Newspaper Page Text
6
'Farmers’ Union ‘Department
ROSTER OF NATIONAL AND
STATE OFFICERS’ OF THE
FARMERS’ EDUCATIONAL AND
CO-OPERATIVE UNION OF AMER
ICA.
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 —I. 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.
R
FARMERS’ UNION PETITION.
Railroad Commission Will Pass Upon
Reduced Fare Within Thirty
Days.
Georgia’s chance of getting a two
cent railway passenger fare will be set
tled so far the state railroad commis
sion is concerned within the next thir
ty days.
The commission decided at its ses
sion March sth to give immediate at
tention to a request filed Monday by
the Farmers’ Union of the state asking
this reduction. Notices will be sent
out Wednesday summoning representa
tives of every railroad in Georgia and
also officials of the Farmers’ Union
together with sucll private citizens
as may wish to be heard to be present
at a meeting of the commission one
month hence.
At that time the request of the union
will be formally laid before the rail
way representatives and the latter will
have opportunity of showing cause, if
any they can, why the request should
not be granted. As to the detail meth
ods of the hearing nothing has yet
been worked out. The petition of the
Farmer*’ Union, in fact, does not spec-
ify a two cent passenger fare; it
merely suggests this reduction, and
leaves definite amounts within the dis
cretion of the railway commission.
It is believed that when the hearing
begins a month from now numbers of
interested citizens will be present and
that the meeting will be a notable
and an exciting one.
R
SHOULD THE FARMERS’ UNION GO
INTO POLITICS?
(From Union Banner.)
I say no. Not as an organization,
but it is just as much the duty of ev
ery farmer to study “politics” after
he has joined the union as it was be
fore.
He is not disfranchised —he is not
cut off from exercising that privilege
every American citizen loves and cher
ishes because he has done what all
other laboring classes have done —
formed an organization and is demand
ing a “square deal.” He will be called
upon by the politician and expected
to go to the polls and cast his vote
even though he is a member of the
Farmers’ Union.
Politics should mean the art of real
izing an ideal in the state by the
establishment and maintenance of good
government.
That class of people more highly
appreciates and has a greater respect
for good government than the farm
ers.
Examine the criminal records and
you can see.
The farmer contributes more for the
support of the government in propor
tion to his means than any other
class.
A few years ago 'when the president
was forced to call upon the patriotism
of our country Io defend our “flag”
the plow boys were there by a large
majority. Then why should not the
farmer have a voice in politics wheth
er he belongs to the union or not?
Every true citizen has a civic as well
as a moral and financial obligation to
perform.
So it is his sacred duty to study
civics—look into the political situation
and be prepared to find put if the
candidates are going the same way he
is going. They how] on one side:
Don’t go into politics, and they howl
on the other side: Don’t go into busi
ness.
Go back home and raise some more
cotton and we will tell you how to
vote and what your cotton is worth.
R
THE POWER OF COTTON.
While cotton was cultivated fifteen
hundred years before Christ by Hin
doos and is cultivated to some extent
by other countries, it is in the south
that over three-fourths of the world’s
supply is produced. With our youth
skilled in every detail of cotton grow
ing—seed selection, plant breeding,
fertilizing, preparing the seedbed, cul
tivation —we may confidently expect
the south to continue to hold a prac
tical monopoly of the world’s great
est staple crop, and at the same time
continue to increase the yield to meet
the ever increasing demands of civili
zation. Dr. Walter H. Page, of the
World’* Work, is correct in his pre
diction that “we are in sight of the
time when the cotton growers of the
old slave states will become the most
prosperous tillers of the earth.” It is a
question of increasing the yield per
acre, reducing the cost per bale, im
proving the fibre, and maintaining
a fair price for the products.—Ex.
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
COTTON MARKETING PROBLEM.
After a thorough tour of Texas,
Arkansas and the territories, Ham
den McK. Fulgham, representing the
bureau of the census department at
Washington, D. C.» dealing directly
with ginners’ cotton statistics, is firm
ly of the opinion that the Farmers’
Unions in those states will solve the
marketing problem of the cotton plant
er. He traversed Texas from the Pan
handle to Houston.
“In the state of Arkansas alone,”
he said, “they have already built six
ty warehouses, which have a storage
capacity of 120,000 bales. In Texas
they have built warehouses in the
same ratio, and it will be possible for
the unions in that state to hold 500,000
bales in the future if they so desire.
These unions are building warehouses
all over the' belt, and many bankers
and merchants own stock in them.
This warehouse plan of the unions is
the only practical one that the cotton
producer has ever advanced.
“The Farmers’ Union is much stron
ger in Texas, Arkansas and the ter
ritories than the Southern Cotton As
sociation. The union represents only
white farmers, and it is as strong and
as enthusiastically conducted as any
labor union could possibly be. The
Southern Cotton Association for the
most part is looked upon as the asso
ciation in which the big cotton planter
is interested. The cotton producer
of the south in the near future
will control the marketing of his own
crop as absolutely as the steel trust
and the beef trust control the regula
tion of their outputs.
“I believe that the final report of
the census bureau, April 1, will not
be far from 12,400,000 bales, which
will not, of course, include linters.”
R
ARE COTTON RAISERS PEONED?
Does British money run this coun
try, dictating its financial policies and
manipulating its industrial interests,
or not? Mr. Hadden, an able lawyer
of Atlanta, Ga., in an address to the
American Bankers’ Association in St.
Louis, last fall, made a statement sub
stantially as follows:
“British capitalists furnish New
York agents with money to lend to
southern merchants to advance sup
plies to southern farmers.
“The farmers produce the cotton,
and before It was harvested the
mortgage that rested upon it from
the time the seed went into the
ground, was hurrying it on to the
Britishers who furnished the money
for its production.”
It was but recently when the gov
ernment was asked In the British par
liament if it was true that an organi
zation of farmers had been perfected
in the United States to control the
price of cotton, and requesting Infor
mation as to what steps the govern
ment had taken In the matter. The
reply was made that the Lancashire
spinners were not at that time uneasy
about the movement, and that the
government would be governed by th*
spinners.
Putting those two things together,
it looks as though the English spin
ners and capitalists, backed up by
their government, were taking a good
deal of dish in the business of the cot
ton raisers of this country. It is bad
enough that our own government
through its treasury department sup
plies New York bankers with money
to loan on cotton crops before they
are planted, thus helping to enslave
the poorer classes of farmers; but
it is still worse that a foreign people,
aided, abetted and protected by their
government, should be permitted to
do this thing. The newspapers for
some years past have had accounts
of trials in federal courts of persons
charged with holding negroes in peon
age, that is, mining companies and
other corporations and in some in
stances, perhaps, planters who having
negroes employed had advanced them
money or sold them supplies and forc
ed them to work out the debt. It
was right and just to try and punish
any one guilty of in any wise enslav
ing any person, white or black, by
whatsoever process. But is not our gov
ernment aiding, abetting and helping
the bankers of New York to make
peons of the poorer cotton raisers
when it supplies these banks with mon
ey free of charge with which to buy
mortgages on the growing cotton crop?
And is it not just as bad to permit
English or other foreign capitalists to
supply money for such nefarious pur
poses?
American citizens peoned to foreign
capitalists, and their own government
does not even protest!
ORGANIZATION OF FARMERS.
(Dublin Courier-Dispatch.)
“The newspapers are printing ac
counts of a big organization of farm
ers in the western states,” says the
Savannah News. “It is separate and
distinct from the Farmers’ Union,
but apparently has the same object
in view. It is called ‘The American
Society of Equity.’ Its strength is
mainly in the middle west —in Illi
nois, Indiana, Nebraska, Wisconsin,
Kansas, lowa, and Oklahoma.
“It is stated that its purpose is to
bring about an improvement of the
highways, secure agricultural schools
for the training of farmers’ sons, to
obtain better transportation facilities
and better freight rates, but the real
purpose seems to be to force an in
crease in the price of farm products
by holding back the products from
market when the supply seems to be
greater than the demand. It is pro
posed to do this by building ware
houses in which to store the prod
uct*.
“We have three of these organiza
tions now, namely, the Farmers’ Union,
the Southern Cotton Association and
‘The American Society of Equity.’ What
their fate will be is an interesting
subject of speculation. There have
been similar organizations of farmers.
They failed in their purpose, chiefly
for two reasons, namely, the impos
sibility of getting even a majority of
farmers to become members and the
difficulty of keeping them wholly dis
connected with politics.”
It seems to us that too many of
these organizations are being sprung
on the public. One good one is bet
ter than a half dozen. Too many
organizations with the same end in
view will have the effect of creating
rivalry that will do the farmers more
harm than good. The Farmers’ Union
is capable of looking after the needs of
the farmers and all of them should
Join. It appears to us that it would
then be best to let the other organiza
tions alone.
Tn union there is strength and the
farmers should organize. They can
join too many clubs, however, just
as a man can become a member of
too many secret o<Ler*.