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THE FARMERS’ UNIOti OEPARirfENT.
■»;• W®
Roster tonal and
Q STATE OF THE
?: PA KMERS ’ jtional and
/ *€o-OPERATIVE UNION O F
NATIONAL OFFICERS.
C. S. Barrett, president, Atwater,
Ga.
J. E. Montgomery, vice-president,
Gleason, Tenn.
R. H. McCullough, secretary-treas
urer, Beebe, Ark. <•
L. N. Holmes, chaplain, Bernice,
La.
Executive Committee—W. S. Mil
ler, chairman, Lake Creek, Texas;
W. O. Morris, secretary, Sulligent,
Ala.; Jas. Butler, Topeka. Kan.;
Campbell Russell, Russell, I. T.; I. N.
McAllister, Many, La.
OFFICERS.
Georgia—R. T. Duckworth, Presi
dent, Thomaston, Ga.; R. L. Barron,
Sec.-Treas., Hendrix, Ga.
Alabama—l. A. Worley Pres.,
Guin, Ala.; E. J. Cook, Sec.-Treas.,
Pell City, Ala.
A’ '‘psas—J. B. Lewis, Pres.,
Joo , Ark.; Ben L. Griffin, See.-
Trc Ark.
Incuo mar—J. A. West, Pres.,
Shawnr , 0. T.; B. C. Hanson, Sec.-
Trea/ Shawnee, O. T.
Txt ana—L. N. Holmes, Pres.,
Berni La.; J. W. Boyett, Jr., Sec.-
Treas. Tanhill, La.
z ssippi—J. M. Bass, Pres., Ha-
( t, Miss.; G. W. Russell, See-
TiY Hazlehurst, Miss.
T lessee —J. E. Montgomery,
Pres Greenfield, Tenn.; J. T.
Brooks, Sec.-Treas., Atwood, Tenn.
Texas—E. A. Calvin, Pres., Dallas,
Texas; B. F. Chapman Sec.-Treas,
Dallas, Texas.
South Carolina—O. P. Goodwin,
Pres., Anderson, S. C.; B. F. Earl,
Sec.-Treas., Anderson, S. C.
Ingleside, Ga., Feb. 4, 1907.
(Special to The Jeffersonian.)
In response to a very courteous in
vitation extended me by the manag
ing editor of the Jeffersonian for a
communication relative to the Farm
ers’ Union, I shall pen you a few
lines byway of reciprocity, hoping
that I may say something to advance
the cause of this great organization.
The purpose of the Farmers’ Un
ion is not based upon trivial things,
but upon the principles embodied, in
justice, equity and the golden rule.
Her aim is to pick the farmer up
out of the miry clay of imposition,
illiteracy and depression, and place
him on a lofty plane of education,
equity, justice and independence.
We mean by education that he may
engage in the pursuit of agriculture
intelligently. That he may know how
to farm and have the means to farm
intensively, scientifically and pros
perously. That he may have sufficient
knowledge of soil agencies, chemistry
and plant life to make his calling a
prosperous, happy pursuit. That he
may be able to educate his children
equal to those of men engaged in
any other business.
We mean by “equity and justice”
that there may be 4 'equal rights to
ill, and special privileges to none,”
That the farmer may become inde
pendent of the speculator, get out
from undier his tyrannical scepter
and be “Mr. Farmer” wherever you
place him. Let him have a just com
pensation for the product of his la
bor. | i i
That he may enjoy that right, that
right of pricing the prod
uct of his labor.
The farmer has been doing all the
work, the other fellow pricing the
product both ways, making a profit
going and coming. But Mr. Specula
tor, the farmer is tired of doing the
drudgery and getting nothing for
it.
The Farmers’ Union is going to
cut that all down to what is reason
able. But you say how? That’s all
right; she will. We have nothing
against you. We just want the gol
den rule fairly applied.
We mean by “independence,” that
it should be the united effort and
unanimous purpose of the farmers
to make their farms self-sustaining.
Make a living at home, make all cot
ton they can—but as a surplus. Make
more of everything to the acre. The
farmer must lift the mortgage—get
out of debt: stay out. Make more
than he needs—something to sell. He
can then roll his cotton under the
shed, awaiting the coming of the fac
tory ’s purchasing agent. He can then
restore the old country, home. How
sweet the name! A happy country
home! Free from debt, free from all
encumbrances. Surrounded by good
schools, good churches and good pub
lic highways.
With all the environments of a
well-arranged country home, how
happy, how sweet! How we long to
recall it? Way down on the farm.
We mean, further, to have the same
educational advantages in our rural
schools that are had in the cities.
It is our fault; not the city’s. But
the Farmers’ Union is looking to
loftier, better things, knowing the
end, the means and having a strong
impulse to reach the end is finally
to find the way.
The Farmers’ Union is now a mag
net. Not only is she drawing the
farmers into her realms of assured
success by co-operative movements,
but she stands today, an impulsive
magnet, attracting the politician, the
statesman the trust, the educator, the
ministry, the manufacturer, the bank
er, the merchant the civilized world.
May her future be the World’s Great
est Benefactor.
Very cordially,
R. F. SMITH.
M I
Hackberry, Okla., Jan. 15, 1907.
Hon. T. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.
Dear Sir: As I am a reader of
The Jeffersonian and see how the
Farmers’ Union is prospering in
Georgia, it causes me to hope they
will find some way that the people
of the northwest can become as
brethren.
I am one of the old guard from
P. Cooper until now and will stay in
the middle of the road and do all I
can for the cause. Almost every man
I see says we must have a change,
but they won’t lead out. The whole
country is ripe for a change. I want
-WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
a meeting our leaders can
get together. V Suld meet often
and raise a fuik, r literature and
get up a platform before the other
parties steal all we have. The Oma
ha platform is good enough. I can’t
do much as this is my eightieth win
ter. I am on the move most all the
time—my eyesight good as at thirty.
I got every number of your New
York magazine and subscribed for
another year and got only two num
bers, so I bought it until it busted.
DeFrance and I used to be good
friends; now we are enemies politi
cally. I hate fusion; I never Vote
it. Very truly yours,
S. W. Langdon.
M
PINETUCKY FARMERS’ UNION.
’Whereas, Great Britain, in her ex
treme effort to depress the price of
American cotton by trying to grow
it in South Africa, India, and in all
countries where she has territory and,
whereas, all her efforts have proven
absolute failures, and, whereas, she
now as a last resort is negotiating for
some of the most fertile cotton lands
in the west to be cultivated with
foreign labor to surely depress the
price of our money crop (cotton) and
to oppress the southern farmer.
Therefore, be it resolved by Pine
tucky Farmers’ Union of Richmond
county, Georgia, that we most em
phatically protest against alien own
ership of land in the United States,
and do most respectfully request our
members of congress and our two
senators to offer and push to success
ful passage a bill on this line that
will protect the southern farmer in
his God-given rights.
A. H. ROOKS, Pres.
P. R. ROWE, Sec. and Treae.
K
WHAT IS AND WHAT OUGHT TO
BE.
(From the Farmers’ Union Banner,
Winnfield, La.)
It does not require any argument
to convince the most densely stupid
farmer in the country that he has no
voice whatever in the establishment
or the regulation of the products that
he produces. He occupies the posi
tion of zero in this commercial equa
tion. He is the lone, single and here
tofore silent exception to this rule in
the whole fabric of commercialism.
His tolerance has been so submis
sive and of such duration that it has,
centuries ago, ceased to excite pity
or stir admiration for his silent en
durance.
The farmer, of all the factors of
government and civilization, is the
one upon which all the rest find their
foundation when the analytical test
reduces them to the last analysis in
this sum of commercial proportion.
While he carries all the burdens, be
cause he occupies the position in civ
ilization, in society, in government,
in commerce that he does, yet his
voice is never sought, his opinions are
never solicited, his interests are never
questioned, his counsel never asked
when the policy of government is be
ing determined, or the price of his
multitudinous products is being sched
uled.
The farmer is only asked to pay the
bills as they are presented and keep
quiet, lest he become a disturbing fac
tor, a thing entirely unbecoming in a
class so loyal and so true. Yes,
4 ‘ keep quiet. ’ ’
Doesn’t that declaration, “keep
quiet,” ring in the ears of the fann
er like a fire bell?
Doesn’t it stir their enthusiasm, fire
their aspiration and add the strength
of Hercules to their undaunted cour
age to rise in their very might and,
by the employment of such forceful
and lawful methods as are at their
hands, rebuke the statement by an
nulling the condition with one swift
stroke of retributive justice?
The condition of the agriculturist
is the same with slight variations the
world over.
They are as a sleeping lion, un
mindful of the terrible power they
possess when used with a high degree
of intelligence for their own and the
country’s general good. And in this
slumber that has lasted through
the centuries since the art of ag
riculture first saw the light, this
giant has at last begun to
dream such dreams as he never
dreamed or dared dream before. He
is not dreaming of driving out invad
ing armies, armed to the teeth with
gun and sword, or of conquering the
hosts with rich treasure of some for
eign land. Neither is he dreaming of
what possible consequences might re
sult should an irresistible body in its
mad rush through space come in
contact with an immovable one. Nor
does he dream of the character and
the customs of the varied: peoples
who may perchance inhabit planets
other than ours. But he is dreaming
the simple, silent, salient, philosophi
cal and logical dream of self-protee*
tion that he should have dreamed at
the beginning of his activity as an
agriculturist.
Self-protection for the industrialist,
unlike any other ’vocation, does not
or would not augur for the bad, but
for the general good of the country.
When the farmers grow to the
point of fully appreciating their in
herent strength and make a vigor
ous and intelligent application of
it, working toward demolishing,
literally tearing down the false
barriers that place them in the
background of polities, of com
merce, of government, of economics,
of education, and I might add reli
gion, the sun of prosperity for all
classes who live by earnest effort,
will shine more brightly, and the
zephyrs of contentment will cool the
parched and aching brow of the son
of the soil. NIPPON.
THE UNION.
Our Farmers’ Educational and Co
operative Union is growing all right
in Crisp county. The Cordele lodge
is taking in new members every week,
and there are a number of new appli
cants for membership who will come
in today. Our members, as a rule,
in this county, are very much inter
ested and want to do their share for
ward making the order a success.
The Rambler is the official organ
for the Second and Third Congres
sional Districts, and would be
if members would send us any news,
that would be of interest to the or*