The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 25, 1918, Page 5

Bz 5 & o | Y N I .He made public a code telegram he fusion. But the northern delegates were too strong for them and they lost. . Although fusion was adopted as a national plan, the Texas Populists went home and put up a state ticket of their own, headed by Jerome Kirby for - governor. Their defeat at St. Louis only made the Texas Populists ready for a harder fight at home. Enthusiasm for the farmers’ ticket swept the state. Every night the Populist candidates . addressed enormous crowds. going their way. But events proved that the 103 Texas delegates knew what they were doing when they said, by their votes at St. Louis: “Beware of the Democratic politicians,” One former Democrat, a lawyer known as “Buck” Waldron, had gotten on the state ticket. At a critical moment just before election, he withdrew, charging that the Populist leaders planned to “sell out” to the Republi- cans, An idea of how this was brought about was given when another candi- date, “Stump” Ashby, announced that he had been given several hundred dollars to withdraw from the ticket. had received from Blake, the Democra- tic state boss. The writer wasn’t able to find anybody in Texas who remems- ° bered Blake's first name. Two of the code words in the telegram he sent were “cat” and “apple” and Blake from that time on was known to everybody as “Cat Apple Blake.” COUNTED “WET. MEXICANS” TO BEAT POPULISTS, But in spite of every “Roorback” against the Populists, in spite of every false statement issued too late for de- nial, in spite of insufficient campaign funds, the protest against the Demo- cratic bosses was so great that it seem- ed that the Populists had carried the state. There are plenty of old time politicians in Texas today who are willing to say that the Populists really did win—that they had elected their governor, five or six congressmen and other state officers—but were counted out by Democrats, who were in control of the election machinery. As one of the Populists put it: “They had to count dead niggers, mules and wet Mexicans to beat us.” By “wet Mexicans” he meant Mexicans who had swum across the Rio Grande river, the international boundary, to vote. There were many such election frauds in the old days, so many that they hardly commanded attention. At any event the Populists lost and from that time the party faded away, until it ceased to exist. For a number of years there was nothing happen- ing in the way of farmers’ organizations. Tgen, in \ It seemed as if everything was 1903, the toufidation was laid for one of the most notable farmers’ movements in the history of the United States. COTTON FARMERS ORGANIZE INTO FARMERS' UNIONS 4 The cotton situation furnished the reason for the new movement, Cotton is the most important pro- duct of Texas. Cotton ordinarily has sold for around 10 cents a pound. But the fluctuations in the cotton market are great—it is the worst. gamb- ling proposition of any of the big staple crops. This has been made possible by the small control that the average planter has over his crop. The planter usually has his crop mortgaged to a credit merchant before it is planted. The credit merchant has the sole right to dispose of the cotton of dozens or hundreds of planters, and these credit merchants, One of the hardships that many Texas farmers face is lack of water. The young farmer shown in this picture has driven in from eight miles away to buy his water from the railroad, near Waco, Texas. The railroad owns an artesian well, the only well of any kind for miles around. ‘in turn, are bound by contract to turn all their cot- ton over to “cotton factories,” who control them. In 1903 cotton was down to eight cents. It was at this time that “Newt” Gresham, a farmer of Rains county, Texas, interested a number of his neighbors in organizing the first Farmers’ union. The idea was that the farmers should work to- gether in disposing of their cotton. It was some- what of an advance over the plans of the Farmers’ alliance, which co-operated principally in purchas- ing supplies, rather than in' selling products. The new idea spread over the state like wildfire, Farmers’ unions were organized everywhere. Gres- ham’s personality was responsible for a good deal of this. He is described by men who knew him as the George S. Loftus of Kansas—a tireless crusader. Like Loftus, he was made the victim of every brand of vilification. Like Loftus, he is dead now. But be- fore he died the big farmers’ organization was well on its way in Texas, and now it has spread to every western and southern state. The first thing that the Farmers’ union did was to urge against “dumping” the entire cotton crop on the market at the same time. This was in 1904, and it did something toward steadying the market and regulating prices. Next the farmers began to meet and determine the average cost of production, agree- ing to hold their crop until this figure was reached on the market. They did not try to do it all at once, but as the result of their efforts prices of 11 and 12 cents were reached during 19056 and 1906. - In the meantime the Union organized local co- operative associations ‘to build cotton warehouses. These were needed to make any kind of a holding movement possible, because cotton deteriorates con- siderably when bales of it are left out in the weather for any considerable length of time (the way most of it is still handled in the South), and the banks will not lend money on it under these conditions. About. 300 of these local warehouses were organ- ized, in all, and by 1906 these were linked up with a central warehouse at Houston. This central warehouse, while not a strictly co-operative en- terprise, was owned by a group of Farmers’ union men, headed by E. A. Calvin, who were working with the local warehouses for an advanced price. This was the situation in 1907. The Farmers’ union had a strong organ- - ization built up, both as to member- ship and as to its warehouse system. It had been able to bring millions of dollars to its membership by the work that had been done in preceding years. In 1907 it was determined to make an attempt to get the real cost of produc- tion for their cotton—determined for that year to be 15 cents a pound. Farmers agreed not to sell under any conditions until this figure had been reached. FARMERS HOLD TIGHT AND GAMBLERS RAVE Then a battle royal began. The cotton gamblers at Houston, Galveston, New Orleans and other points began to manipulate the market, making big increases in price and then equally big drops, in the hopes that the farmers would become frightened and sell their cotton. But the farmers stuck. The newspapers railed at the farmers, who had scarcely any papers of their own. : The credit men and bankers kicked, but still the farmers stuck and held their cotton. One large New York bank sent a circular letter to its correspondent banks in the South, urging that all the cotton possible be put on the market imme- diately to break down the price. The farmers got The farm tractor is now being Introduced ln Texas to. some extent to replace the mule. The lnterelt that the farm boyl are nhowlng in thu tractor indicates how unusual it is. Most of the Texas cotton growera, however, are not:making: mugh money: to buy tractors, and comldcr themselves lucky lf they have enough. mules. PAGE FIVE