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4 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*