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etc. You know Washington once said flatter
ing things about farming and agriculture, but
Washington or Jefferson ever heard a R. R.
whistle, nor a mower’s buzz —these things, i.
e., the railroad and the machinery, have made
it necessary that the Government should guard,
shield, protect and instruct the men who culti
vate the soil. On the contrary, the United
States has said, in effect, “Devil take the hind
most in farming.”' The United States has got
to the point of knowing that almost everything
Uncle Sam used to have is now exterminated
(as the buffalo), or is appropriated (as coal
land, forest). In the United States and State
Governments and their legislatures the rail
road is the great appropriator, or at least more
general—the oil interest and steel being a close
second.
Recently by a United States Commission of
investigation by the Agricultural department
it was ascertained that in the state of New
York the taxable value of the farms w of that
state had depreciated or diminished by the
amount of $170,000,000 in the last twenty-five
years. The wheat fields of France are in
North Africa. The wheat is ground in France
and a bounty of 50 cents, I am told, is paid
for every barrel of flour exported; this is to
keep the bran at home and to manufacture
the wheat there; the soil is as rich in France
today as it was one thousand years ago.
If this bounty could be given in the United
States we would retain all bran in the United
States; manufacture all our wheat at home;
feed and fertilize all our bran and save be
sides (according to Gov. Mount) about six mil
lions of dollars; but this would be to the in
terest of the American farmer and would prob
ably be declared unconstitutional. How then
can we protect the farmer, keep our people at
home and be just to each other?
Primarily by public ownership of the rail
roads, usnig them to keep the farms fertile,
to carry the mails and that we may own Con
gress, State Legislatures and the courts of jus
tice; then perhaps we would not legislate ag
gressively to make the banker and manufac
turer rich and the farm poor. The tariff boun
ty to a ton of steel is $8; to a ton of wheat
it is $8.66 (by the Mount theory).
A. B. CHAPMAN.
San Gabriel, Cal.
BROTHERS, DEFEND YOURSELVES.
Mr. Sam J. Hampton, of Fort Worth, one
of the best known organizers in Texas of the
State Farmers’ Union, having the future wel
fare of this great organization of farmers at
heart, has drawn up the following paper in
tending it to be a plan for the further uniting
the farmers of the union movement to give
such expression and force as will bring re
sults, tangible and beneficial. He is anxious
that all the Local Unions in the State should
get to work and discuss this plan of his, sug
gest amendments that w T ill make it more bind
ing and effective and more certainly bring
about the purposes for which the Farmers’
Educational and Co-Operative Union was or
ganized. He further asks all papers which
are friendly to the great body of farmers who
have joined the organization to benefit them-
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
selves and their state to give space in their
columns for the paper and he also requests
all who do not receive a copy to be kind
enough to take the text of it from other pa
pers and run it for the benefit of those farm
ers who live within the scope of their influ
ence. *
MALCOLM JAY.
The following is .the full text of the paper:
Brothers, Defend Yourselves.
In Union There is Strength and Protection
For All.
Fort Worth, Texas, Jan. 29, 1908.
The time has come to make the Farmers’
Union a strong protective and defensive or
ganization. There must be a well defined, pro
gressive and aggressive plan of action free
from all semblance of compromise or fusion
with business interests or banking corpora
tions.
The Union system must be built upon the
principles of Equity, Justice and the Golden
Rule, and the poor, neglected and disinherited
farmers must be saved from the merciless
power of the modern money-god.
This great machine of organized farmers
must be set to work and the power and force
of organization must be expressed through
definite plans of co-operation. Every local
union must be made a fortress where the mar
shalled hosts of organized farmers may speak
as one man speaks.
There is no longer any doubt as regards the
attitude of the National banking power of
the Nation. • They have thrown down the farm
ers in the very hour of peril, and thrown their
great power and force on the side of organ
ized gamblers and speculators and taken to
their bosoms the cotton buyers’ trust, fused
and consorted, with every element of stock
gamblers anu xchange operators, tied up the
money of the Nation —culminating in a so
called money panic, bringing our entire coun
try to the verge of bankruptcy, and forcing
many of the loyal farmers of the Union and
others who were co-operating with them to
sacrifice their cotton to gamblers and specu
lators.
These intolerable conditions cannot be pal
liated or excused, and there is no road left
for honorable Union men, but to hoist the
flag of independence, unite upon a plan and
march with steady step and loyal hearts, and
wrest from the modern Moloch the stolen priv
ileges, and restore them to the producers of
wealth.
Therefore, in consideration of the above
facts, and for the purpose of uniting the farm
ers of this mighty Union movement, to give
force and expression that will bring results
and tangible benefits to the members, we, the
President, Officers and Members of the Farm
ers’ Union of Texas, have agreed upon the
following plan to carry out the fundamental
and primary purposes of the Union, and re
spectfully invite your co-operation as per the
following compact and agreement:
PROTECTION PLEDGE.
To fortify and re-inforce the members of
the Farmers’ Union in holding and obtaining
profitable prices for farm products:
We, the undersigned members of
Local Union No , county,
of Texas, each for himself and to help all
other farmers, hereby enter into the follow
ing compact and agreement, to wit:
Ist. To plant and cultivate sufficient food
crops as will produce food for ourselves and
animals.
2nd. To discourage and avoid as far as pos
sible the credit and mortgage systems.
3rd. To refuse to sign any and all mort
gages or contracts that will prevent us from
co-operating with brother farmers in the mar
keting of crops.
4th. That all of our marketable crops shall
be sold through the Union system, and that
we will not dump all or any part of the crop
on the streets to the injury of our brothers.
sth. To give weak or distressed members
■who have procured advances on their crops
while cultivating same, the privilege of early
markets, so as to relieve their distressed con
ditions.
6th. To husband our resources and if nec
essary curtail our expenditures, so as to con
form to our prospective or actual ability to
meet all obligations incurred while making
and marketing our crop.
7th. To plant a reasonable acreage of cot
ton, which we can conveniently cultivate and
gather without neglecting food crops, and that
will not interfere with the schooling of our
children.
Bth. To pool and use all available money at
our command, to assist our weaker brother
in making and marketing crops.
9th. That if any member should need ad
(Continued on Page Fifteen.)
Buttons, Buttons, Buttons!
—? —
J ; MV
HON. NEWT GRESHAM.
The National Farmers’ Union decided that
the button, with a picture of Newt Gresham
engraved thereon, should be sold by Miss Lutie
Gresham (his daughter) of Point, Texas.
The National union decided that these but
tons should be sold for twenty-five cents each.
Every member of the Farmers’ Union should
wear one of these buttons. Send your orders
direct to Mias Lutie Gresham, Point, Texas.
PAGE SEVEN