The Rebel (Hallettsville, Tex.), Vol. [4], No. 195, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 17, 1915 Page: 1 of 4
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THE REBEL - S#c
T.A.HICKEl, Editor snd Own*r
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BALLETT8VILLS, TEXAS,
SATURDAY,
Al'Hlh
NO. 195
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If the land hearing of the Indudtwl MdPions
i om mission held in Dallas last month did nothing
die but draw the fire of the Dallas m! Galve*ton
News and thus make it possiWe for the names of ten-
ents in Texas to tea the down hoof of Ifceae molded
.sheets, He work was not ia vain.
In another column la published a reply to a ool-
amn^and-half editorial from The New# of March 28,
attacking Judge E. O. Mertsen in a meat mendacious
manner. Not satisfied with thia, The News reports
from day to day of the hearing were gaiNed and the
most important testimony from the tenant's side
played down, and the evidence from the landlord's
side played np.
Then the members of the commission, individual-
ly and collectively wene assailed and the least charge
Against them waa '' incompetence." Followi then a
•erica of editoriale beehmding and befogging the is-
More, and when the work is done, it is found that tven
1he blindest can see that when through the work of
the Land League and the Benders Union, national at-
tention was riveted upon the land situation in Texas
and Oklahoma, the Dal.-Gal. was compelled to strip
off its mask of hypocrisy that it has so long wom.
While claiming to be a free and independent news-
paper, it reveals itaelf as the spokesman for its
great "fccred cow", the landlord interests of Texas
and Oklahoma.
So raw has been the -work of the Gal.-Dal. News
that the chairman of the Commission took a left-
handed slap at it by writing to the Dallas Dispatch,
an afternoon daily published in Dallas and a compet-
itor of The News, in which he points out, after thank-
ing the Dispatch, what The Rebel.has unceasingly
cried out for: "A free and unmuzzled ureas a* oft.1
of the crying needs of our time." Here is the letter:
Frnmk P. Walsh
Kansas City, Mo., March 31st, 1915.
Editor, The Dallas Dispatch, Dallas, Tex.
My dear Sir — I desire to express my per-
sonal appreciation of the fair and intelligent^
manner in which you handled the facts dc-
fveloped at the late hearing of the Commis-
sion on, Industrial Relations at Dallas.
May I also be permitted to say that if all
of the daily papers in this country published
the newg as fearlessly as you did in this in-
stance. in my humble opinion, an "indus-
j trial problem" would soon cease to exist.
* A free and unmuzzled press is one of the
crying needs of our time.
Sincerely yours,
IJrank P. Walsh.
Our readers will remember that in a recent is-
sue of The Rebel I pointed out that until such time
as the Socialist movement of Texas and Oklahoma can
support its own dailies, it would be advisable to boy-
cott the Gal.-Dal. News and in purchasing daily pa-
pers take either The Dallas Dispatch, Austin Trib-
une or Houston Press, all of which papers are part
of the Scripps-McRae system and do not handle a
line of the lying Associated Press stuff. Their nation-
al news service comes from the United Press.
In calling for this boycott I did so with the
x positive knowledge that any individual who buys the
Gal.-Dal. News is swindled in this that he or she is
led to believe that they are getting the news, where,
as a matter of fart, the news is suppressed, colored,
twisted to suit the great financial interests of Texas
of which the largest category, although they inter-
lock with other predatory financial groups, is the
landlord division.
Now let us examine some of the editorials ou the
facts brought out by the Commission and published
,in the Belo publications simultaneously as if shot our
of one gun — and for boycotting purposes remember
they are: The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Ev-
ening Journal, The Galveston Newsj and The Semi-
Weekly Farm News. They form the strongest news-
paper group under one head in the Sortth, and that
head >8 the pink-whiskered Italian Catholic named
Lombardi.
In making this examination remember that these
i-heets are the mouthpiece of the landlord interests of
Texas and Oklahoma and whatever they say is the
last word in human expression of the landlords' right
to fur.etion as a lord of the soil in society.
• ■ i ■ - I 1
Listen to this editorial head: "A Superficial and
Partisan Investigation." This head 1® a lie on its
face for many reasons.
First, since when have a millionaire lady from the Texas Welfare Commission, or from the Exten-
New York, a wealthy Democratic lawyer from Kan- j ston work of tin. State University or the A. & M. or
so* City, and a conservative labor leader of the Be- from the Farm Life Commission, or from the mod
publican persuasion become partisans of the half-
starved tenants of Texas!
Second, if this commission were partisan what
ia the reason that they invited before it and gave the
most courteous treatment to some of the biggest
landlords of Texas and actually summoned more land-
lords than tenants to testify, notably Tom Padgitt,
of Dallas, M. M. Brooks of Dallas, It W. Qhft&ndan-
cr of Waxahaehie, Qownwr James H. Ferguson.
In the light of the summoning of these gentle-
men and other landlords by this commismm made up
of wealthy members of the conservative parties the
heading of this article is only to be described by the
shorter and ugHer word. Why the galled jade winces,
and shrieks, "partisan", is selfevident when we read
the testimony and find that the ease for the tenants
was largely made by admissions wrung from the re-
luctant lips of the landlords themselves.
After lying in the heading The News gin's on to
lie in the first, sentence of the editorial. We read:
"Only owe genuine tenant farmer was
brought l>efnrc the members of the commis-
sion."
That is a lie and is so proven by the record. Mr
Steward is a tenant farmer and a witness, Mrs. Stew-
ard is a tenant and witness, W. S. Noble, of Rock-
dale. is a tenant farmer, W. T. Davis is a renter on
Ihc Padgitt ranch.
However it is worthy of note that wo do not
w sh to make any argument from the fact thfff sev-
( ra' tenants were pnt on. If no tenant had been placed
on the stand the admissions of the landlords would
be enough to damn their own case.
Let us pass to the next lie. The second paragraph
fairly bristles with misstatements and falsehoods.
The appearance of Steward is referred to as a "serio-
comic drama." Actually it was a tragedy. Then we
"The partisan character of this inquiry
is instanced by the fact that this tenant
farmer whose condition was exceptional, wan
offered as a true type of the class."
South!
If The News genuinely wants this information
that i8 mi vital to the progress of the states in which
its publications circulate, I will secure the informa-
tion for them that will be so dependable that they
will accept it themselves. All they have to do is to
drop me a letter inviting me to Dallas and let me get
in touch with their local correspondents inTexas and
Oklahoma autl I will guarantee insitfe of five days to
fill several extra pages of the Dallas News with the
most authentic data as to tenant condition,, from rv-
ery portion of these two states, and I promise not to
•marge them a cent for my work and pay my own
iraveling expenses,
<'omc to think of it, Mr. Editor, why did you
overlook this opportunity for the gf-eatcst news story
tor your readers 0f this century! Why do you press
th*> button and set all your wires to work to secure
the detailed vote from over two hundred Texas coun-
ties an,] from a thousand communities showing the
vote cast in a nominating primary, and yet do not put
that same machinery to work to secure from the mort-
gage records and tax rolls of Texas and Oklahoma
''dependable information concerning tenant farmers
a* a el ass \ that, is immensely more important than
ally compilation that your enterprise lias ever touch
ed *
''AN IT BE POSSIBLE THAT THIS INFOR-
MATION IS KEPT OUT OF YOUR PAPERS AND
OUT OF YOUR "TEXAS ALMANAC" BECAUSE
THE LANDLORDS HAVE PLACED A MUZZLE
ON YOUR JAWS AND MADE YOUR MIND A
DESERT!
With that information in your possession you
would not fall into the next blunder, that of saying
tlnit "not all tenants arc poverty-stricken."
The mental microbe of The Dal.-Gal. News re-
veals through his preachments the intellectual limita-
tions of a cornfield coon who gathers together what
Brann used to call ''sesquipedalian" words and fires
them at his audience regardless of their application.
Hence he falls into the "on sequitor of inferring that
most tenants are wealthy because all are not poverty*
tieal economy! If not what w'hool, classical or
dern. has ever lumped together the professional,
mercantile and the proletarian class! If the
of The. News has made a new discovery in the
of the dismal scicnce of political economy then ! si
palpitatingly wait for the first brochure oh the sul
jeet that may come from his labored pen. But i M
meantime while awaiting his effort 1 shall be son
pelled to relegate him, so far a political
Roes, to the few disciples of Professor Alfred Jew
who discovered that, panics were caused by spots
the sun. ft1
After analyzing each paragraph in this
and su|M'rfieial brainstorm of The News man, I
to his conclusion, which should bring the blush <
shame to a Villa i*<on who had attended sehoot
the first time in his life The gentleman goes back
Adam and on the doctrine of original sin, via
'outc of "disabilities and delinquencies of the «
vidual", inferring these alone ore the cause of
tenant's poverty. Unfortunately for The News
or's reputation for scholastic attainments poor A<
is in had, in spit<> (>f the praise showered upon
by anti-suffragette leaders in the Thirty-fourth
islature. There ore no Mark Twains today to
over the grave of Adam. Instead i very preacher i|
America who has burned one gallon of midnight
now reconciles Genesis with evolution and in joyonl
unison from ocean to ocean they sing in the ela
rooms of the great theological universities that stir
ring quatrain: ,^|j|
IjOtig before Adam or Eve
I/ong liefore Eve or the Snake,
Tn the far Land of Nod we carried the hu
And the world was alive and awake.'
1 he haso of the whole problem is that tenant
reveals itself as an ever-growing malevolent
stitution, and the situation is being established frw
year to year just ag in England where the rule
been; "Once a tenant always a tenant," through
iron pressure of economic conditions regardless of 1
virtues or failings of the individual. The high pi
of land, the high price of money, the high price o^
merchandise, the low price of the raw product
these arc the factors that discount the moral exeefj
icncics of the individual and render all subject Ui
"disabilities und delinquencies", except
her,, and there a giant of the toughest fibre who ii
able to react upon his environment and control if
! stricken. He does not seem to understand that tenan-
Uer,e The News lies again. The tenant referred |ry un(| poverty are synonymous terms. Not taking
to was not offered by the commission. He was not, of-! exceptions but speaking broadly, who ever heard of a, Such a man was a Lincoln but he was born when th«|
ferred as a true type of his class. Ihc record shows, t«'iiaut thai was not, poverty-stricken! Did he everj 'un<^ vvaH free, tenantry was unknown, and abundar
he was offered by Mr. Noble, of the Land League as J ]1(,ar a wealthy Irish tenant? Travel southern of fresh, pure food could bo secured by the aid of
typical of two-thirdg of the quarter of a million Tex- Europe from Italy's renting lazzaroni until you cross Kentucky rifle.
the line to Petrograd and tell me of a prosperous ten-
ant. Take the renter8 of New York or London and
show me where tenantry has ever Ih'ch a badge of af-
fluence. And finally come to Texas or Oklahoma
and visit the homes of the agricultural renters and it
would require the imagination of a Dal. Oal. editor
or a hop fiend to see in a busted $2 graphophone a
grand piano, in six bit overalls a broad cloth suit, in
V*-'-
as routers, and this statement was substantiated by
Prof. E. W Leonard, of the Texas University of
Austin, who testified that he had made an exhausive
investigation of conditions in Ellis, the richest black
land county in the state where, naturally, tenants
should be the most prosperous — and lie testified:
"Sixty-nine per cent, of the farmers are
tenants. They are increasing every ypar.
Twenty-five per cent, are so poverty stricken
they i-ender no taxes and 75 per cent, less
than $4(X). This data was secured by me
from the tax rolls of Ellis county. Credit
prices for supplies secured mostly by mort-
gages are 30 per cent, higher than cash
prices. A personal investigation of 89 ten-
ants showed that their average savings from
191.? to 1914 was #120 PER FAMILY." ,
! In the paragraph from which 1 have just quoted,
Talk about Ihc Steward family not being ty|..cal! Th(, ^ p(|Uor mnti„llra t0 tedolge in , KriM „(
They were not typical enough, became they had contortionB thlt, wouM Inak, m(m..
teams, tools, and household Kooda over the value of of char|(,8 c|Mp|jn ^ „ Mdate a that of
$400.- Thus Jo we nail Th,, News aEa,n by the writ- h,,j(.w(,|w (lowa(,„ Ho>r him.
ten record. ,
The doctrine "f individual delinquency or
ginal sin" belongs in the witch burners' age and
landlords of Texas are in a parlous condition whei
they seek to excuse their merciless exploitation with|
medieval logic.
The land monopolists of Texas are on the
fensive now. They will soon be on the run. Tl
cwtern water, champagne- in Kimny sack uudcrclo-j Fwl,,ra| |<nd ilm,ti(,alirm lnS(ll. pMliblc b The „l
thi-a the lnee lingerie of Valenciennes, in the samhvl M lhp the ,mDd Uaj(ue and
eialist party of Texas, has awakened them to thcirl
danger. Like a den of rattlesnakes that has been (lis-[
turbed they hiss and shoot their venom at the proJ
tagonists of uHe ami occii/nincy a.* the title to /niui.[
They have thrown awav their Bibles. Their voiceal
floor a Brussels carpet, the newspaper walls hung
with Oriental tapestry, and soda biscuits, chickory
and sow bosom approximating venison truffles, phea-
sant and wine. I believe that the Gal.-Dal. editor
would even mistake corn broad for club and caviar
sandwiches!
i *• ■y'kxi, jv - ,,'Of\;>l
The next paragraph in which it says the Com-
mission was guilty of "several derelictions", contains
a grotesque lie in these ponderous words:
"We shall acquire no dependable infor-
mation concerning tenant farmers a« a class
until we segregate them into something like
homogeneous groups."
..A-,'' '■ '"
What an absurd position for an editor of a daily
paper in the twentieth century in Texas to take. Is
there no "dependable information" to be gleaned
from the 1910 census reports or from the reports of
"The conditions of tenant farmers as a
class are not different from those of any oth-
er class. If there are tenant farmers who
are poverty-stricken, go are there lawyers,
doctors, grocers, dry goods merchants "
This wonderful grouping of men in various eco-
nomic classes in an attempt to make a common point
is enough to cause Jphn Stuart Mill, Adam Smith,
Ricardo, Bohmwareck, or Marx to rise from their
several graves and gnaw their tombstones in wild
despair. Since when did a lawyer or a doctor or a
merchant enter the category of wealth producers! Is
• he editor of the News starting a new school of poli-
<*1: " .• ..ft!, .•
are stilled in the Amen corner. They arc ceasing tol
donate for gold fillings for the teeth of the heathen
and they are rallying to make their last stand behindl
the black flag and the masked batteries of the Bek>|
publications, because the Land League is growing,
the voting strength of the Socialist party is increas-l
ing, the renter and the mortgaged farmer is beingl
stirred to.his soul by a vision of the New Day, the
day when he can sit under his vine and fig tree and
receive all the fruits of his labor. That day in lyhieh
every prospect will please, because every exploiter
has vanished from the earth.
That day will soon be here because every year ii^J
thia slave state are born two hundred and fifty thou
und children, born with the badge and the doom
slavery, born to the liability bv law and by custo
and by the devilish cupidity of men to the Uksh of]
want and the chain of penury, that will force tl
fathers NOW to join in the movement to tmij
the land forever. Then in the night of the
lords' gloom the editorial pen of the Dal.-Oal.
will be found a slender reed on which to lean.
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Hickey, T. A. The Rebel (Hallettsville, Tex.), Vol. [4], No. 195, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 17, 1915, newspaper, April 17, 1915; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth394941/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UT San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.