dear Sir: Enclosed find $1 foi my renewal for Jeffersonian. ISAAC WOODEN. R. F. D. 2, Box 19. Must Go SURE—T. E. W. Winder, Ga., Oct. 13, 1907. Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. Dear Sir: My father, W. S. Duna hoo, died in August, therefore you drop his name from your list. I thought I would write so you would not think that he had “gone back” on you in his old days. He was in his seventy-seventh year, and has been an ardent admirer of Tom Watson since 1890. He never failed to speak a good word in your behalf when an opportunity presented itself for him to do so. Your ardent admirer, W. F. DUNAHOO. Eddyville, Ky., Oct. 14, 1907. Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga. My Dear Sir: Enclosed you will please find P. O. order for $1.75, which is to renew Wm. Holland’s sub scription to The Weekly Jeffersonian, and to pay for the Monthly Jeffer sonian, which he has never taken before. Please send each to the same address, Wm. Holland, Mont, Ky. Yours very truly, G. L. GRAY. SHE WON PRIZE AND LIKES IT. Austell, Ga., Sept. 14, 197. Hon. Thos. E. Watson: I am just in receipt of lhe first copy of your valuable magazine, as 'bne of the prizes I won at the cor respondent contestants’ picnic held at Octavia, in August. Words are in adequate to express my appreciation of your valuable periodical. I have read it with much interest. My fa then, Rev. E. Jewell, who is a per fect book-worm, says he appreciates your magazine more than he would have the ten-dollar gold piece, the fi ist piize, if I had won it. He says your magazine is the best gotten up magazine he every saw; that it is of the best paper, and print, and has the best editorials and other reading mat ter in it. Thinking perhaps you would like to read the piece I received the prize on, I herein send you a copy of same, al so of those that won the other prizes. Wishing you much success in your noble work, allow me to subscribe my self as your friend. MRS. LAURA RUNYAN. Her “piece” follows: DUTY OF A COUNTY PAPER. (Essay read at Courier Correspond ent!’ Picnic at Octavia, August 21, 1907, and awarded third prize.) By Mrs. Laura Runyan. We deem it the first duty of a county editor to deal principally with questions pertaining to county affairs; and of these, first, the expenditure of the public ‘money, and what it should be spent for. There is too frequently an unneces sary waste of public funds. The ex penditure of the county administra tor is often extravagant and useless. He should never fail to expose such a waste, whether by mismanagement or otherwise the people’s money is being wasted. He should keep in touch with the public schools. In many instances school commissioners become too lax, not only in examination of applicants for license, but in visiting the schools. If there is a failure on the part of the county school commissioner to keep the standard of teachers up to the proper’ mark, the editor should feel it a duty he owes the people to call attention to such failure; for in the matter of public schools we find a subject that most closely affects the standard of civilization in any com. munitv. If the condition of the public roads is not what it should be, it is the edi tor’s duty to call attention to the fact, and show the improvements needed. There are different methods of having the roads worked. He should carefully study the different methods, and recommend the adoption of the best. It should be his object to find out what is best for ,the peo ple of his county, then lend his ef forts to accomplish the object. The people of the county rely, to a great extent, on the county paper for the news, as well as ideas of manag ing county affairs. In dealing with county affairs, as well as social items, he should maintain a high standard — deal fairly with both sides of every controversy, and seek to maintain a high degree of morality in society by condemning what he considers immor al and approving th right and that which tends to the upbuilding of so ciety. In other words, he should keep in close touch with the feelings of his patrons and make his influence felt by them. It is within the province of the county editor to deal briefly with state, national and international af fairs; but we think he should digest the most notable happenings, and give the essence—never the details—of public events. This is for the great daily papers. The county editor should deal in detail only with those matters directly affecting the readers of the paper, who, generally speak ing, are citizens of the county where the paper is published. There is a great field open to the county editor to render invaluable service in the matter of local politics. We are not much in favor of his having iron-clad politics, because the politics should have nothing to do with the administration ofi county af fairs. He should support a competent and honest man out of his party, rather than one of questionable char acter in his party. Last, but not least, he should as sist .the representatives in the legisla ture to know what his county needs, and assist them, through the medium of his paper, to elect men who can make themselves felt in the legisla ture when seeking the enactment of laws for the benefit of the people.