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4 TZfE FARMERS’ UNION DEPARTMENT. ROSTER OF NATIONAL AND STATE OFFICERS’ OF THE FARMERS’ EDUCATIONAL AND CO-OPERATIVE UNION OF AMER. ICA. I— ■ NATIONAL OFFICERS. C. S. Barrett, president, Atwater, Georgia. J. E. Montgomery, vice-president, Gleason, Tenn. R. H. McCullough, secretary-treas urer, Beebe, Ark. L. N. Holmes, chaplain, Bernice, Louisiana. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.. W. A. Morris, chairman, Sulligent, Alabama. Campbell Russell, secretary, Rus sell, Ind. Ter. W. S. Miller, Lake Creek, Tex. James M. Butler, Topeka, Kan. I. N. McCollister, Many, La. STATE OFFICERS. Georgia Headquarters—Barnesville.. R. F. Duckworth —President. W. P. Quinby—Vice-President. J. L. Barron —Secretary-Treasurer. J. L. Lee —State Organizer. G. M. Davis —Lecturer. J. G. Eubanks —State Business Agent. Alabama—l. A. Worley, president, Guin, Ala.; E. J. Cook, secretary-treas urer, Pell City, Ala. Arkansas —J. B. Lewis, president, Jonesboro, Ark.; Ben L. Griffin, secre tary-treasurer, Conway, Ark. Indiahoma —J. A. West, President, Shawnee, O. T.; B. C. Hanson, secre tary-treasurer, Shawnee, O. T. Louisiana —L. N. Holmes, president, Bernice, L,; J. W. Boyett, Jr., sec treasurer, Tanhill, La. Mississippi—J. M. Bass, president; Hazlehurst, Miss.; G. W. Russell, sec retary-treasurer, Hazlehurst, Miss. Tennessee —J. E. Montgomery, pres ident, Greenfield, Tenn.; J. T. Brooks, secretary-treasurer, Atwood, Tenn. Texas —E. A. Calvin, president, Dal las, Texas; B. F. Chapman, secretary treasurer, Dallas, Texas. South Carolina —O. P. Goodwin, president, Anderson, S. C.; B. F. Earl, secretary-treasurer, Anderson, South Carolina, v It BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. ar i •* JkBmWIb C. S. BARRETT, President National Union. Editor Jeffersonian: Thinking that the readers of your valuable paper would like to have a short history of the leaders of the Farmers’ Union in Georgia I herewith submit the following. National President C. S. Barrett .was born io Pike County, Georgia, on the farm, having had an opportunity of an education, he at an early age read ily saw the disadvantage of the rural people and being desirous that the farmers’ children should be enlight ened he began teaching school, nev er neglecting his farming interest. It has been my privilege to visit the home of his birth, also to talk with many people who were his stu dents, the high esteem of his fellow playmates, of those whom he has in structed, also his entire acquaintance places Charlie as an ideal leader. The people of the Farmers’ Union should ever be proud of this son who has always been true and faithful and who has given his life to the betterment of the farming people. Long live the memory and example of the Georgia boy, who has risen to such fame without one word spoken against his character or his unswerv ing fidelity to the farmer. State President R. F. Duckworth, like Barrett, was also born on the farm in Texas. Having had an oppor tunity for an education he gladly ac cepted it. He became interested in the ______ wk/- ■' ■ v ILI >:.. . R. F. DUCKWORTH, President Georgia Union. education of the rural districts, never neglecting his farming interest, this opportunity, for serving the interest of the farmer, brought before him the true condition also the need of the farmer. When the Farmers’ Union was ex ceedingly young he joined, after study ing the principles advocated by our noble order, he laid down all other interests and threw his entire support to furthering and defending the cause of the farmer. He came to Georgia and began the work alone; not once has he faltered or wearied in this fight. He, like C. S. Barrett, has always been true and faithful, not one word of discredit has been hurled against him. He stands today a model, a monument before all the world advocating the cause of reform, true to the interest of the com mon people, teaching the world that there still remains a fearless defend er of the cause of right. J. L. Barron, State Secretary and Treasurer, was also born on the farm in Upson county, Georgia, his father having discovered the making of a man in his only boy, after considera ble sacrificij, gave him an education, (by the way he is a living example of C. S. Barrott’s school boys.) Upon the advent of the Farmers’ Union in his community he became an ardent supporter of its principles, perhaps of the three he hated to lay down the school room the worst of either, he too being a rural teacher with a bright future and promise of a long and useful life in bettering the THE WfeEKLY JEFFERSONtAN. condition intellectually of the farmers’ boys and girls. I£ was a noble sacrifice that this talented young man made in laying down all his interest and his desires and throwing his entire life and abili ty into this entire reform movement, he like Duckworth and Barrett, stands today pre-eminent in name and act not a word has ever been spoken against him as a man or an official. Lest I tire the reader and crowd the space, I will close by saying that y ~ % I J. L. BARRON, Sec. and Treas. Georgia Union. what the union is in Georgia today those three should have the credit of it. All honor to the men who with out hope of reward will sacrifice home and ambition and future for the cause of our oppressed people. May the divine hand of God ever overshadow and protect the labors of all men who are true and faithful to their constituents. J. L. LEE. Barnesville, Ga., Feb. 25, 1907. NOT POLITICAL. (Farmers Advocate, Topeka, Kan.) The Topeka Capital is worried lest the Farmers’ Union goes into poltics. It tries to make itself believe it scents the coming of another political storm. Every member of the union knows that the editor of the Capital is needless ly losing sleep. President Roosevelt has advised farmers to organize for business purposes and they are doing it. Tens of thousands of union men and women can testify as to the financial merits of their organization and they are not going to be scared because the editor of the Capital fears the far mers may ask for their rights at the hands of the law makers. No, Mr. Capital, don’t have any more night mares about the real Farmers’ Union. Not a man in it wants the order to be come political and furthermore the laws of the order are so framed that it is an easy matter to keep out of pol itics in case an effort was made to divert the order from its objective point. Any organization that has to be or ganized by the money of the specula tors and gamblers in farm products can never be of any benefit to the farmers. The men who are now mak ing the prices on farm products will never help the farmers change condi tions so as to benefit the farming class. There should be but one organiza tion of farmers and when the farmers find out how they have been hoodooed by the bucket shop men there*will be but one. Oil and water will not mix, neither will bucket shop men and farmers mix. A meeting of delegates from the va- rious county farmers’ unions of Mis souri will be held at West Plains March 20th for the purpose of effecting a state organization. The meeting will continue for three days. Prominent members of the organization are to be present, including National Secre tary R. H. McCulloch, of Beebe, Ar kansas, and H. <N. Ray, Missouri state organizer. In this state there are 280 local un ions, and the order is growing rapidly, the last five months showing an es pecially remarkable increase in its membership. FARMERS UNION TO HAVE A FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. At the session of the Gwinnett Coun ty Farmers’ Union in the courthouse Friday, President John M. Davis ap pointed a committee of J. A. Smith, W. A. Bennett, H. L. Peeples, Arthur Brogdon and J. W. McElvaney to in vite Hon. Thomas E. Watson to de liver an address in this county on the fourth day of next July. We hope that Mr. Watson will accept this invitation, and, if he does, it will be a far greater gathering of farmers than the recent Atlanta convention. •t THE PROFITS ON WAREHOUSES TO THE FARMERRS’ UNION. W. A. Cole, the farmers’ union ware house manager at Alma, sold another lot of 1,000 bales of union cotton from the Alma warehouse at 10.50, all around. This is $5 per bale more than the best price offered on the streets of Little Rock. Brother Cole also assist ed in the sale at the same time of 900 bales from the union warehouse at Charleston, at the same price. Thus a union sale has been effected by these brethren in western Arkan sas of 1,900 bales of cotton on which w they saved, by holding in their ware house, the suul of $5 per bale over what the cotton would have brought them on street sale or $9,500 saved to the union in the holding of this 1,900 bales. Brother Cole sold a block of 600 bales from the Alma warehouse some ninety days ago for which he got 11c, or an average of $7 per bale more than could have been gotten on the streets at that time for the same cot ton, or a profit of $4,200 to the farm ers on the 600 bales. So we have this as an object lesson for our people. This little warehouse at Alma, we think, did not cost more than $1,500, and then on these two sales Brother Cole has netted for the brethren a profit of $9,200, or enough to pay for this little warehouse about seven times. Build warehouses! Yes, build ’em. They pay. We can’t do without them. Yet, fellows say, “I oppose the ware house system ’cause there’s a monop oly about it.” Givers more monopoly if you please.—Arkansas Union. WHO FIXES PRICE ON COTTON. Chief among the subjects of impor tance we present for the considera tion of the farmer is the one pricing his own products. Who fixes the price on your cotton and when did the farm er surrender the plain right to fix the price of the products of his own labor? No other class of people have ever surrendered that right except the good natured, unwary farmer, and Good Lord, how he has been bled as a result of this foolishness! Right here is the root of the principal evil you have to contend with, for this right once surrendered is hard to recover. It is the indisputable right of every man to fix the price of whatever he may have for sale and the farmer la jf