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CjS^Ti
V«^6. No. 4.
GASTONIA, N. C, JANUARY 25, 1912
One Dollar a Year
Various and divers interests and classes
made • their descent upon Washington,
and with effect. Last spring the newspaper
publishing combine got in its effective work,
s^ud Secured section two in the Reciprocity law
giving them free wood-pulp and print paper
^I'om the very day Taft signed the bill, regard-
less of whether Canada ratified it. So they
§ot theirs. What they got was the duty re
moved from their imports.
This regular session a number of other
special interests have visited the national capi-
^^1, and the democratic house has responded
uiost obligingly to their demands. First came
the Jews, demanding an abrogation of our
treaty with Russia, even though we were re
fusing to admit here Russian Chinese, polyga-
nious Musselmen, and others from Russia
having passports, and the house, senate, arid
the president, seemed to tumble over them-
^^F^es to put an end to that treaty of peace and
commerce with our old friend and ally of all
these years.
hJ^ext came the old Union soldiers, who, al
though they are already getting over one hun
dred million dollars a year in pensions, were
handed out, bn a silver platter, scarcely for the
Asking, a dollar a day service pension. Then
came organized labor, and the house proceeded
pass an eight hour law and will soon put
|hrough a workmen’s compensation law, abol
ishing the fellow servant rule, assumption of
iisk, and other old common law principles.
And at the last reports the good roads were
iu Washington, the “Three A’s,” that is the
^^tomobile fellows, and were told by the
democratic leaders of the house that all they
had to do was to get together on a bill and get
behind it and it would be pushed through
^he lower branch of Congress.
Now, is it not time, high time, that “Old
^^be” was marching on Washington? Maybe
is too late. Maybe all the concessions have
^cn handed out. Maybe when the house in-
^ceased its own membership forty members
^Ucl thereby the expenditures of Uncle Sam
^^^cr a million dollars a year, in order to save
^ seats of one member each from several
^^uthern state delegations, and did all' these
®iher things, it exhausted its ability and de-
‘ '|c to do things. Maybe the old clodhoppers
arrive in Washington only to come back
again, like the King who marched up the hill
only to march down again. But here’s hoping
that he will be treated.at least as well as the
last republican house treated him, which pa-ss-
ed an anti-gambling-in-cotton bill, whose con
gressional commission recommended sub
stantial restriction, which increased appropria
tions for agricultural purposes two million
dollars, whose committee started a good in
vestigation into the needs of a parcels pert
(just recommended by Taft and the Post
master General). Yes, you, after all these
years of promises individually and collective
ly, we know “Old Rube,” our national legis
lative committee now in Washington, will be
treated “right” by the democratic house. That
body has been very generous to the old Union
soldier, who some think will vote as he shot,
it has been very good and promises to be still
better to organized labor, give foreign-born
Jews what they wanted, took the duty off print
paper and wood pulp from Canada for the
newspaper publishing class, took care of its
individual members by increasing their num
ber forty at an additional annual expenditure
of over a million dollars, and we know we
farmers who constitute over half the people
of this country and who have been promised
what we want are going to get it from this
house. Our four legislative demands an anti
gambling law, a parcels post measure, the
proper restriction of undesirable foreign im-
igration along the lines of the Immigration
Commission’s recommendations, and more
libe^l appropriations for agricultural pur
poses, will surely be looked after. But for
fear some one individual congressman may
have forgotten his promises, or may have
overlooked our wishes and our interests in the
matter, let every one sit right down and write
a postal card or a letter to his congressman
and two senators, at Washington, D. C., call
ing their attention to our legislative wishes.
Tell them you want these things, and you are
depending upon the present house and senate
to do something for the farmers along these
lines. Don’t delay, write them today. If you
don’t happen to have their full names and ad-
' dresses ask your postmaster or rural mail
carrier, and then write them at Washington,
D. C.
Charity Local No. 194.
Dear Editor: As I haven’t seen anything
in the Carolina Union Farmer about our local
I will tell you something about it.
Our Secretary-Treasurer was away at the
end of the year when our meeting should have
been held to elect officers, so it was postponed
until January 13th, at 2:00 p. m. The officers
for 1912 are as follows: President, M. E.
Hedrick; Vice-President, S. D. Little; Secre
tary-Treasurer, C. L. Starnes; Organizer and
Lecturer, W. J. Huffman; Chaplain, E. R.
Hefner; Doorkeeper, T. A. Miller; Conductor,
Pink Ekard; Executive Committee, T. E.
Bowman, E. P. Killian and B. E. Fry; Busi
ness Agent, T. H. Bumgarner.
This shows us that our local is holding to
gether, and I hope will do greater things this
year than ever before. We should have a
farmers exchange in Catawba county. The
most important question now, is to market
right, and this can be done if the farmers will
act right and at the proper time. Not only the
farmers of Catawba county, but elsewhere.
The low price of cotton is sufficient evidence
to show the farmers that they should get to
gether, and try to plan to better their condi
tion. There are farmers that think they know
more about the Union than you do, and they
will stand back and telUvhat the Union should
do, and when you ask them to join and help
do something, they will tell you if they know
certain things they would not mind joining.
At the same time while this Union manTs
holding his cotton for what he ought to have
for his labor, this non-union man, if he learns
that cotton has advanced a quarter of a cent
on the pound, he will get up at 3 o’clock and
try to beat everybody to market, and in this
way he keeps down the price. Just ask him to
join the Union and he will tell you times are
too hard, but he will go to the local fertilizer
agent and hand him over from one to five dol
lars more than it would cost him if he be
longed to the Union.
C. L. STARNES,
Secretary-Treasurer.
Hickory, No. 2.
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