Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

nel, to the farms in payment for the labor which produced these com modities. Hence the chain which binds these two great classes together is a strong one, and it should draw them very close to each other. Whatever bears with unjust weight upon the wage earners, impairs their ability to buy, and weakens the farmers’ principal customers. And, on the other hand, injustices done the farmer, or con ditions that cripple the efficiency of his labor, diminish the supplies from which the wage laborers must draw their sustenance. This places thes two classe in a position of mutual dependence, that ought to lead to mutual helpfulness. But it does not follow from this that the two classes should amalgamate. Indeed they cannot. Their incomes are derived from different sources, and depend upon different contingen cies; their wrongs are entirely differ ent, and it takes altogether different means to right them. The wage la borer may be wronged by a'reduetion wages; his remedy has generally Poeen to quit work until his labor be came so imperatively needed that his wages were gladly restored or even advanced. In this the farmers cannot aid him, because the farmer is work ing for no one but himself, and even were he to quit work, his idleness would have no effect on the line of work sought to be affected by the striking laborers. The farmer, on the other hand, may be injured, not by a reduction of daily wage, but by a reduction of the price paid for his crops. He cannot seek a remedy in a strike, for if he were to quit work he would lose not a simple wage from day to day, but he would lose a season’s crops, and a whole year’s income. And no labor union’s sympathetic strike could reach his ease at all. The only way the farmer can find his remedy is in refusing to sell, and that bears not so much upon the author of his wrong as it does upon his friend and ally, the wage laborer, who must have his products every dly. It must certainly be clear, then, that while these two great classes should be friends, closely united by mutual interests, oppressions come to them in different ways and must be overcome by different means. They cannot, therefore, organize in a single body, nor can their separate organiza tions combine. They can co-operate, * and they should co-operate, but they cannot affiliate. In this lies a danger to farm organ ization, especially to the American Society of Equity. Appreciating the interests that bring these two great classes together, the A. S. of E. ap proached the labor unions with a friendly heart, an open hand and a God speed. This was mistaken by some as a march directly into the camp of labor, but it was not; it was simply a greeting of brothers in toil, and a pledge of co-operation in such things as are mutually helpful. This misunderstanding manifested itself in the late national convention. Labor leaders were prominent there, and an erstwhile leader, a man who was never a farmer and never pre tended to be so far as our knowledge extends, was more than conspicuous in directing the affairs of the con vention. And not one, we may say, but several. It is an actual fact that labor leaders were, by the convention, accorded the privileges of the floor that were denied actual farmers and members of the Society. We merely call attention to this matter as a note of warning. The farm organization that becomes a part of the union labor system is doomed. —Up-to-Date Farming. INCREASING FARM INDUSTRIES The Sedro-Woolley Courier pub lishes an interesting story illustrating the possibilities of increasing farm industries in this favored land of ag riculture. A few years ago one of the fruit growers in that town secured a cider manufacturing plant and began converting his surplus apples into marketable vinegar. The demand for his product increased, and his plant has grown to such large dimensions that this autumn he has made 600 barrels of cider. In the course of time that will become choice vinegar and find a ready market. In addi tion to enlarging the plant, the owner has set a new orchard of 600 trees, which will be utilized in supplying fruit for future years. Industrial argiculture offers some of the best inducements for the in vestment of labor and capital that can be found in the Northwest. It occupies a distinct field, which has not been overworked. No branch of the industry has an excess of prod ucts. There is little danger of any depreciation in this line for many years. The army of consumers is greater than the producers. There is a constant stream of humanity rushing to the industrial centers. Ev ery new family means an additional purchaser for the products of the farm and factory. The vinegar-mak ing plant is only one of the many factories belonging strictly to the farm, orchard and garden. The present age of commerce de mands concentrated foods of every variety. Shipments must be made to the Orient and Alaskan ports. In many instances the foods are carried great distances under primitive modes of transportation. Evaporated cream is in demand because no other form "of milk can be shipped to the far away consumers. Fruits must be can ned, dried and made into jellies to meet the requirements of many buy ers. Even potatoes are evaporated and sent over the world where the raw tubers could not be handled. Vegetables are converted into various dainty products that command good prices everywhere. Here are some of the opportunities for industrial agricultural development. Western financiers have outgrown the age of specialism. After a resi dence has been established in the rap idly developing fields of agriculture and allied industries, the mind broad ens and investments are suggested by the environment. That explains who so many new and profitable en terprises have been launched in the state of Washington in the past few years. There is no necessity for ideas to lie dormant. Opportunities are on every hand. The originator of plans that produce satisfactory financial results is generally prosperous. The work grows in importance year after WARSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. year, and even the smallest plans must be enlarged frequently to take care of the business that increases with the coming of home-builders. Here is a broad field worthy of care ful investigation.—Seattle Post. EDUCATING THE FARMERS. Secretary of Agriculture Wilson says the literature of his department is not as dry to the farmer as to the layman, as evidenced by the fact that last year farmers brought 71,764 pieces of the -publications, for which they paid the cost price to the gov ernment, plus 10 per cent. This investment in agricultural ed ucation was money well spent, and the department is better enabled to supply the educational matter by the nominal contributions from the beneficiaries. A few years ago the mails were burdened with public documents franked by members of Congress to constituents who cared nothing what ever for them, and who never used them for any other purpose than to build fires or to serve as waste paper. Some of the public documents were of value to a few people who would willingly have paid for them a sum sufficient to cover the cost of print ing and mailing. Tt would have been a great saving to the government, both in the expense of printing and binding, and of sending out the pat ent office reports and other “pub. does.,” if only those who really wanted them and were willing to pay something for them had been sup plied. The literature sent out by the Ag ricultural Department is educational and useful. It gives the farmer and stockman the benefits of experiment tation conducted in their interest, of advice as to seeds and plants, and methods of cultivation, and as to economy on the farm and range. The information that has been af forded by the Department of Agri culture in its bulletins and by its special agents and investigators has been worth millions of dollars to the farmers and stock raisers of the coun try, and it is not surprising that they have shown their appreciation by asking for its publications and by contributing something toward their cost to the government. Diversified farming is one of the results of the education of the farm ers, especially those of the South, and we of South and Southwest Tex as know how great has been the ben efit to this section in the progress of diversified farming in the past few years.—San Antonio Express. MR. WILSON’S IDEA OF A GOOD FARMER. Secretary Wilson likes to talk about farmers and farming, and he ought to, for he is President Roose velt’s Big Farm Man. The following is given as his idea of a good farmer: He rotates his crops, tiledrains his lands, keeps up good fences, has good pastures, has a good garden, breeds draft horses and does farm work with hrood mares and growing colts, has a library with periodicals and standard works, and a musical instru ment, helps his wife in the house when she needs it, has a spring vehi cle for her to visit in, and drives her to church himself, and he keeps dairy cows or mutton sheep, or both. But, hold on, Mr. Secretary. “One thing thou lackest.” What is he to do with his crops? Who is to sell them? Who makes the price for them? Who get the profits on them? Strange the selling part, the main part, of farming is never thought of, ain’t it? He is hardly a good farm er who does not sell his crops well. Bring that in, Mr. Wilson, and you are all right.—Up-to-Date Farming. A BROTHER EDITOR WRITES ON THE FINANCIAL AND COT TON SITUATION. We must evolute some plan before next cotton season to get away from the “Golden Calf” and the New York Exchange. It is easy. Let ev ery farmer put his every bale in a warehouse and have it insured, take receipt, and to that receipt have at tached a splendidly engraved certifi cate, carefully and cunningly word ed, yet plainly and easily understood, that it is good for 500 pounds of cot ton at a grade not lower than sc, and that said 500 pounds of cotton at 5 cents a pound will bring $25.00 in gold in any market in the world, etc., and have the warehouse guarantee as to its weight and grade thereon, etc. By this means we issue the best certificate in the wfide world, good anywhere, and create $300,000,000 in gold currency at once as a medium of exchange, and keep every bale of cot ton in the warehouses till it should be sold, and the certificate and receipt finally circulates back to the ware house where it is cleared, and there it finds the cotton or the cash wait ing for its redemption. By this means we make gold our servant, in stead of allowing it to rule us as our master in the hands of the plutocrat ic, gold-standard New York Exchange gamblers and the foreign vessels la den with gold will have to come to a southern port to unload —receive nothing from New York. We can do it, and now is the time to study and plan. “In the day of adversity consider,” every time any gambling trouble happens in New York or any other part of the world. When this plan is placed in opera tion, the south will obtain in one year from Europe, say $400,000,000 in gold, and it makes us at one shot out of the box the boss of the gold-stand ard world. Cotton in three . years would bring to us $1,200,000,000 in gold. And we have only to be eco nomical and self-denying for 1908. Keep out of debt, to beat the game. And then we would not have to ask the treasurer of the United States to help us. Let him help the New York gamblers, as he has been doing— rob us with our own money, if they can. It is the one great object alone to strive for—own just one cotton crop—and get gold for it, and then the south is where she belongs—on top. Take these ideas and push them from time to time. L. F. Scott. Tt is all too often the fellow who has fooled his summer away and has neither fuel nor food supplies as win ter comes on that howls the loudest about his hard luck and unequal op portunity as compared with his more prosperous fellows. PAGE SEVEN